A Reconstructive Hermeneutic and Narrative Analysis of Students' Critical Reasoning Processes Performing an Internet Search

• In Event: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in Comparability of International Performance Assessment of Critical Thinking

Abstract

1. Objectives
University students increasingly use online sources to acquire information of varying and often deficient quality (Maurer et al., 2018). Students must be able to critically evaluate online information, including evaluation of source properties that might influence their perception of the information. Narrative devices are long-established means to convey pre-interpretations to their readers (Robins & Mayer, 2000). They can suggest untruthful inferences, which increases the risk of misinformation. In this study, we qualitatively detect influences of narrative frames on students’ interpretations during a critical online reasoning (COR) performance task (PT), in which they were asked to research Internet sources to give a task response.
2. Theoretical Framework
This study is based on the validated conceptual and assessment frameworks from the international iPAL-(Shavelson et al., 2019) and CORA-studies (Nagel et al., 2020) to measure students’ critical reasoning in Internet assessments and Internet-like simulations. Our research builds upon previous studies to examine how students utilize online resources to solve PTs and how metaphorical structures present in the information they access influences their comprehension (Authors et al., 2021). To accomplish this, we analyze the narrative framing and identify such latent structures. We show that frames can represent contexts in different ways and influence the acquisition of biases.
3. Method
To identify instances of narrative framing in PT-solving, we employed narrative analyses alongside reconstructive hermeneutics (RH) (Oevermann, 2002) to accurately reconstruct interconnected meanings without imposing interpretive and subjective biases. The PT-question was whether the use of e-bikes promotes health.
4. Data Source and Analysis
Students were given 20 minutes to research and evaluate Internet sources and write statements addressing the PT-question based on the online sources they found.
The RH-analysis addresses the written PT-responses of a subset of the full sample (144 students), reconstructing references to and interpretations of narrative frames that three high-, middle-, and low-performing students found in the online sources.
5. Results.
The overall results can be exemplified by students’ PT-responses that stress the relevance of e-bikes for elderly and overweight users. The students viewed an article in an online health magazine. Directly under the headline, the article features a picture of an overweight woman riding a tiny e-bike, creating contrast, and supporting the message of the article. The article includes strong narrative framings and normative latently discriminating determinations associated with prejudices such as elderly people not exercising enough. However, the students follow these strains of argumentation and have included them in their PT-responses almost verbatim and without critical reflection.
6. Scholarly Significance.
The findings showcase how narrative framings were adopted from an online source without reflection or cross-checking. The source features biased notions, which highly influence the students’ PT-responses. A better understanding of the influences of narrative framing could be a basis for providing students with the ability to detect and critically reflect on such frames and address biases when forming their opinions. In addition, fine-graded narrative analyses can be used to examine PT linguistic comparability in international assessments and suggest teaching COR to avoid biases.

Authors

• Carla Schelle, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

• Mita Banerjee, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

• Dominik Braunheim, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

• Olga Zlatkin Troitschanskaia, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz