Helping Students Make Informed Judgments Through Epistemic Scaffolds for Evaluating and Integrating Information From Multiple Texts (Poster 47)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 9:50 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Learning Environments for Literacy and Language Learning

Abstract

Preparing students for active participation in democratic societies requires developing students’ capacities for evaluating and integrating information from multiple sources in order to make informed judgments. This exploratory study examines the use of a digital tool called EDDiE (Electronic Documents Disagreements Evaluation) that embeds epistemic scaffolds into a shared workspace designed to support students as they analyze, evaluate, interpret, and integrate evidence from multiple documents. Results suggest that the epistemic scaffolds for promoting student discourse related to evidence evaluation, evidence integration, and lay use of evidence were successful. The findings highlight the need to provide students with further scaffolding to support the selection and use of appropriate epistemic criteria for evaluating source credibility.

Authors

• Eowyn P. O'Dwyer, Rutgers University

• Clark A. Chinn, Rutgers University

• Toshio Mochizuki, Senshu University