Evaluating Information: An Information Literacy Challenge | American Association of School Librarians (AASL) - 1 views
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The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently”
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Definition of Evaluation
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o evaluate is to judge the quality of an idea
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critical thinking as including evaluation among several other higher-order thinking processes (Cromwell 1992; Ennis 1989; Paul 1992)
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rom least to most sophisticated, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (Bloom et al. 1956).
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a person browsing the Web for entertainment will probably be less likely to evaluate displayed information than a consumer searching for car-buying information.
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Evaluation is defined as the making of judgments about the value, for some purpose, of ideas, works, solutions, methods, material, etc. It involves the use of criteria as well as standards for appraising the extent to which particulars are accurate, effective, economical, or satisfying
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two major strands of research usually labeled “metacognition.” One concerns knowledge about thinking, whereas the other concerns regulation of thinking and learning
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reader’s purpose
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he cognitive strategies chosen and level of engagement depend largely upon this goa
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At the end of an evaluative episode, a decision or judgment often occurs
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lack of motivation may decrease evaluation accuracy.
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that some people by nature are more likely to evaluate; that people criticize most ideas as a matter of course; and, conversely, that people must be selective about the ideas they choose to criticize. It seems most likely that the strength of critical disposition varies among individuals, but also that it varies within the same individual from situation to situation.
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Signals are the specific thoughts that launch the evaluation process, a recognition that something may be wrong with the information
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feeling[s]” of “vague puzzlement”
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Bloom’s Taxonomy
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an act of searching, hunting, inquiring, to find material that will resolve the doubt, settle and dispose of the perplexity”
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logic and reasoning skills.
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The bridge between deliberation and decision (the next component of the evaluation process) is a synthesis of partial conclusions
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“reflection”
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Contextual Factors
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The importance of context
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Western cultures tend to encourage critical thinking and argumentation while Eastern cultures may discourage criticism of other people and their ideas
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less time spent deliberating will lead to lower-quality decisions
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Problem structure. An important aspect of the evaluation process is the type of problem involved
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human beings are, in fact, more gullible than they are suspicious”
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Processing depth
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Summary of contextual factors
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the user must decide consciously or unconsciously what kind of problem is under study before evaluation can proceed
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Influences to Evaluation
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found that individuals in their studies accepted misinformation without question. Students unsure of the correct answer on a true-false examination are more likely to mark a false item as true than they are to mark a true item as false
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four sections suggest factors that may contribute to an understanding of gullibility and simultaneously demonstrate some common problems with the evaluation process.
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The Development Continuum
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he ability to evaluate increases with age
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Education
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school-aged children do not find inconsistencies well if they are not primed to seek them
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Flavell postulates that a major difference between children and mature thinkers involves goals
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. The research discussed in this section supports the conclusion that children are more vulnerable to evaluation problems than adults. Reasons for this vulnerability almost certainly include lack of education and prior knowledge and a natural tendency to believe what they see and what they are told by authority figures.
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The Epistemology Continuum
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Epistemology is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of knowledge and the sources of knowledge
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the beliefs that people hold about how we come to know what we know.
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ssumptions when they assert that reflective judgment “cannot be applied if the individual fails to recognize that a problem exists and that this recognition itself is predicated on other assumptions about knowledge” (
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“an individual’s epistemological assumptions directly affect which criteria he or she will consider when evaluating two or more systems” (King
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The Affect Continuum
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effect of mood and emotions on thinking in the areas of impression formation, judgment, and reasoning. Because it is a similar cognitive proce
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es indicate that under tightly controlled, narrowly defined conditions, negative moods promote better reasoning than positive moods. Negative-mood subjects appear more careful and analytic (Bless and Fiedler 1995), more consistent (Fiedler 1988), and have better recal
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n the other hand, happy-mood people do not differentiate well between strong and weak arguments
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A person who is feeling happy will be more likely than at other times to reduce the load on working memory: to reduce the complexity of decision situations and the difficulty of tasks, by adopting the simplest strategy possible, considering the fewest number of alternatives possible, and doing little or no checking of information, hypotheses, and tentative conclus
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wledge may hamper the evaluation process, as when people ignore new information conflicting with belie
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he Prior Knowledge Continuum
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Students should be brought to the understanding that while it is impossible to have domain knowledge about all topics, it is important to build knowledge in selected areas to help with important decisions and projects.
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Research projects should culminate in the production of different types of media.
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There is no better way to practice evaluation than to perform research regularly and intensely.
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f evidence
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They should also switch sides and argue opposite positions
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Ensure that cause is clear. Research shows that people evaluate more effectively if causes are revealed, where available (Anderson 1982). Students should practice formal argumentation, which involves the evaluation
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In a daily 15-minute exercise, children should find problems such as inconsistency or exaggeration in a short piece of curriculum-relevant text
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When a skill is introduced, or when students seem to be having inordinate difficulty, teachers and school library media specialists can reduce cognitive load by breaking the skill down into smaller parts (Markman 1981), and by beginning new skills in familiar contexts (Flavell 1981). For example, in distinguishing between fact and opinion, students can first seek cue words like “I think . . .” and “I feel .
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It is not possible to evaluate all information. Teach students to respond to signals and doubts that occur as they read. Also, provide examples of specific situations that often involve misinformation, such as fake Web sites.
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boratively implemented by both school library media specialists and teach
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valuation strategies one or several at a time over a span of years. Evaluation is much too difficult a process to be taught in one unit. The library media specialist may be the only professional in the school who can assure that this ability is developed in all students over the course of their schooli
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on evaluation is important to the individual, to the educational establishment, and to society. For individuals, evaluation is a crucial life skill and a basis for lifelong learning. It is required in decision making and imparts a feeling of self-esteem through control. Evaluation is important to the educational establishment, because critical thinking is arguably one of the most important of all educational outcomes for students (Engeldinger 1991). Finally, society must critically evaluate information to establish a public demand for high information quality.
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Evaluation consists of a number of component processes, including metacognition, goals, personal disposition, signals (which initialize an evaluative episode), deliberation, and decision. Research sho
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What role does the library media specialist play in this process? The purpose of this article is to describe some of the challenges of evaluating information and to propose answers to these questions.
