University Applicants’ Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of the Finnish Educational Sciences
This study investigates the quality of the critical thinking skills of applicants (n = 77) seeking entry to the faculty of educational sciences in a Finnish university and how these skills are associated with the applicant’s age, previous higher education experience, and matriculation and entrance examination scores. The data consist of the applicants’ responses to problem-solving tasks and their matriculation and entrance examination scores. Critical thinking skills were measured with comparison and argumentation tasks. The results indicate that comparison of the texts and analysis of the arguments they contained were more difficult tasks than putting forward arguments both for and against…
Promoting sixth graders’ credibility evaluation of Web pages: An intervention study
Abstract This study investigated whether a teacher-led intervention program on online inquiry improved sixth graders' performance in a credibility evaluation task. Students (N = 342) were divided into two conditions, an intervention group (190 students) and a control group (152 students). The intervention program (21 × 45 min lessons) was implemented during a six-week course as a part of normal schoolwork. The program included explicit teaching of online inquiry skills: searching for information (3 lessons), evaluating credibility of information (3 lessons), and synthesizing information (3 lessons). In addition, the skills taught were applied in two online inquiry projects comprising 12 les…
Pohtimiskaavio yliopisto-opiskelijoiden tekstitaitoja tukemassa
Artikkelissa kuvataan opetuskokeilua, jossa tieteellisten tekstien lukemista, teksteistä keskustelemista ja lähteiden pohjalta kirjoittamista tuettiin Pohtimiskaavio-verkkotyökalulla. Opiskelijat kertoivat, että Pohtimiskaavio auttoi analysoimaan lähteitä ja jäsentämään niiden pohjalta käytyä keskustelua. Kun asiat tuli merkittyä systemaattisesti muistiin näkökulmittain, myös kirjoittaminen oli helpompaa. Vaikka opiskelijoiden kokemukset Pohtimiskaavion käytöstä olivat pääosin myönteisiä, työkalun teknisiin ominaisuuksiin toivottiin parannuksia. nonPeerReviewed
Students' abilities to evaluate the credibility of online texts: The role of internet‐specific epistemic justifications
Previous evaluation studies have rarely used authentic online texts and investigated upper secondary school students' use of evaluation criteria and deep reasoning. The associations between internet-specific epistemic justifications for knowing and credibility evaluation of online texts are not yet fully understood among adolescents. This study investigated upper secondary school students' (N = 372) abilities to evaluate self-selected authentic online texts and the role of internet-specific epistemic justifications in students' evaluation performance when solving a health-related information problem. Students selected three texts with Google Custom Search Engine and evaluated their credibil…
Teaching sourcing during online inquiry – adolescents with the weakest skills benefited the most
AbstractSourcing - identifying, evaluating, and using information about the sources of information - assists readers in determining what to trust when seeking information on the Internet. To survive in the post-truth era, students should be equipped with sufficient sourcing skills. This study investigated the efficacy of a teacher-led intervention aimed at fostering upper secondary school students’ (N = 365) sourcing during online inquiry. The intervention (4 × 75 min) was structured in accordance with the phases of online inquiry: locating, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating information. During the intervention, teachers demonstrated why and how to source, and students practiced s…
Student evaluations of the credibility and argumentation of online sources
This study investigated upper secondary school students’ skills in evaluating the credibility and argumentative content of a blog text and a YouTube video. Both sources concerned child vaccination, the blog text opposing and the YouTube video supporting it. Students rated each source as credible, fairly credible or non-credible, justified their ratings, and analyzed the argumentation of both sources. Their justifications were analyzed for trustworthiness and expertise and their argument analyses for identification of the main position of the source and the reasons supporting it. Students’ justification skills proved fairly weak, and they also struggled with recognizing unbalanced argumentat…
Validation of a modified version of the Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire
Providing teaching-learning environments that foster university studentsö learning is an essential task of higher education. Valid and reliable tools for assessing them are therefore needed. This study investigates the measurement properties of a modified version of the Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ). Two independent data-sets (N = 1637 and N = 1711) were collected from Finnish university students. Confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a modified measurement model for the ETLQ, consisting of 11 factors. The first three factors assessing the teaching-learning environment – Teaching for Understanding, Disciplinary Understanding and Supportive Teaching – were indi…