Improving vocational students' consideration of source information when deciding about science controversies

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11145-016-9623-2&domain=pdf

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Web End = Read Writ (2016) 29:705729

DOI 10.1007/s11145-016-9623-2

Marc Stadtler1 Lisa Scharrer1 Monica Macedo-Rouet2

Jean-Franois Rouet3 Rainer Bromme1

Published online: 12 January 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Abstract We present an empirical investigation of a classroom training fostering vocational students consideration of source information when deciding about science-based controversies. The training was specically aimed at raising students awareness of the division of cognitive labor and the resulting need to take a sources competence into account when deciding whom to trust. Data were collected from a training group and a waiting list control group in a pretestposttest design. The results show that students benetted from the training in terms of their inclination to agree with pertinent expert sources rather than low-pertinent experts and to refer to the source of information to justify their judgment. Source memory was not affected by the training.

Keywords Text comprehension Division of cognitive labor Source evaluation

Science understanding

& Marc Stadtler [email protected]

Lisa Scharrer [email protected]

Monica Macedo-Rouet [email protected]

Jean-Franois Rouet [email protected]

Rainer Bromme [email protected]

1 Department of Psychology, University of Muenster, Fliednerstrasse 21, 48149 Muenster,

Germany

2 University Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France

3 Universit de Poitiers and CNRS, Poitiers, France

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Introduction

Learning about complex topics usually requires individuals to consult a variety of texts, online or ofine. To the extent that one conceives of reading as an epistemic practice aimed at acquiring valid knowledge, readers need to go beyond understanding what the text says and to additionally decide, whether they consider true what they read (Chinn, Buckland, & Rinehart, 2014). As a point in case, take the widespread use of the Internet to learn about scientic topics. Whenever different sources present conicting stances on the same topic, attaining valid knowledge requires individuals to assess the relative truth value of competing knowledge claims (Stadtler & Bromme, 2014). According to Bromme, Kienhues, and Porsch (2010), readers may draw on two possible routes to make validity judgments. Whereas rst-hand evaluations require...