Epistemic Beliefs in Action: Evaluating and Learning Information on the Web

Lucia Mason
University of Padova, Italy

This presentation aims at discussing students’ epistemic beliefs in the context of online searching for information about controversial topics. The World Wide Web is now one of the most used tools for solving information problems for academic assignments. To effectively locate, identify, and use Internet-based material is not only a question of formulating efficient search queries and applying appropriate reading strategies (Brand-Gruwel, Wopereis, & Vermetten, 2005; Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2005), it is also a question of being able to follow up only pertinent, accurate, and supported information from credible sources (Hofer, 2004; Mason & Boldrin, 2008; Tsai, 2004, 2008; Tu, Shih, & Tsai, 2008). The task of controlling the veracity, accuracy, and relevance of information, traditionally carried out by editors and publication companies, is now transferred to the students themselves, and it demands much in terms of critical evaluation and learning of multiple documents (Bråten, 2008). Most of the concerns raised by teachers and educators - who complain the lack of students’ ability to orient themselves on the Web - are not questions of technology but rather questions of  beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing (Hofer & Pintrich, 2002).

Taking into account the different lines of research on Internet searching and epistemic beliefs (Hofer, 2000; Kuhn, 2000), three studies have been carried out. The first involved middle school students who were interviewed after a search. The second involved high school students who thought aloud during a Web search. The third involved university students who read web pages while the allocation of their visual attention was measured using an eye tracker. Main findings will show different patterns of solicited epistemic reflection about the accessed information (first study), as well as spontaneous judgments about the credibility of a web source and the veracity of its content (first study). In addition, eye-tracking data will indicate that visual attention is allocated according to the authoritativeness of a website (third study). Furthermore, students’ epistemic reflections and their Web-based learning will be analyzed in relation to individual characteristics, such as prior knowledge, study approach, domain-specific epistemic beliefs about science, argumentative reasoning skills, and need for cognition. Educational implications on the importance of multiple-document  literacy skills (Bråten, Strømsø, & Britt, 2008; Goldman, 2004; Rouet, 2006) will conclude the presentation to highlight that students must be taught to become competent consumers of information.