Pre-Service Teachers Critically Evaluate Scientific Information on the World Wide Web: What Makes Information Believable?

The present study addresses the need for teachers to critically evaluate the credibility, validity, and cognitive load associated with scientific information on Web sites, in order to effectively teach students to evaluate scientific information on the World Wide Web. A line of prior research investigating high school and university students' credibility judgments is presented. The authors then describe an instructional intervention in which pre-service teachers develop structured evaluation forms for their students' critical evaluation of scientific information on the Web and for teachers' determinations of cognitive load associated with Web materials to be used with students. Pre-service teachers' determinations of factors associated with cognitive load include several factors not previously described in other research. Finally, the authors provide recommendations for effective instruction in critical Web information evaluation for educators and students in this important aspect of critical scientific literacy. [(C) 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]