Critical Thinking and Information Literacy

Librarians are responsible for teaching basic critical thinking skills to information seekers so that they are able to find reliable and valid sources and weed out the irrelevant and sketchy sources when searching for information. Grassian (2001, p. 112) explains: "Librarians can help people learn to examine information resources for sponsorship or authorship, timeliness, form of resources in the same field." Whether a student is using the internet, a physical library, or a library database, there is an overabundance of information available and information seekers need to be equipped with the necessary critical thinking skills to help them access and evaluate information for reliability and validity during the information seeking process.

For my instruction session, I would use active learning techniques that as Grassian (p. 114) indicates: "Promote self-reflective thinking about how to identify, locate, evaluate, and use information." Grassian mentions the following critical thinking basics: 1)Audience and Purpose 2) Content and Accuracy 3) Relative Value 4) Sponsorship/Authorship and Bias 5)Recency. In my instruction session, I will touch upon all these critical thinking skills in order to ensure that the student is well-prepared to research and analyze accurate and legit information.

Using John Dewey's idea of "indirect instruction" which deems that students learn best through activities that interest them, I will split a classroom of high school students into pairs and have them individually come up with a topic or subject that they feel an affinity towards. Because they are choosing the topic themselves and it is one that interests them, they will be more enthusiastic to research and learn about this topic.

I will then ask that they each explore Web resources on the Internet for information on this chosen topic. When they have found some internet resources on their topic, they can share their research with their partner, and have that classmate ask the following critical thinking questions to evaluate and determine if the research they have gathered is indeed effective and reliable. First off, who is the audience? What is the purpose of the Web Page and what does it contain? Second, how complete and accurate is the content provided? Third, what is the relative value of the Web site compared to other information resources available on this topic? Fourth, can we trust the source? Where did the information originate and who is making it available? Is any sort of bias evident? Fifth, when was the Web item produced? When was the Web item mounted? When was the Web item last revised? How up to date are the links?

The focus of this exercise will be to teach students how to think critically about using Web resources on the Internet. Students commonly use web resources when performing research because it is convenient. But it is significant that information professionals/ teachers educate students on how to access and evaluate reliable and effective information over the internet. Elmborg (2006, p. 145) notes that: "Students must learn how information functions in proof or argument and why that information is acceptable while other information is not." In an age, where anything and everything can be published by anyone online, students need to be equipped with the necessary critical thinking skills that will allow them to decide for themselves what information is valuable and what isn't.

References

Elmborg, J. (2006). Critical information literacy: Implications for instructional practice. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32(2), 192-199.

Grassian, E. S. (2009). Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice (2 ed.). New York: Neal Schuman Pub.