Evaluative Frameworks and Scientific Knowledge for Undergraduate STEM Students: An Illustrative Case Study Perspective

Abstract

COVID-19 gives an important focal point to the increasingly complex and overwhelming amounts, types, and availability of information undergraduate STEM students are faced with. The world at large is being asked to seek information around serious infectious diseases and find information that can help facilitate decision-making in both personal and academic settings. Much of the available information lacks a fundamental scientific basis but is often masquerading as 'truth'. This is translated both into how society at large seeks information to make decisions, as well as how STEM undergraduate students are finding information to build their scientific skill set. This paper uses two case study examples of publications in scientific journals to examine the concept of using RADAR to determine validity. STEM librarians should focus on using evaluative frameworks as an initial launch point for critique, but a conversation must begin around how to encourage student realization of broader context and specifically awareness of what is still unknown.

Navigating complex authorities: Intellectual freedom, information literacy and truth in pandemic STEM information

“…Libraries have placed a heavy emphasis over the last five years on creating sources and educating people on identifying fake news information (Cornell University Library, 2021; Fordham University Libraries, 2020; MIT Libraries, 2021). While this skill is crucial, it misses the point that what we need is an educated population that is capable of critically evaluating all forms and types of information (Lamont et al, 2020; Mercer et al, 2020; Mercer and Weaver, 2021). This is notoriously difficult when the Internet provides an overwhelming amount of false information that masquerades as legitimate.…”

“…One way of providing users with context is to educate ourselves more deeply about, and then to use established techniques around, information literacy and critical evaluation of information (Mercer et al, forthcoming). Critical evaluation of information makes use of evaluative frameworks like RADAR (rationale, authority, date, accuracy, relevance) and CRAAP (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) as initial structures and processes for individuals to make surface-level determinations about the authority, relevance, accuracy and credibility of any information source (Blakeslee, 2004; Mandalios, 2013; Mercer and Weaver, 2021; Mercer et al, forthcoming). In critical evaluation of information, this approach is supplemented by discussion that brings context, including scientific and information professional knowledge, to the conversation with students and lay individuals.…”

“…We have chosen to use an illustrative case study approach, with news stories and social media conversations as context-specific real-time artefacts of the ongoing conversation, information and misinformation in relation to the AZ COVID-19 vaccine (Corry et al, 1997; Mercer and Weaver, 2021). Illustrative case studies are used to be primarily descriptive.…”

This Habit is Hard to Break: How to Incorporate Different Voices in STEM Information Literacy

“…Although these broader resources may provide access to sources that contain misinformation and disinformation, they also provide access to reliable, unique, and insightful information sources that are not typically available through the library, such as lived experience, Indigenous knowledge, Reddit, and corporate common practice [industry blogs, technical specifications, institutional knowledge]. Advising students to avoid Google deprives them of the opportunity to access this information, learn from it, and begin building the skills needed to adequately assess its relevance and trustworthiness (Mercer & Weaver, 2021). In addition, instruction that teaches students to avoid misinformation by deferring to library resources can lead them to believe information found within the library does not require evaluation (Mark, 2011a).…”

Examining In-Person and Asynchronous Information-Seeking Behavior Instruction Among First-Year Engineering Students

“…Traditional literature and pedagogy do not emphasize either an established way to support student information-seeking or a theoretical model specific to engineering to guide teaching in a classroom. While there is foundational knowledge about information literacy that has begun to be adapted for an engineering context, this body of knowledge is still nascent [8], [11], [12].…”