Adolescents’ evaluation of online scientific information in daily life contexts: when sourcing matters

ABSTRACT

Sourcing is the ability to evaluate information by analysing source parameters such as author’s expertise on a given topic. Past research, mostly based on school-related materials and tasks, shows that adolescents do not pay attention to source parameters when evaluating online scientific information. However, recent research has suggested that such a ‘lack of sourcing’ may depend on the purpose for which information seeking takes place. The present study sought (a) to elicit the contexts in which adolescents seek information in their daily lives (included, but not limited to school-related assignments) and (b) to test the assumption that their attention to information sources depends on the purpose of their search. Focus groups were conducted with small groups of teenagers from contrasted socioeconomic backgrounds in two metropolitan areas (Rio de Janeiro and Paris). Five main contexts were identified, ranging from school assignments to monitoring topics of personal interest. Consistent with our assumption, references to sources were more frequent in personal compared with school information seeking contexts. The results suggest that researchers and science educators who wish to develop sourcing strategies among adolescents should use a variety of tasks, building on students’ experiences of sourcing in daily life.

KEYWORDS:

• Sourcing
• online scientific information
• adolescents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics statement

This study meets the ethics requirements for human subjects research and was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (number 2.716.027) and by the Research Committee – Research Vice-Presidency at the University of Paris 8.

Additional information

Funding

This study was developed with the support of the CAPES [grant number 88881.142733/2017-01] / Comité Français d’Évaluation de la Coopération Universitaire et Scientifique avec le Brésil (COFECUB) [grant number Sh 900/18] International Cooperation Program. It was also carried out within the scope of the National Institute of Public Communication of Science and Technology (https://www.inct-cpct.ufpa.br/index/), which has the support of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support in the State of Rio de Janeiro in the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ).