Undergraduates’ Evaluations of Developmental Claims and Their Identification of Information Sources

Department

Secondary and Middle Grades Education

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2006

Abstract

Students in a large human development course rated the accuracy of 50 developmental claims. Half of the claims were specifically embedded in the course content, but the remaining claims were not addressed in the course. Students also identified the major information source for each developmental claim rated. From the beginning to the end of the course, students (especially high performers) improved in evaluating the accuracy of course-related developmental claims and increasingly attributed their ratings of these claims to professional information sources. Our study underscores the importance of sensitizing students to the role of research evidence in judging the credibility of claims in general education courses.

Journal Title

Innovative Higher Education

Journal ISSN

0742-5627

Volume

30

Issue

5

First Page

345

Last Page

360

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1007/s10755-005-9001-5

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