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