An essential part of online research is the ability to critically evaluate information. This includes the ability to assess its level of accuracy, reliability, and bias. In 2012, my colleagues and I assessed 770 seventh graders in two states to study these areas, and the results definitely got our attention. Unfortunately, over 70 percent of the students’ responses suggested that:
* Middle school students are more concerned with content relevance than with credibility
* They rarely attend to source features such as author, venue, or publication type to evaluate reliability and author perspective
* When they do refer to source features in their explanations, their judgments are often vague, superficial, and lacking in reasoned justification