Teaching Students to Evaluate Sources

Presentation By: Samantha Long and Kelly Blewett

The problem is the students don’t know how to research.

Students need to conduct research in order to find information to support their arguments, but they don’t know how.

When they do find information, they don’t know how to assess the value of the information in relation to their project.

Students tend to rely on research strategies used

in high school that are now insufficient

Where do I

start?!

How Novice Students Conduct Research

Basic Ekstrom Library Minerva catalog search

General sources (Encyclopedia, newspapers, popular non-fiction)

Collect data from familiar sources (HS books, study guides, Wikipedia)

Basic term search within an Internet search engine (Google, Yahoo, AOL)

We think the following activity might be a good “opener” to get your students thinking through different kinds of resources.

When they search “George Washington” in Ekstrom, 297 resources come up.

How can the students make sense of the resources?

Kelly to direct quick in-class activity.

You can find a bibliography of the resources we used for this activity in the eFiles.

We want the students to learn how to find and evaluate their resources.

Challenge them to think beyond their default research strategies

Provide a structure for understanding the resources they find

Distinguish academic from non-academic sources

Distinguish primary from secondary sourcesIntroduce students to resources available at

the University of Louisville

This work builds on the strategies and classroom activities suggested by Spatt and Burkhardt et al.

Both authors suggest that students need to develop a framework for evaluating sources that take the following into consideration: genre, currency and bias.

Criteria 1: Determining the genre will help students understand what to expect from the source.

Fiction, we think, is generally unsuited for the research we want 102 students to do. But, of course, there are a lot of sources that could sidetrack them:

Washington’s Lady George Washington’s Teeth

Nonfiction also has many sub-branches which we should explain.

Non-fiction may be characterized as:

• Popular--Intended for widest audience and conducive for wide range of educational backgrounds. EXAMPLES: USA Today, Wikipedia.

• General interest--Intended for audience with casual interest in subject. Can provide some level of complexity. EXAMPLES: National Geographic , Newsweek.

• Academic--Intended for an audience familiar with the field and/or subject. Contains level of analysis and depth beyond the interest of the general public. EXAMPLES: journal articles, dissertations, textbooks.

Criteria 2: Currency is another important criteria for students. First, it should help students understand how the conversation about the object of study has changed over time.Old George

Washington Biography

New George Washington Biography

The importance of currency is perceived differently by different disciplines.

Importance of currency within different disciplines (Engineering v. Humanities)

Currency is also the umbrella under which primary vs. secondary sources fall.

Primary Sources Secondary Sources

Criteria 3: Students need to be able to identify the level of personal interest the author has in the subject.

Both authors we read addressed this topic, but talked about it differently.

Subjective/objective Partial/impartial

Our term: bias. We think this goes back to the “search for truth” doctrine from Writing Arguments. It’s useful for the students at this stage.

Here’s an example of two sources.Clearly Biased Source about George Washington

Less Biased Source about George Washington

How do we know the source are biased/unbiased?Biased: Look to

previous publications, look to publisher. Look for documentation

Unbiased: Look to previous publications, look to publisher. Look for documentation.

We want to tell our students to use specific criteria to evaluate whether the source is biased.

Documentation can be clueCriticism of the source can help Previous publications by authorPublisher

We’ve provided resources for you to discuss these topics in your classroom.

1. A bibliography of the George Washington resources we’ve used today. (See eFiles)

2. A worksheet for evaluating primary vs. secondary sources and biased vs. unbiased sources. (See eFiles)

3. A worksheet students can take to the library with them to evaluate their resources according to some of the criteria we’ve discussed today. (See eFiles)

Additional Topics to Discuss with Your Class

Note the distinctions between evaluating print and Web sources

Introduce students to UofL resourcesSchedule an Ekstrom library presentation.Introduce the students, in a limited way, to

Online Academic Databases.Inter-Library Loan

Resources Burkhardt, Joanna M., MacDonald, Mary C.,

and Rathemacher, Andree J. Teaching Information Literacy: 35 Practical Standards-Based Exercises for College Students. Chicago: American Library Association, 2003.

Spatt, Brenda. Writing From Sources. 7th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.