Information Literacy Commons^™

Evaluation Of Sources: A New Sustainable Approach Using Argument Analysis And Critical Thinking, Sharon Radcliff, Elise (Yi Ling) Wong

Elise Y. Wong

An area of information literacy instruction that has increasingly gained attention is evaluation of sources. Moving away from the checklist approach (timeliness, relevancy, bias, credibility, authority), this session describes a new approach incorporating critical thinking questions and training for students on analyzing arguments using the Toulmin method, which students apply to evaluating articles and to detecting “myside” (confirmation) bias in their own writing.

This approach was used at two institutions, a 2-unit information literacy course at CSU East Bay and several sections of an English Composition course Saint Mary’s College and incorporated a “flipped classroom” design with much of the …