This study investigated how sixth graders' credibility evaluation self-efficacy was associated with their ability to evaluate the credibility of online texts. Students (N = 265, M[subscript age] = 12.45) worked in a web-based environment, where they read and evaluated two more credible texts and two less credible texts that required confirming and…

A classroom teacher and a university researcher examined what criteria fourth-grade students use to examine text authority and how traditional and new literacy skills may support such evaluation. Results of this case study indicate that students rely heavily on traditional reading skills, including background knowledge and vocabulary skill, to…

The article presents the results of an exploratory-qualitative study about children´s conceptions of ecology in relation to media messages. The objective of the study has been to identify the role of ecologism and environmental campaigns on ecology conceptions of 105 6th grade children, age 10-12, from an educational institution in Bogota,…

The COVID-19 virus emerged in the city of Wuhan, China in December 2019, has affected the entire world in a short time, and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020 (WHO, 2020b). This large-scale outbreak has been on the agenda of Turkey. The main purpose of this research is to examine the opinions of gifted students…

Background: Children's comprehension of single texts relies on both foundational and higher-level skills. These are also assumed to support multiple-document comprehension, but their relative importance has not been examined, to date. Multiple-document comprehension additionally requires the identification and use of information about each…

This paper presents findings from a study into children's media and information literacy (MIL). The purpose of the study was to understand English primary school children's (ages 8-11) attitude toward the internet as well as their ability to find, use and evaluate information. This then informed the development of a MIL programme of learning for…

This study examined the level of knowledge the students had about owls by means of drawings and written answers. In the interviews, the students in the lower grades were found to have more limited information and less biological literacy than the ones in the upper grades. The aim was to determine students' knowledge, experience, and sources of…

Effectively evaluating the credibility and accuracy of multiple sources is critical for college readiness. We developed 24 source evaluation tasks spanning four predicted difficulty levels of a hypothesized learning progression (LP) and piloted these tasks to evaluate the utility of an LP-based approach to designing formative literacy assessments.…

Children's attitudes are shaped by the information to which they are exposed. To foster improved peer relationships in inclusive settings, there is a need for typically developing children to exhibit positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between children's attitudes toward their…

The current study examined the extent to which sixth grade students used their pre-existing topic beliefs to guide comprehension of semantic ideas within multiple conflicting texts, and the sources providing them. Adolescents completed an inventory assessing their pre-reading topic beliefs one week prior to the study. During the study, students…

Due to the increasing educational use of the Internet, children in elementary school need to critically evaluate source information to judge the trustworthiness of information. Studies with adult readers show that sourcing prompts and mutually exclusive claims in reading materials promote the use of source information. However, little is known…

The authors document work in a fifth-grade classroom investigating informational texts. Students investigated a range of informational texts and their potential forms. In the spirit of challenging a given curriculum and conventional understandings of informational texts, texts in the Science Comics series were invited into this learning space.…

Socioscientific issues (SSI) related teaching may positively influence students' scientific epistemological beliefs (SEB). However, research is limited about elementary school students and the methods of web search. This study aimed to investigate Taiwanese sixth-graders' SEB and the impact of different web searches' information positions…

A core tenet of the model of domain learning is that learning is shaped by cognitive and motivational forces. In writing, these catalysts include learners' knowledge, motivation, strategic behaviors, and skills. This study tested this proposition at two time points (Fall and Spring) with 179 fifth-grade students (52% were girls), examining if…

The school context, like other influences, affects the development of students' epistemic beliefs (EBs), with theoretical conceptualizations suggesting a distinction between EBs related to professional and school science. However, empirical studies rarely address this distinction, and instruments separately assessing these EBs are not available.…