Abstract:

Meaningful information literacy lies at the root of critical thinking abilities required for academic research writing and lifelong engaged citizenry. For more than a decade, the CRAAP analysis, requiring students to evaluate sources for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose, has been a mainstay of informed undergraduate research writing pedagogy. Directing students towards peer-reviewed academic journal articles is good in theory, but rarely reflects undergraduate research strategies inside and outside the classroom. Today’s increasingly complex world of information—and misinformation—requires students receive additional training to effectively navigate the Internet. This presentation by a veteran professor of undergraduate English Composition: Argument and Research will review classroom strategies for applying the US Association of College Research Librarians (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education to include learning experiences that encourage students’ metacognition around their own attitudes, strengths, weaknesses, and knowledge gaps related to information. The ACRL Framework focuses on six key concepts: Authority Is Constructed and Contextual; Information Creation as a Process; Information Has Value; Research as Inquiry; Scholarship as Conversation; Searching as Strategic Exploration. Respect for the framework requires undergraduate coursework embedded with information literacy outcomes to go beyond simplified formulas for evaluating sources, and rather provide skilled facilitation of metaliteracy, which includes critical self-reflection by students and faculty alike. This presentation will also review new research from the Stanford University History Education Group: "Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More Online," including lesson strategies to help students recognize overt bias in sources which can initially appear quite authoritative. Audience members will learn key theory and research in the evolving field of US information literacy, along with classroom approaches for integrating meaningful critical thinking outcomes into research writing coursework.

Keywords:

Information literacy, research, critical thinking, undergraduate writing.