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Cultivating Critical Thinking in an Age of ‘Fake News’

Linda McCarthy & Tim Dolan

Greenfield Community College

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Sociology and Current Events

Requirement

Frequency

What to do…

Facebook option (see Rubric!)

Post an article or respond to another’s post each week.

Post or Comment Weekly (can miss 1-3 weeks)

Total = 5 posts & 5 responses

Join our facebook group (see instructions) and start posting & commenting.

In-class option

Bring in an article, raise your hand in class, and tell us about it. Hand in write-up & article.

At least:

1 before Exam 1

1 before Exam 2

2 before Exam 3

Total=5

Peruse newspapers weekly and bring in articles with your write-up.

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How do we teach students to be skeptical... but not “too” skeptical?

It’s a Goldilocks problem: how do we encourage students to be discerning, but not so critical that they dismiss everything?

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Context: What’s Different Now?

  • Political Climate
  • Differences in News Intake
    • Volume
    • How we consume
    • What it looks like
    • ...there actually is “fake news”

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  • What role do current events play in your classroom (or in work with students)?
  • What media literacy challenges have you identified?

Discussion 1:

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Our teaching strategies

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Two approaches:

Focus on process

  • Do students understand what journalists do, and why it’s important?

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Focus on content

  • What skills do students need to evaluate news?
  • What are the clues they can look for?

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Fall 2017

  • ‘Gallery walk’ activity
  • Students read 4 articles, looking for these criteria:
    • What kind of work did the journalist(s) do?
    • Does that labor influence the article’s credibility?
    • Are there other clues that point towards an article being trustworthy, or not?

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Fall 2017

  • Outcomes:
    • “Students will generate a list of positive and negative characteristics of news sources, and of characteristics of journalism, in order to make informed decisions about news consumption.”
    • “Students will articulate the kinds of work that go into journalism, and how the careful legwork of journalism relates to credibility.”

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Spring 2018

  • Students work in small groups; each group reviews a different article.
  • They evaluate the article based the following criteria:
    • Does it look right?
    • Source
    • Type of content
  • Students assign their article an overall rating, 1-10.
    • Author’s sourcing
    • Evidence
    • What’s missing?

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Spring 2018

  • Outcomes:
    • Students will use a series of questions to analyze news sources in order to make educated guesses about their credibility.
    • Students will present their findings to the class citing at least three clues that informed their evaluation in order to synthesize what they’ve learned.

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Overall Observations:

  • Results: No matter the source, students ranked all articles as low-quality.
  • Students are largely unable to parse and interpret the different levels of narrative that exist in a news article:
      • The actual events
      • The sourcing
      • The reporting

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For next time:

  • Further refine the learning outcomes, based on our assessments.
  • Build an activity in which students dissect an excellent piece of journalism, rather than comparing multiple articles.

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  • How can we teach our students to better interpret media?
  • What might this look like in your discipline or work area?
  • In what ways can you engage others on your campus with these questions?

Discussion 2:

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References

Rather, D., & Kischner, E. (2017). What unites us: reflections � on patriotism. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.

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Contact:

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Linda McCarthy

mccarthyl@gcc.mass.edu

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Tim Dolan

dolant@gcc.mass.edu

@tdolangcc