Science Literacy, Critical Thinking, and Scientific Literature: Guidelines for Evaluating Scientific Literature in the Classroom

Abstract

In this work, we present an approach for teaching students to evaluate scientific literature and other materials critically. We use four criteria divided into two tiers: original research, authority, objectivity, and validity. The first tier, originality and authority, assesses the quality of the source. The second tier, objectivity and validity, assesses the quality of the information presented in that source. The purpose of this work is to develop a concrete system of evaluation based on scientific terminology that can be taught to students over a wide variety of grade levels. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the overall quality of scientific literacy.