Critical Thinking

From the beginning of Internet in academic work, there has been a call for faculty and librarians to teach students how to evaluate information found on the Internet as well as to think critically about the information retrieved, not only from the Internet, but from traditional as well. To begin with, librarians were called upon to create tools for students to use while performing research on the Internet. For the most part, these tools called for students to check and recheck the accuracy of their sources (Brandt, 1996).

As more students used the Internet as a resource, studies began to appear that addressed the issue of critical thinking in terms of Internet use. Once such study found that if students used critical thinking when searching the Internet, they could find more in-depth information than was readily available from traditional sources. The study also found that interactivity also played a role in critical thinking about Internet sources. Students had the ability to contact the author through electronic means. The study found, however, that students were missing the importance of the context of information which led to a narrower understanding of the topic they were researching (Browne, 2000).

A study produced by Burton and Chadwick studied the criteria students used for evaluating Internet resources and the type of instruction these student had received to evaluate the resources. The majority of student involved in the study had received at least some instruction on evaluating reference sources, either traditional or Internet. The researchers also found that do evaluate the sources they plan to use for assignments. These evaluation techniques, however, are not necessarily the correct ones for the type of resource they are evaluating. Students tended to use one set of evaluation criteria for both traditional and Internet sources. This leads to questionable accuracy of materials based on inappropriate evaluation (2000).

Grimes and Boening created a study to determine if students were using inaccurate or inappropriate resources from the Internet for their academic work. The results from the study showed that students were evaluating Internet resources on a superficial lever, if at all. They also found that students were not taking advantage of web guides provided by the library or of the databases located within the libraries’ electronic resources. Grimes and Boening recommend more faculty guidelines regarding resources, as well as instruction in determining good Internet resources (2001).

Additional studies found that critical thinking and evaluation skills are crucial to successfully using the Internet as a research tool. Connor-Greene used an in-class exercise as the basis for a study on student evaluation of Internet sources. The exercise posed a series of questions that could be answered by using the Internet. She found that the majority of students used the first source they could find to complete the questions, without verifying the information from one or two additional sources. She also found that this information was not always correct or was taken from an Internet site that had an agenda to pursue. Connor-Greene found the exercise as a good starting point for teaching her students how to critically think about the sources they were using (2002).

In more recent literature, researchers discuss how students trust Internet resources without evaluating the sources for reliability. They are also discussing how critical thinking needs to be taught to students so that they may confidently use a resource that has continually gained popularity since its inception (Graham, 2003).

Researchers are also looking into the research methods of Generation Y as they enter their college years. This is the first generation that has grown up having computers available to them. They started junior high and high school as the Internet came on the scene. Weiler explores the various research on information retrieval and critical thinking to open up discussion on these processes as they pertain to this new group of students. She found that Generation Y students are used to sound bites, videos and images in their day-to-day lives and this translates into the types of research they perform for academic work. They want to find information quickly and are not necessarily concerned with the accuracy of that information. The Internet suits their style of learning (2005).

It is apparent that the studies have uncovered a need for college students to think critically about the information they retrieve from both traditional resources and Internet resources. This critical thinking will help them decide which resources best suit their needs and give them accurate and current information for their academic work. The studies also find that critical thinking skills are either not being taught at the university level, or students are not absorbing these lessons. This lack of acquiring critical thinking skills has effected the learning that students achieve during their college years.