Teach sourcing across all online inquiry phases with explicit instruction, controversial tasks, prompts, and collaborative group work¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 6 claims (4 for, 1 mixed, 1 against) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The intervention combined several instructional methods: an online inquiry task "structured into manageable sequences" following the phases of online inquiry; task scenarios on controversial topics requiring students to compare and contrast stakeholder views; explicit teaching of effective sourcing practices followed by practice; a working document with analysis and reflection prompts designed to elevate sourcing; and collaborative small-group work in a shared digital workspace. Teachers demonstrated why and how to source in each phase before students practiced with authentic online information.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers need instructional materials and a manual describing effective online inquiry strategies, and students need a shared digital working document with task prompts

Constraints¶

• For practical reasons the first two inquiry phases were combined into one lesson, so specifying the information need was taught only implicitly, and no intervention effect was found for that skill

Target Learners¶

• upper secondary school students

Target Learning Goals¶

• sourcing in search queries
• credibility evaluation of online texts
• synthesizing and communicating source-based information

Affordances¶

• Documents Model Online Inquiry Sourcing Framework

Claims¶

• Individual sourcing gains during the intervention were uneven, with 4–25% of students improving depending on the skill [+W]
• The intervention improved students' sourcing in credibility judgments and in written products relative to controls [+W]
• A teacher-led sourcing intervention increased upper secondary students' use of source features in search queries during online inquiry [+W]
• The intervention did not enhance students' sourcing in specifying the information need [-W]
• Task topic order was associated with sourcing performance and with individual change during the intervention [~W]
• Students with the weakest pre-intervention sourcing skills showed the clearest positive change during the intervention [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Structuring Group Work
• Collaborative Strategic Reading
• Combine conflicting-document discussion, declarative source knowledge, and contrasting-case practice to train source evaluation

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Hämäläinen, E. K., Kiili, C., Räikkönen, E., Lakkala, M., Ilomäki, L., Toom, A., & Marttunen, M. (2023). Teaching sourcing during online inquiry – adolescents with the weakest skills benefited the most. Instructional Science, 51, 135–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-022-09597-2