Being Critical in a Digital Landscape

The aim of this study is to examine ways in which teachers teach students how to be critical to sources in a digital context. This skill is a part of the fifth basic skill in the Norwegian reform for Knowledge Promotion and the term digital competence, which will be discussed in order to provide a framework and context for this study. Being critical to online sources is an essential skill required for the twenty-first century information society. However, this skill is also a complex skill and consists of several other components such as critical thinking, critical literacy, and source criticism. Teaching source criticism is not commonly practiced in Norwegian schools and as a result, teachers need guidelines, methods, and tools in order to address this issue. An observational study was conducted where an English teacher from a Norwegian first year upper-secondary school was observed as she taught her students how to be critical to online sources. Analyses of these observations show a parallel between her teaching methods and a way of teaching called cognitive apprenticeship that seeks to make thinking visible.