Why attend to source information when reading online? The perspective of ninth grade students from two different countries

Abstract Although information on the Web notoriously involves reliable and less reliable sources, research has found that middle school students hardly ever attend to source information (e.g., author, date of publication) while reading online. Nonetheless, studies show that students are able to evaluate source information and understand how this can inform the interpretation of a document's content and inform validity judgments (‘source knowledge’). We attempted to explain the gap between students' source knowledge and their low use of source information by interviewing 44 9th graders from Germany and France about their source knowledge and the conditions under which they do or do not apply it. Results suggest that students possess source knowledge and that its application is determined by multiple variables. Students mention reader variables such as motivation and a strong focus on content. Moreover, they refer to contextual variables such as external prompting and reinforcement. They also mention text-related variables such as the perceptual salience of source information. It is concluded that future research might benefit from considering these factors when designing instructional interventions to promote students' critical reading on the Internet.