Sök- och källkritik i grundskolan: En forskningsrapport

The report presents the results of a research project on the impact of teaching and learning of critical internet searching and source criticism in Swedish schools on ninth-graders' education and freetime. The focus in the project was on the school subjects Swedish and social studies. Pupils, teachers, and school librarians were surveyed and/or interviewed. The aim of the project was to deepen our understanding of the different ways in which teaching of critical internet searching and source criticism is practiced in Swedish schools, and how these different ways of teaching might help to prepare pupils for the challenges of the information society. Three main types of teaching source criticism and critical searching were identified. The traditional criteria used in source criticism featured dominantly in the teaching. Compared to source criticism, critical information searching was far less commonly taught in classes. In both areas (critical information searching and source criticism), understanding of the internet's infrastructural features and factors was largely absent.

Teaching source criticism has outcomes for pupils' education and for how they interact with information in their freetime. Contextualized source criticism (including understanding of internet architecture, user-generated data, and the meaning and function of algorithms) was uncommon. Information searches were absent from most teaching of critical internet usage. More discussion is needed to clarify the key concepts here. The role of school librarians needs to be outlined more clearly from this teaching and learning perspective.