EDCEP 816 Assignment #2: Quantitative Study Critique

Name: Amy Peters

You will be critiquing two studies over the remainder of the 816 course that serve as a
culminating experience of your abilities to determine something about the credibility of each.
This first study is quantitative.

Instructions: Select one quantitative study to critique, and thoroughly read and review the study. It
may be one of the studies that you included for your annotated bibliography or a completely new
study of interest. You do not need to send the study to me; however, recognize that your correct
response to the first question enables me to retrieve it easily. Respond to each of the following
questions by placing your complete sentence answers in the spaces provided. Point values are
indicated with each question. Upload your file to Canvas (preferred), or send your critiques to me
(shodge@ksu.edu) as an email attachment.

1.) Provide a complete APA style reference of the article you are critiquing (5 points).
Wineburg, S., McGrew, S., Breakstone, J., & Ortega, T. (2016). Evaluating Information: The
Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning. Stanford Digital Repository. Retrieved from
https://sheg.stanford.edu/upload/V3LessonPlans/Executive%20Summary%2011.21.16.pdf

2.) How many participants are involved in this study, and how were they selected (3
points)?
In total, there were 7,804 participants in this study. These participants were randomly chosen from
under-resourced middle and high schools in Los Angeles, well-resourced schools in the Minneapolis
suburbs, and from six different California universities.

3.) What are the primary research questions that guided the study (3 points)?
The primary question the researchers used to guide the study was the question of do students/young
people have civic online reasoning the ability to judge the credibility of information that floods
young peoples smartphones, tablets, and computers.

4.) How well did the authors develop an argument through their review of the literature
that warranted the need for this study (5 points)? Provide one or two sentences of
support for your assertion.
The authors argued that this study needed to be conducted because there were few ways to assess
how students evaluated online sources and because there was a need to identify ways to teach
students the skills necessary to identify credible sources from unreliable ones online. In the
executive summary of their study where the authors describe why this study is important, the authors
stated, Whether this bounty [of information] will make us smarter and better informed or more
ignorant and narrow-minded will depend on our awareness of this problem and our educational
response to it. The authors then go on to say that our democracy is threatened by the lack of civic
online reasoning skills, so that educators need to teach students these skills.

5.) How did the authors collect their data (3 points)?

The authors collected this data through a series of tasks/questionnaires given to middle and high
school students, and through open-web search assessments given to college-age students.

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 6.) What statistical analyses were used in this study (3 points)?
The authors used a series of assessments (leveled to middle school, high school, and collegiate
levels) to evaluate students skills on judging online sources. Each level of students completed 5
different assessments, which topics varied depending on what grade level.

7.) What were the primary findings of the study (3 points)?

The primary findings of the study showed that the students (at all grade levels) are easily duped
into believing fake or inaccurate information posted on online sites and social media pages. The
authors also stated that the students were more likely to focus on the content of a social media post
instead of on the actual source of the information.

8.) Providing supportive evidence and using your research method knowledge, what is
your overall critique of this study in terms of its research-worthy credibility (5 points)?
I believe that this study is very credible. The authors completed prototype assessments to test their
assessments before the final assessment process. The authors also selected their participants through
a random selection, however instead of randomly selecting students from across the country, they
worked with their teacher network to identify schools and students to be randomly selected. Finally,
as the students did the assessments, the authors had students also verbalize their thinking as they
completed the tasks (which was recorded) as well as write down their responses (to ensure that the
results were accurate since there are students who cannot write their thought processes out
accurately, but can verbalize accurately).

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