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Sourcing in Text Comprehension: a Review of Interventions Targeting Sourcing Skills

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Abstract

The process of using information about documents such as the author, genre, and date of publication while evaluating and interpreting those documents’ content was labeled “sourcing” in a seminal paper by Wineburg (Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 73, 1991). Studies in various domains have adapted the term sourcing while referring to central reading skills in modern information societies. In this review, we discuss the concept of sourcing grounded in research from social psychology, information sciences, and text comprehension. Based on that, we reviewed 18 intervention studies in educational settings, in order to identify how sourcing was operationalized in the studies, the nature of the interventions, and how successful they were. The review shows that interventions for younger students emphasized source credibility, whereas interventions among older students also emphasized the role of sourcing in interpretation. None of the studies measured how students search for source features or specifically which features they attend to. Regarding the nature of the studies, the use of multiple partly conflicting documents was common, with that condition positively related to outcome measures. Another characteristic was the use of inquiry tasks. A majority of the studies do not apply findings from persuasion theory and information science indicating that credibility assessment requires effort and motivation. Future interventions should more strongly emphasize the relationship between sourcing and motivation.

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  1. Department of Education, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1092, Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Eva Wennås Brante & Helge I. Strømsø

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  1. Eva Wennås Brante
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Correspondence to Eva Wennås Brante.

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This study was funded by The Norwegian Research Council (grant number 237981/H20).

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Brante, E.W., Strømsø, H.I. Sourcing in Text Comprehension: a Review of Interventions Targeting Sourcing Skills. Educ Psychol Rev 30, 773–799 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-017-9421-7

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