Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: The source credibility line-up

20 minutes

Find Out: Developing trust criteria

20 minutes

Take Action: Trust criteria in action

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

analyse why some sources are more credible and reliable than others.

Success criteria

Students can:

develop criteria for evaluating trustworthy media sources
apply criteria to assess the credibility of specific sources.

Tune In: The source credibility line-up

Preparation

Print and cut out the activity sheet. The sheet contains 36 slips with an individual source of information. Please note that there will be extra slips depending on your class size.

Step 1

Invite students to stand in an open area of the classroom and pose the question to students:

How do we know information about global news or a current issue is reliable when we see it?

Step 2

Distribute the slips from the activity sheet to students. Ask each student to read the information source on their paper slip. Explain to students that this is the source from which they receive information about clean energy.

Step 3

Ask students to quietly determine if the source of information listed on their slip is a trustworthy source from which to receive information about clean energy.

Step 4

Indicate one wall of the classroom as ‘least trustworthy’ and an adjacent wall as ‘most trustworthy.’ Instruct students to organise themselves in a source credibility line-up from least trustworthy to most trustworthy (from one wall to another).

Step 5

After 1-2 minutes, ask students to pause where they are. Invite a couple of volunteers to read out their slips of paper. Work through their reasoning with you and the class. Encourage them to talk about prior knowledge, assumptions, and ideas for checking on their source. Some students will know nothing about their source, and that is valid.

Use the following questions to prompt student discussion:

Questions	Suggested responses (United Nations example)
What do you know about the person or organisation presenting this information?	The United Nations (UN) is a global NGO working for peace and cooperation between all people.
If you don’t know anything about this source or person, what should be your first steps to find out?	It would be ideal to look for independent information about the UN, its alliances, funding and purpose.
How much of an expert do you think this source is? If you don’t know, how will you find out?	The UN invites expert advice worldwide.
What do you think their stance on clean energy might be, and why?	The UN will favour clean energy because UN SDG Goal 7 is Affordable Clean Energy.
What motive might they have for taking a particular stance on the topic?	The energy resource shortages lead to armed conflicts, and the UN exists to promote peace.
Who funds or pays for this source? If you don’t know, how will you find out?	The UN system is funded by various partners, including governments, multilateral partners, and other non-state funding. Governments are the primary source of funding for the UN system.

Step 6

Stop the activity when you think most students have stopped changing places in the source credibility line-up.

Working from either the least trustworthy to most trustworthy end of the line-up, ask each person to read their source and state why they are there. They may explain their position in relation to other sources around them. For example, ‘I think CSIRO is more credible than ABC News because they aren’t competing for your attention.’

Discuss any debatable assumptions made (for example, ‘the United Nations is a made-up organisation because the name sounds vague.’). Let students move to the appropriate place if they learn something that changes their perspective.

Find Out: Developing trust criteria

Step 1

Organise students into groups of 3-4.

Step 2

Your students’ task is to create a list of trust criteria for sources of information. In their groups, students have 5 minutes to create a list of their trust criteria for sources of information. Students refer to the Student Worksheet for prompting questions to guide their decisions.

Each group should aim for 3-7 bullet points. Suggested responses include:

The source does not seek to profit from the issue.
The source relies on independent scientific data.
The source includes analysis or comments from qualified experts in a relevant field.
It can be identified who owns the URL, and an independent source can be used to discover who they are.

Step 4

Invite a spokesperson from each group to share their trust criteria and practical tips for validating a source's trustworthiness.

Step 5

Students may comment that a source looks or ‘sounds reasonable. However, clearly identify to students that this is insufficient to prove the source's trustworthiness and that they must use other techniques to verify this conclusion.

Learning support: Allocate students into mixed-ability groups to ensure students can provide each other with support and guidance.

Take Action: Trust criteria in action

Step 1

In their groups, students select an information source about clean energy. They can choose 1 of the sources from the source credibility line-up activity, or from the list below:

Step 2

Using their checklist, instruct students to explore the website to find information from their chosen source and answer these questions:

How trustworthy is this source?
What evidence does this source provide?
What criteria does it meet?
What are its strengths as a source, and what checks, evidence, or information are they based on?
Where does it need improvement?
What doubts do we have? Based on what checks, evidence or information?

Step 3

Students share a brief summary of their evaluation, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of their source.

Learning extension: Students choose another contested issue to research and use their trust criteria to evaluate.

Reflection

Lead a class discussion using the following prompts:

When you consume media, how critically do you analyse the source?
How can you use the trust criteria when using social media?

How Do We Know a Source Is Trustworthy?

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Summary

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