ABSTRACT
One educational approach is to develop students’ awareness that knowledge is complex and changing. Another is to help students appreciate that some pathways to knowing are more reliable than others. These can make the students aware of their assumptions about truth and understanding. A study by the Stanford History Education Group of 203 middle school students revealed over 80% believed that an advertisement with the phrase ‘sponsored content’ was a real news story. For example, students could investigate eating fads – looking at how diet supplements and health foods have changed over the past century, from arsenic pills to wholegrain, and which diets are backed up by modern nutrition. A project by the Ministry of Education in Italy is educating students in 8,000 schools to recognize fake news and conspiracy theories online. It involves students creating their own blogs to expose fake news and explain how they investigated the story.
