AUTHOR=Kulju Pirjo , Hämäläinen Elina K. , Mäkinen Marita , Räikkönen Eija , Kiili Carita 

TITLE=Pre-service teachers evaluating online texts about learning styles: there is room for improvement in justifying the credibility

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1451002

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2024.1451002

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=<p>Teachers’ abilities to critically evaluate the credibility of online information are fundamental when they educate critical online readers. This study examined pre-service teachers’ abilities to evaluate and justify the credibility of online texts on learning styles. Pre-service teachers (<italic>N</italic> = 169) read and evaluated two more and two less credible online texts on learning styles in a web-based environment. Most pre-service teachers were able to differentiate the more credible texts from the less credible ones but struggled with justifying the credibility. Pre-service teachers’ inaccurate prior beliefs about learning styles impeded questioning the less credible texts. Implications for teacher education are discussed.</p>