How do you teach judgment?

That is a great question. Recently another poster shared a news article from a site I had never hear of before. When I looked at the other headlines from the source, it led me to believe that the article posted might not be very credible. I could easily check Snopes and find that the other articles were either lies or completely taken out of context. I was pretty sure the article was untrue. The following day I saw the article posted on a credible site. So it was true (apparently).

For me, my spidey senses start tingling when I read something that doesn't make sense. I do this with both sides of the media and not just left or right sides. I currently believe that there are so many sites out there trying to get your views that headlines have become unreliable. I would say the at least half of what I read is an absolute lie or spin. I don't know that judgement can be taught, but leaning how to find more credible sites or how to fact check is important. Almost any conversation I start at my house that is political starts with "I read, but I don't know for sure. It is sad that I feel I have to do this. Now if I am watching a speech or read a tweet, I feel much more comfortable stating my opinion.

It is taught in my kids' middle school as part of their library/research curriculum. College seems a bit late to me!

I think it should be before college. our children need to learn from an early age to think critically and question things. from what I have seen lately, in school they are taught to memorize things and not question why something is or the what or why. My kids had a wonderful teacher in high school that encouraged that kind of thinking.

we can start by teaching our kids that just because you see something on the internet does not make it true, verify things that don't seem right and dispute things that are wrong.

I don't know... I'm older, so I didn't grow up with the internet at the tip of my fingers. I learned how to look up information from the few sources we had (dictionary, encyclopedia, library) and I guess I trusted that these sources were credible. I've always liked to read, that's probably part of it, and I went into a science field, so I'm heavy into skepticism and evidence. Show me your proof for something, then I'll believe you.

Nowadays, people grow up practically with an idevice attached to their hand, so any information (right or wrong) is all right there, at their fingertips. Ask a question, get a screen full of answers instantly. How DO you teach them to know that the top Google response to their question isn't always the correct one? It seems like people want things quickest, or easiest, and don't worry so much about verifying that it's CORRECT or credible. Are we just in too much of a hurry?


ETA:  I don't remember learning 'critical thinking' per se when I was in school, but then again, it was a small town school in the 1970s-80s.  College seems quite a bit TOO LATE, in my opinion, to be learning those skills.  I'm glad to read that these kinds of skills ARE being taught in school.  Maybe the difference is if it's something you have a strong 'belief' about, then emotion overrides evidence?  

The pizza restaurant story is a good example of that, like someone already said-  it just didn't *sound* like something Hillary Clinton would be involved in (to me, anyway-  some people would believe ANYTHING about her, I think) but some people didn't believe it, even after they learned the restaurant didn't even HAVE A BASEMENT!  

Even with evidence right in front of them, that wasn't enough to change some people's opinions.  <--- is that an example of judgement?  or something else?

People can be taught critical thinking, but our disconnect happens when there are certain topics that are off-limits. Some people freak out because "if my kids learn to question everything, what if they question ME? What if they question our political beliefs? What if they question...gasp...our RELIGION?" And so some people fight against the teaching of critical thinking because once you start thinking critically, you do start to question authority and sometimes you come to different conclusions than those that others might want you to have.

I teach newspaper, and we've talked about this extensively. How do you recognize fake news? How do you recognize bias? How can you tell if a source is reliable? Which sources have credibility and which ones don't? The first thing I tell them is - if someone makes a claim, ask yourself WHY they want you to believe the claim. Are they hoping to profit in some way? Can the claim be backed up by data and evidence? And are there any parts of their claim that make you say hmmmmm....that doesn't sound quite right. One of my students is working on a series where she will write a story that is silly/ridiculous and then at the very end reveal that it's all fake - and ask the reader why they believed it, did they question it, what were the signs that it may not be a true story? The first one is about the reason why some of the student restrooms have been locked for a while. Of course there are logical, boring reasons (they are doing some repairs on the plumbing) but the students would rather believe crazy rumors. So she's going to run with that.

I've been kind of in a quandary with this class. I really, really don't want to bring political things into it. But the Russia story is shaping up to be the biggest news story in decades, perhaps in US history. There are so many good lessons - credibility, how to use anonymous sources and remain reliable, investigative vs. access journalism, the tenacity of the reporters who are digging and digging and getting these scoops. I hate to bring it up because I'm sure at least a couple of students might have family who are Trump supporters and they will take it as an attack on 'their guy.' But it's kind of turning into the elephant in the room, that we can talk about anything but the biggest story.