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After instruction, CTRL-F students showed higher preference and use than controls, with improved alignment between preference and utilization. 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Gains were maintained from the posttest to a delayed posttest for the subset of students who completed it.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},590191,1792621235,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":125},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":118,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":104,"preview_page_count":4},1374404737137,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","AERA Open  \nJanuary-December 2023, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1–20 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584231192106  \nArticle reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2023. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero)  \nInstruction Increases Canadian Students’ Preference for and Use of Lateral Reading Strategies to Fact-Check Online Information  \nJessica E. Brodsky   \nPatricia J. Brooks   \nCity University of New York  \nDimitri Pavlounis  \nJessica Leigh Johnston  \nCIVIX  \nCanadian middle and high school students (N = 2,278) completed a “CTRL-F” curriculum teaching them how to evaluate online information by reading laterally to investigate sources, check claims, and trace information to original contexts. A subset of CTRL-F students (N = 316) were in classes with teacher-matched control groups (N = 287). Some CTRL-F students (N = 994) completed a delayed posttest. At pretest, students indicated preference for some lateral reading strategies, but preference rarely translated into use. Following instruction, CTRL-F students showed greater preference for and use of lateral reading than controls and greater alignment between preference and use. The curriculum’s impact varied by demographic factors but not by differences in implementation. Gains were maintained from posttest to delayed posttest. Direct instruction and practice in lateral reading appear to strengthen connections between students’preferences and utilization of these strategies to evaluate online content relevant to academic and personal life.  \nKeywords: adolescence, curriculum, digital literacy, fact-checking, fake news, hierarchical linear modeling, high schools, lateral reading, middle schools, online information  \nWith smartphones and other Internet-enabled devices providing nearly continuous access to the Internet, today’s youth faces an unprecedented barrage of online information. In 2020, 98.0% of Canadian 15- to 24-year-olds used the Internet, with 42.5% online for more than 20 hours per week (Statistics Canada, 2021a). Canadian adolescents and young adults use the Internet for a variety of purposes, with more than three-quarters (76.9%) accessing news online and more than half using the Internet to find goods and services (72.4%) or health information (68.9%; Statistics Canada, 2021b) . Because information of varying quality spreads widely and rapidly online, it is often difficult to discern accurate information from misinformation or deliberately false disinformation. This proliferation of misinformation and disinformation can have negative consequences for trust and engagement in a variety of domains. For example, both The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and The Nobel Prize have convened meetings to understand and address misinformation and disinformation in science (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, n.d.; The Nobel Prize, n.d.) .  \nProviding students with strategies for evaluating online information may help them navigate this complex information environment. A number of initiatives are underway internationally to improve fact-checking skills, such as NOVA Misinformation Nation ([https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/col](https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/col)lection/nova-misinformation-nation/), Media Literacy Now in the U.S. ([https://medialiteracynow.org/](https://medialiteracynow.org/)), and Faktabaari in Finland ([https://faktabaari.fi/](https://faktabaari.fi/)). We report initial findings from a large-scale study conducted in Canada that aimed to teach middle and high school students how to fact-check information by reading laterally. Lateral reading is a practice commonly used by expert fact-checkers to contextualize unfamiliar online content by researching what others have to say about it. The process entails leaving the original content (e.g., website, news article, social media post) to find out ","cbCaiqSAsrDbDEn9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqSAsrDbDEn9","pdf",486967,"English","# CTRL-F curriculum and study design\n## Outcomes: preference, use, and delayed posttest gains\n## Alignment between preference and utilization\n## Context: online misinformation and youth internet use","[{\"question\":\"What is the “CTRL-F” curriculum designed to teach students?\",\"answer\":\"It teaches students how to evaluate online information by using lateral reading to investigate sources, check claims, and trace information back to original contexts.\"},{\"question\":\"How did students’ preference and use change after instruction?\",\"answer\":\"After instruction, CTRL-F students demonstrated greater preference for and greater use of lateral reading than control students, and preference aligned more closely with actual use.\"},{\"question\":\"Were the curriculum effects maintained over time?\",\"answer\":\"Yes. Gains were maintained from the posttest to a delayed posttest for the subset of students who completed it.\"}]","Instruction Increases Canadian Students’ Preference for and Use of Lateral Reading Strategies to Fact-Check Online Information | PDF",1792069036]