Nicolae Nistor’s research while affiliated with Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich and other places

Approaching the problem of fake news with media literacy and fake news training, lateral reading training improves the discernment between truthful and fake news. How this improvement is achieved remains to be proven. Assuming that the level of cognitive processing mediates the effect of news literacy training on news evaluation skills, changes in cognitive processing need to be examined. Addressing this gap, this poster paper presents the development of a category system as a content analysis tool, aiming to analyze the cognitive processing level applied to assessing news. The new instrument is tested with data from an information literacy training using the lateral reading training approach in three different training conditions including a control group. Data from N = 179 participants were coded using the proposed category system and analyzed using regression analysis to examine mediation effects between the training groups, cognitive processing level and test scores. The results of this analysis show a mediation effect of cognitive processing level on news evaluation test scores, suggesting that enhancing the cognitive processing may improve the ability to evaluate information. Furthermore, these preliminary results will be supplemented with results from more participants to reach a sample size of N = 344. KeywordsMisinformationInformation Literacy TrainingLevel of Cognitive Processing

Technology is often not used profitably to promote teaching and learning processes. Implicit theories influence the use of technology in teaching. So far, these have been insufficiently explored against the background of the ICAP framework. This study addressed this research gap and investigated teachers’ implicit theories of quality use of technology. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with N = 12 teachers from different types of secondary schools in Germany. The results show that the use of technology for passive engagement is justified by the format of the technology, the active engagement by the learning outcome, the constructive engagement by information and communication technology (ICT) literacy promotion and the interactive engagement by students’ cooperation. Further research should describe implicit theories by the way learner-centered teaching is implemented with technology.KeywordsTechnology in teachingCognitive activationImplicit theories

The 10th edition of the Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM 2022) brings together researchers and postgraduate students interested in combining different aspects of the technology applied to knowledge society development, with particular attention to educational and learning issues. This volume includes contributions related to communication, educational assessment, sustainable development, educational innovation, mechatronics, and learning analytics. Besides, the doctoral consortium papers close the proceedings book from a transversal perspective.Keywordscommunicationeducational assessmentsustainabilityeducational innovationengineeringlearning analyticsdoctoral thesis

So Far, Little Empirical Research Has Paid Attention to Doctoral Dissertations and Considered the Influence of Academic Culture on Dissertation Writing. The Purpose of the Study Is to Explore Theory Choice in Doctoral Educational Research. In Academic Communities of Practice, Doctoral Dissertations Are Regarded As Cultural and Conceptual Artifacts. To Address the Research Gap, Our Study Focuses On Two Research Questions: (1) Which Learning Theories Do Doctoral Students Choose for Their Educational Research? (2) What Is the Relationship Between Theory Preference and the University’s Research Quality? The Corpus in Our Study Consists of N = 878 Doctoral Dissertations at 88 U.S. Universities. We Examined Text Similarities Between 141 Learning Theories and Dissertations Within and Across Universities. The Results Suggest That Doctoral Researchers at Higher-Level Universities Might Prefer Classic Theories, Whereas Those at Lower-Level Universities Might Prefer Specialized Theories. The Study Makes Headway in Higher Education Research With a Focus On Doctoral Dissertations and Potentially Improving the Quality of Research and Higher Education Institutions.Keywordshigher educationlearning theorieslearning analyticsdoctoral dissertationstext similarity

The pervasive problem of misinformation requires fostering Internet users’ information literacy. Existing interventions raise the question of how the skills enabling the discernment of truthful vs. fake news can be efficiently trained, and which training approaches may be scalable. We conducted a lateral reading training based on cognitive apprenticeship and assessed its effects on N = 312 participants using an online news credibility test. The quantitative, 3 × 2 experimental design included the factors training type (no training vs. cognitive apprenticeship with written instructions vs. cognitive apprenticeship with human trainers) and trainer education (undergraduate freshmen vs. graduate students of education). Overall, we found significant effects of the training type and marginal effects of the trainer education, but no significant differences between cognitive apprenticeship with written instructions and cognitive apprenticeship with human trainers. The training effects pertained mainly to participants’ fake news identification ability, whereas their truthful news evaluation was changed little. In sum, participants’ discernment of truthful vs. fake news was improved. Consequently, lateral reading training based on written instructions appears to be an effective and scalable media education intervention.

The pervasive problem of misinformation requires fostering Internet users’ information literacy. Existing interventions raise the question how corresponding skills can be efficiently trained and which training approaches may be upscalable. We conducted a lateral reading training based on cognitive apprenticeship and assessed its effects on N = 312 participants using an online news credibility test. The quantitative, 3x2 experimental design included the factors training type (no training vs. written instructions vs. cognitive apprenticeship) and trainer education (freshmen vs. graduate students of education). Overall, we found significant effects of the training type and marginal effects of the trainer education, but no significant differences between the written instructions and the cognitive apprenticeship group. The effects pertained mainly to participants’ fake news evaluation, whereas their truthful news evaluation was hardly influenced. Consequently, lateral reading training based on written instructions appears as an effective and upscalable media education intervention.

Disinformation currently floods the Internet worldwide and likely affects social knowledge building in online communities. Strategic framing in the form of emotional, value, and semantic framing is a common tool fake news producers use to more efficiently disseminate their content, yet these strategies have not been sufficiently examined, even less in relationship with the online dialog initiated by misinformation. In this exploratory study we aim to investigate the most relevant types of strategic framing and their role as predictors of news consumers’ emotions, argumentation, and social knowledge building in the online dialog on a German alternative news site. Employing both manual and automated content analysis, we found significant relationships between framing in posted news articles and the subsequent online dialog. News framing predicted negative emotions in the online discussions and interfered with argumentation and social knowledge building. Conclusions pertain to digital information literacy interventions and further research on news framing.