{"id":660942,"date":"2025-07-23T08:50:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=660942"},"modified":"2026-01-08T10:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:17:00","slug":"ever-better-educators-students-navigate-misinformation-660942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/ever-better-educators-students-navigate-misinformation-660942\/","title":{"rendered":"How educators can help students navigate misinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-embed-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ever Wonder: How Can You Tell If A Source Is Credible?\" width=\"1062\" height=\"597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8AgCPuUh78s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When misinformation often travels faster than facts, teaching young people to discern credible sources has never been more urgent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":661032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[24292,41792,41942,41012,12692],"class_list":["post-660942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-ever-wonder","tag-kevin-meuwissen","tag-videos","tag-warner-school-of-education"],"acf":{"external":"","hide_featured_image":true,"related":"show_related","style":[653052,651022,623572],"content_modules":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-15","title":"","content":"<h2><strong>When misinformation often travels faster than facts, teaching young people to discern credible sources has never been more urgent.<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nEducators are uniquely positioned to equip students to think critically about the information they consume\u2014and share. Drawing on insights from developmental psychology, media literacy, and classroom practice, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warner.rochester.edu\/directory\/kevin-meuwissen\">Kevin Meuwissen<\/a> explores how children and teenagers evaluate evidence, assign trust, and form judgments about the truth of what they see and hear.\r\n\r\n\u201cYoung people pay close attention to who\u2019s been consistently accurate,\u201d says Meuwissen, an associate professor and the chair of teaching and curriculum at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\">糖心传媒<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warner.rochester.edu\">Warner School of Education and Human Development<\/a> whose research and teaching focus on how young people learn about politics and history. \u201cThey\u2019re more likely to trust someone over time if their information holds up.\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>SIFT to get to the truth<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_660992\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"408\"]<img class=\"wp-image-660992 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/inline-AI-Tweet-2-408x630.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot of a tweet showing a young girl in a life vest holding a puppy during a hurricane. The tweet\/X post has a disclaimer on it saying the image is AI-generated.\" width=\"408\" height=\"630\" \/> <strong>TRUTHINESS:<\/strong> Misinformation and disinformation rely on various forms of manipulation, including digital misrepresentations and emotional appeals. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to generate misinformation using AI,\u201d Meuwissen says.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBut accuracy alone isn\u2019t enough. Meuwissen often refers teachers and students to the <a href=\"https:\/\/hapgood.us\/2019\/06\/19\/sift-the-four-moves\/\">SIFT method<\/a>, an acronym which stands for:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Stop<\/strong>\u2014before reading or sharing something online, take a beat.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Investigate<\/strong> the source.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Find<\/strong> better coverage.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Trace<\/strong> claims to their origin.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe SIFT framework can function as a practical tool, especially for evaluating online and social media content. According to Meuwissen, educators can play a key role by establishing classroom cultures where respectful inquiry and fact-checking are not only normalized, but also expected.\r\n\r\nIn addition, he unpacks how emotional appeal, AI-generated imagery and deepfake technology, and repeated exposure can distort public understanding\u2014a phenomenon known as the <strong>illusory truth effect<\/strong>. He shares an example involving a fake image from Hurricane Helene that drives home the point that <strong>misinformation can feel true even when it isn\u2019t.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn 2021, Meuwissen and his fellow researchers published a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warner.rochester.edu\/blog\/teaching-about-climate-change-americas-rural-schools\">study<\/a> highlighting approaches teachers can use when encountering resistance from their students to a topic, such as climate science. The study authors found that focusing primarily on the depth and conclusiveness of scientific evidence may not be effective. Instead, they urge a broader shift in addressing students\u2019 identities\u2014including their political and cultural realities\u2014alongside scientific investigations of climate science and its local impacts.\r\n\r\nIn short, building trust can equip students with the ability to better spot falsehoods. More generally, Meuwissen argues, by modeling thoughtful verification and fostering classroom norms grounded in accuracy and trust, educators can help the next generation become more discerning digital citizens\u2014ready to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex information landscape.","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How educators can help students navigate misinformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When misinformation often travels faster than facts, teaching young people to discern credible sources has never been more urgent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/ever-better-educators-students-navigate-misinformation-660942\/\" \/>\n<meta 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