Designing media and information literacy curricula in English primary schools: children’s perceptions of the internet and ability to navigate online information

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from a study into children’s media and information literacy (MIL). The purpose of the study was to understand English primary school children’s (ages 8–11) attitude toward the internet as well as their ability to find, use and evaluate information. This then informed the development of a MIL programme of learning for primary schools. Data analysis showed that the children demonstrated low levels of MIL, for example, when identifying bias and distinguishing between fact and opinion. In addition, working in a group did not lead to better MIL. There were limited strategies for successful co-operation and often the dominant group members’ views were prioritised over evidence from the text. Therefore, working with the Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, we propose a MIL curriculum that focuses both on content but also collaborative dialogic skills such as listening to others and changing one’s own point of view.

KEYWORDS:

• Media and information literacy
• digital literacy
• dialogic education
• primary education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/sugar

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Dr Ron Zimmern.

Notes on contributors

Laura Kerslake

Laura Kerslake is a research associate at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. She is a co-investigator working on the Inquiring Learners project which is part of the Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI). Laura is also part of the DEFI Innovation Lab and Oracy Cambridge. Her research interests include digital literacy, dialogic education and oracy.

Judith Hannam

Judith Hannam is a research associate working on the Inquiring Learners project at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. She is also a project administrator with the Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI). Judith is a former primary teacher who is interested in collaborative education research with teachers.