I’m sure this will vary for many people depending on their schools, where/when they were taught, and the like, so I’m interested to see what others’ experiences have been with this.
I’m also curious about what resources some have used to learn better research skills & media literacy (and found useful) if their school didn’t adequately teach either (or they may have whiffed on it at the time).
Secondary education did a pretty good job, but I’d say that was more on the teachers than the curriculum. I got very lucky in that regard. My community college for my BTEC, same, the one teacher who taught me how to properly write reports and assignments was really good at ensuring we cited everything properly, and gave extra marks.
We were taught basic research skills all throughout highschool, how to find information, how to read and write academic papers and how to cite things properly.
As far as media literacy goes, but our social studies classes always opened with a discussion about the day’s news stories as well as the bias of the source it came from.
But I think the class that really opened my eyes the most was a unit in 9th grade English where we discussed the language of advertising. In that class they taught us how anything you see in an ad has to be technically correct as to not run afowl of false advertising laws, but is very often misleading. After that, I started to spot those techniques everywhere, and not just in ads. Those few weeks were foundational to the way I approach critical thought now.
Yes in the 2000s on primary school we were taught about search engines and the internet. Our classes covered how to find information, types of searches and to be skeptical of information sources. Intermediate and high-school taught everything on the internet was wrong and not to use it.
So I’m from Europe, and I remember being drilled in the importance of sources (i.e. use of research papers and primary sources when available, no wikipedia, etc.) as well as theory and methodology, how to cite and paraphrase properly, checking who wrote/created a text/media and what bias it might have, etc., but not how to actually find, navigate and use databases, analyze media, documents and information, etc. At university it was basically assumed that we’d already know everything we needed and we mostly just got a refresher on research methodology.
Years layer i studied a second BA in Mexico, and (ironically, being a “third world country”) had to take three courses on research (documentary, qualitative and quantitative), during which we went in depth into research method and theory, different research databases, types of sources, media types, critical evaluation of sources, etc., as well as hands-on use of all of them. In addition, there were three courses on thesis research and writing to put it all into real practice, with a graduation thesis as end product.
That said, the teachers were much stricter in evaluating proper referencing and citation in Europe; oftentimes minor errors would have them significantly reduce your score, and so students were much more careful. In Mexico, the teachers accepted anything even remotely resembling APA style because anyone could argue they were using a prior/newer edition and get away with it, and at least one of my classmates got suspended for plagiarism while three others got off with warnings.
not long before dropping out in the 90s in a conservative, backwards, rural area – the need to cite sources and do extensive research, and have a willingness to have my ideas challenged, was something I grokked from high school. i don’t expect much from from West Virginia, but I didn’t then either.
I’m over 40 and while I was taught to do research on a Microfische, I was regularly told not to trust anything on the internet.
As for media literacy, no way in hell. Especially after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 started allowing mass consolidation of media empires. In the 1980’s, majority of US media was owned by around 80 companies, in the modern era, it’s five that own the majority of the US media landscape.
You say the name “Marshall McLuhan” or even “the medium is the message” and you get confused fucking looks.
One teacher literally showed us how to use Libgen and SciHub for our research. Media literacy no.
Geez we were taught media literacy in grade 6 (Canada).
I can’t say for sure they were proper research skills but they were some kind of research skills. I’m also not entirely sure what media literacy entails so I’m going to guess that no that was never part of the curriculum at my university.
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Yea, we spent time from at least 6th grade in the library using card catalogs, index cards, and learning not to use an encyclopedia or the Internet for any sources. This was in the 90s. Research papers were a big thing in highschool. I don’t think media literacy was taught, because I’m not really sure what that means.
Random American here. Research skills? Yes, definitely. My high school had access to a couple of the major academic publication databases, so we definitely learned the fundamentals. So many essays.
Media literacy? Nope, not in the slightest. Would’ve been nice though.
I think we’re severely lacking in media literacy, financial literacy, and civics in general. A whole generation with a strong background in those things at an early age would do wonders for society.
My high school had access to a couple of the major academic publication databases, so we definitely learned the fundamentals.
Was this a public high school? I ask as I know many academic publication databases tend to have notorious costs associated with them, albeit maybe they’re more relaxed than I had realized for schools.
Yeah, it was public. This was a while back though, more than two decades ago, so it was the relatively early days of those big online databases. I vaguely remember my school being part of some early trial, though I could be pulling that out of nowhere.
I went to high school in the 90s, so no. Well… we learned proper research, but not in any modern sense. We learned how to use a card catalog, microfiche, and a library. I had to teach myself how to use online and other digital sources.
My pre-uni ed was mostly in the 90s, here in Brazil. I was taught proper research skills since the 4th grade of the primary school (10yo), but in a heavily simplified way: you were expected to check the library and make a simple paper-like assignment about some random topic. The assignment had to follow intro, then “main”, then conclusions, then bibliography. Then as the school years progressed those requirements became more and more refined, to the point that a good 3rd grade student in the secondary school (17yo) was supposed to be able to write a simple technical paper. (“supposed to” is key here - most couldn’t anyway. Including me.)
Media literacy? Nope. Can’t have kids thinking by themselves, right, what if they become questioning adults *rolls eyes*.
Eh, they certainly tried to teach it, but teachers were scared to give assignments that required information they didn’t provide ahead of time.
So, there was never a need to actually apply it, to realize that, hey, if I don’t know something, I should absolutely crack open the internet and read up on whatever I can find.
