#679: Understanding and Supporting Competent Outsiders’ Epistemic Performance with the AIR Framework

One of the greatest challenges for science education today is preparing students as competent outsiders who can navigate the complex information landscape of the ‘post-truth’ era. A critical but under-examined skill is the competency to evaluate and appreciate the value of large bodies of evidence. To understand students’ capabilities and difficulties in this area, we analyzed their written responses to a pre-assessment involving conflicting newspaper-style articles. Using the AIR framework from an assets-based perspective, our analysis shows students’ epistemic criteria in evaluating different evidence and suggests potential implications for instruction design to support more sophisticated epistemic performance.