Mark Lenker (Libraries) published in the October issue of Portal: Libraries and the Academy. Drawing on the work of philosopher Richard Kraut, Lenker argues that a growth-centered, developmentalist conception of value provides an important complement to prevalent methods of teaching the evaluation of information. Current methods tend to emphasize information's credibility and its usefulness in an argument, frequently overlooking its capacity to help learners think about the subject matter in increasingly sophisticated ways. The neglected link between evaluation and learning is crucial for early college researchers; otherwise, students can easily just find sources that will "back up" their existing opinions. Learning-centered evaluation also challenges students to question how selective exposure influences their media habits.
