The Inclusion of Metacognition in Source Evaluation Instruction

Though the ACRL Framework holds metacognition as crucial to exercising information literacy, its emphasis was reduced from prominence in early drafts to a single mention in the final document. At the same time, few of the frequently-taught sets of source evaluation criteria include a step for self-awareness. This raises the question: do librarians explicitly teach metacognitive concepts when they teach source evaluation? Online library guides about source evaluation from various colleges and universities in Washington state were analyzed, and librarians who taught source evaluation were surveyed to determine whether and to what extent metacognitive concepts were included as part of the source evaluation process and how important librarians perceived metacognition to be relative to common source evaluation criteria. This research found that metacognition or self-reflection is not commonly considered or taught as an integral part of the source evaluation process.