A rusted weathervane with an overcast sky in the background

Addressing Misinformation in the Classroom

A few weeks ago, we posted about how to proactively foster information literacy in your classes. Even if you’ve taken many of the precautions we suggested, there will still inevitably come a time when misinformation arises in the classroom. Whether it is in the context of a Canvas discussion board or during an in-person discussion, an obviously false claim from a student can leave you feeling blindsided if you’re not prepared. With a little work, though, you can often turn these interactions into constructive learning opportunities. This post explores steps you can take to intervene when a student shares misinformation in one of your courses.

Ask Clarifying Questions

When a student shares something incorrect, your first instinct may be to shut them down. In order to turn this into a potential learning opportunity, however, it can be useful to allow the student space to work through what they’ve just shared. Consider asking follow-up questions to clarify what the student is saying and to probe their rationale (a method known as Socratic questioning). Without accusing or assuming, you could pose open-ended questions about where they learned this information and what they know about the source or author in terms of expertise or potential biases. These types of reflective questions help students analyze their misconceptions and may lead them to see the flaws in their own claim.

Be Cognizant of Tone and Body Language

As you engage with a student, be aware of your tone and body language (or written tone, in the case of asynchronous communications like discussion boards). Keep calm and take a moment to collect your thoughts, if needed. Once you are ready to address their remark, keep the tone conversational instead of accusatory. It is important that students don’t misconstrue your response as adversarial.

Try to gauge the student’s nonverbal cues during your dialog as well. If they seem hesitant to share once you begin asking them to clarify their claim, it might help to reassure them that complex topics often lead to misconceptions, and that they might not have had a prior chance to learn about this topic in depth. This helps emphasize that it is not a moral failing on the part of the student for believing misinformation. Instead, remind them inquiry and analysis are a natural part of the learning process (as well as a part of our institutional learning outcomes).

Offer an Invitation to Learn More

Depending on your course and the nature of the student’s misconception, your dialog might naturally segue into a side lesson to discuss the topic at hand. For example, if the claim the student made is a common misconception related to your discipline, you could use this as an opportunity to teach why the misconception exists, where it comes from, and how it might be harmful. If you have sources on hand that help illustrate your point, you might highlight how you determined your sources’ credibility and what measures the sources used to reduce potential bias in their findings, such as using a double-blind setup for a scientific study. You could also use this as an opportunity to teach about how to identify potential bias in a source. Often these situations can be a gateway for a healthy discussion about common misconceptions and real-world applications of the course’s content.

Still, it may not always be appropriate to turn a student’s remark into a teachable moment for the whole class. If a student seems particularly defensive or uncomfortable, or the topic seems emotionally charged for them, you can offer to continue the conversation with the student one-on-one after class. This allows you to shift the class’s attention back to the lesson and off of the student and prevent a situation from escalating.

Address Sensitive Issues with Extra Caution

It is worth mentioning that misconceptions can be extremely damaging when they double as microaggressions. A microaggression — or a subtle display of bias or prejudice — perpetuates harmful stereotypes or misconceptions about a group of people. The Eberly Center from Carnegie Mellon University has a quick guide on addressing microaggressions that outlines additional steps you may wish to take to mitigate the situation in addition to the ones outlined above. Another great resource is this guide on identifying and responding to microaggressions, authored by Dr. Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology and a leading researcher on microaggressions. Responding to microaggressions in the classroom is crucial for maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment, so they should be handled with extra care.

Do You Have Other Ideas?

Handling misinformation can be tricky, but we hope that these suggestions can help you feel a bit more prepared the next time you encounter it in the classroom. How do you address students’ misconceptions in your own classes? Have any tips for turning these opportunities into teachable moments? We invite you to engage in thoughtful dialog on this topic — post a comment below or email CATL@uwgb.edu to continue the conversation!

Our special thanks go out to Preston Cherry, Christin DePouw, Lisa Lamson, J P Leary, Brian Merkel, Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, and Jessica Warwick for their contributions to the 2021 Common CAHSS panel and follow-up 2022 IDI session that served as the inspiration for this article!

A number of "I VOTED" stickers

Preparing to Teach in the Context of the Election

Overlapping crises have framed our experience this fall and the election brings these crises into sharp focus. Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) write “amid a rising tide of political polarization, hate crimes, and widespread social mobilization, the United States is at a heightened risk of violence and instability going into the 2020 election.” This risk, they note “is further exacerbated by an economic contraction triggered by the global COVID-19 pandemic, which may now be posed for a second wave.” Instructors, students, and staff feel the impact of this instability and vulnerability alike. 

Whether or not the election itself is a relevant and teachable topic for your class, it will likely be a major influence on the lived experience of all of us. This post collects some information on how to work with the reality that the election hovers over all of us. Then, the post discusses some ways you may wish to incorporate it into your classroom. It ends with places to refer students.

The election touches us all (but not equally) 

We all live within a context of increased stress as we approach the election. Much of this stress is outside our direct control. Depending on the identities one holds, they may also experience the increased stress of racist, homophobic, or otherwise marginalizing public discourse. Our experiences with the election are not equal. In this context, political polarization has increased the general perception of feeling dehumanized. We all carry complicated feelings into the classroom but we do so unequally. 

To complicate matters, many instructors are already doing additional care work in their teaching and home lives. The election may bring on feelings of more care work to come. The University of Oregon has collected some self-care strategies and some ways to communicate care to students that you may find useful to employ in your classroom. The goal is not to increase the already high workload but rather to acknowledge the care work instructors are doing and offer strategies for doing it. 

Self–care strategies 

Plan flexibility into your schedule: It may be helpful to look at your meetings and see which ones are crucial and which ones are not. Perhaps you can find ways to decrease your workload and find space to reflect, process, and breathe. 

Plan to process your emotions: If you haven’t already, identify people you feel you can contact to discuss your feelings about the election—even plan for when you’ll connect. 

Access resources that support mental and emotional health: The university has mental health resources available to students and employees.

Communicate care to students 

Verbalize care: You may wish to put an announcement in Canvas that you acknowledge that the election is a stressful event and that you care about your students’ well– being regardless of their political beliefs.  

Build flexibility into your class schedule: Assess the workload for the week of the election and see if there is possibility to build in some flexibility with deadlines. 

Refer students: You cannot solve all problems and may wish to share the resources at the bottom of this post with your students. 

If the election fits into your course content 

What role does your discipline play? 

Teaching about the election may not suit your classes. But, if it does, just about every discipline can help our students evaluate the platforms of our elected leaders from a critical perspective. The University of Michigan Center for Research in Learning and Teaching (CRLT) has put together some resources to help instructors think through how to facilitate lessons about the election from within their disciplines: 

As you prepare to facilitate discussion about the election, consider these questions: 

  • Which topics within my discipline might require special attention in light of the election? 
  • How might the candidate platforms be a resource for teaching and learning these topics? 
  • How might my discipline be impacted by policy decisions as a result of the election? 
  • What are the diverse perspectives and voices that characterize my field related to these topics, and how do I maintain some balance in presenting them? ​ 

How might your courses allow students to practice core democratic skills? 

Again, as the Michigan CRLT recommends, the classroom can be a place of informed and respectful dialogue amid a political context when this is all too rare. In that sense classrooms are vital democratic spaces. In addition to the content of our individual disciplines, there are overarching democratic skills that students can develop in courses across the University. These include: 

  • The ability to engage in respectful discourse and thoughtful argumentation 
  • The capacity to speak and listen in ways that promote collective learning and advance social good 
  • The skills of critical literacy and the ability to evaluate bias in text, discourse, and other mediums 

Related Resources: 

Where/how can I refer students? 

It is easy to feel alone when under stress. If you know of students who are struggling as they deal with election issues or outcomes, there are resources on campus where you can refer them.

Discussing further 

The election affects us all but we may not all engage with it in the classroom in the same way. The purpose of this post is not to provide “the answer” for how to teach the importance of the election to students. Rather it acknowledges the election’s role as a framing element of our lives and offers multiple ways to engage with it at the personal, interpersonal, and disciplinary levels.