Misinformation in Science and Science Education: A Literature Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28976/1984-2686rbpec2026u175205Keywords:
misinformation, science, science educationAbstract
The study aims to understand how foreign literature has addressed misinformation in science within the educational field. The qualitative and bibliographic research used the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database, adopting the descriptors “misinformation” or “disinformation” and “science.” The corpus, consisting of 36 articles published since 2000, reveals a growth in publications on the topic, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, portraying misinformation as a multifactorial phenomenon, amplified primarily by digital environments and social media. The results are presented in five categories: the first relates to the use of terms; the second to the characteristics of the production (location, journal, and year of publication); the third to theoretical studies on epistemic cognition, nature of science, and critical thinking; the fourth to empirical research investigating the perception, behavior, and decision-making of students, teachers, and social media users; and the fifth, linked to applied or suggested teaching proposals, which aim to develop skills to recognize and combat misinformation. Overall, the studies point to the need to strengthen science teaching by focusing on interpreting, evaluating, and using information critically, and highlighting metacognition and literacy as educational strategies to mitigate the effects of misinformation.
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