Beyond the Passive Absorption of Information: Engaging Students in the Critical Reading of Scientific Articles

There is a consensus within the science education community that primary scientific literature is a legitimate and desirable educational resource. Moreover, critical reading of scientific articles is widely recognized as a key aspect of scientific literacy. However, university science courses rarely provide students with explicit opportunities to cultivate their critical reading skills. Much of the reason for this is that instructors tend to hold a passive learning view of reading in which students are expected to absorb information from scientific articles. The purpose of this study was to provide research evidence that an active learning scenario (ALS) combining (1) argumentation, (2) peer critique (also referred to as peer assessment), and (3) the Task-Oriented Reading Instruction framework (Ritchey & List, College Teaching, 70(3), 280–295, 2022) could be a concrete and realistic possibility for engaging students in the critical reading of scientific papers. The data analyzed in this study were the written critiques of scientific research articles and written peer feedback produced by sixty-one university students (38 females and 23 males, 19–25 years old). The results indicate that the ALS effectively offered students explicit opportunities to become more active and more critical readers of scientific articles, producing arguments, anticipating counterarguments, and constructing rebuttals. Implications related to critical reading instruction in science education and supporting students’ development of critical reading skills are discussed.