The Relationships between Web-Based Information Credibility Judgment, Critical Thinking, and Learning Styles of Iranian EFL University Students

The advent of Web 2 tools and their features have allowed Internet users not only to seek information but also to generate and edit online information. However, excessive reliance of students, particularly EFL students, on the Internet has raised the issue of information credibility or quality of the information found online. This study sought to investigate the relationships between Iranian EFL university students’ credibility judgment and their learning styles and critical thinking. It also intended to examine the extent to which the learners employ credibility judgment strategies to verify web-based information. To this end, 212 Iranian EFL students, 165 female(s) and 47 male(s) received three questionnaires: Honey’s (2004) Critical Thinking Questionnaire, Kolb's (1984) Learning Style Inventory, and the adapted version of Credibility Judgment Questionnaire originally developed by Metzger, Flanagin, and Zwarun (2003). The results of descriptive statistics, as well as bivariate and multivariate correlation analyses, revealed that, first, Iranian EFL students employed credibility judgment strategies at a moderate level, and second, critical thinking was a better predictor for credibility judgment behavior of EFL students than the learning style. Moreover, three learning styles were significantly related to the currency sub-scale of credibility judgment. The findings can assist curriculum planners, policymakers, and instructors to develop plans for empowering EFL students with the skills they need to evaluate online information for accuracy, objectivity, authority, and currency.