As society changes from an industrial society to a knowledge society, habits of mind that support the analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and integration of information are increasingly important. Precisely how, when, and why such habits of mind might be acquired and developed are the focus of the proposed research program. A critical stance toward information is fundamental to understanding in science, although it is a stance rarely adopted by learners. A critical stance supports the active evaluation of information, and the detection of inconsistencies that in turn help direct deeper processing of the information through explanatory reasoning. A critical stance is doubly necessary in attaining an understanding from scientific information in today.s media and multimedia environments where there is limited control over the information easily available over the internet. There have been demonstrations that inquiry-based learning environments can support deeper understanding of science content. However, there has been little systematic work on the processes and mechanisms by which students reach deep understanding in these contexts. There has been even less work on how to support the development a critical stance and the processes and mechanisms that lead to deep understanding (but see White & Fredriksen, 1998). Therefore, the proposed research is concerned with exactly these two issues.

This work explores the role of learning environment and task in supporting a critical stance toward scientific information. We go beyond current efforts by employing a variety of processing measures that tap online representation and understanding, including verbal reports and eye movement patterns during comprehension. In combination, these measures along with a number of other dependent variables will provide a particularly rich set of data as we pursue two lines of research.