Disinformation is an increasing global challenge, particularly affecting young
people, one of the most vulnerable target groups to misleading and false
information. Addressing this issue has become a major concern for institutions,
media professionals, and researchers in recent years. Evidence highlights the
fundamental role of education, emphasising the need for interventions that
enhance media, information, and digital literacy but mainly strengthen critical
thinking (CT).
This study presents an evidence-based instructional intervention to enhance CT
skills and reduce vulnerability to disinformation among university students. A
quasi-experimental design was used with three non-equivalent groups in two
subjects within the Communication and Journalism degrees at Universidad
Loyola Andalucía (Spain).
The experimental group participated in six sessions using active and cooperative
learning methodologies, explicitly developing CT skills based on Facione's (1990)
taxonomy in the face of disinformation. The comparison group received the same
sessions and objectives through traditional lecture-based methods. The control
group developed these skills implicitly through their regular coursework.
The impact of the intervention was evaluated using a pre-post-test design with
two validated instruments: the short version of the PENCRISAL test (Fernández
Rivas et al., 2023) to measure critical thinking (CT) and the Disinformation
Vulnerability Scale (EVD) (Herrero-Diz et al., 2023) to assess vulnerability to
disinformation. The expected results aim to identify the most effective
pedagogical approaches for improving CT in response to disinformation. These
findings may have significant implications for future educational strategies and
training policies in higher education.