What are opinions, what are facts and what are outright lies?
The latest PISA assessment clearly shows that children and young adults have difficulties navigating the fast flow of information in society today. When anyone at all can make their voice heard it also becomes more difficult to recognise misleading information and fake news. Together, actors, performing arts teachers and researchers are taking a new approach to make knowledge resistance and conspiracy theories more recognisable.
With funding from the Swedish Postcode Lottery, Theatre Sagohuset will be touring Swedish schools this spring with a new play about fake news. Pupils in years 6 - 8 in 50 classrooms in Lund, 50 classrooms in other parts of Skåne and 50 classrooms across Sweden will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in the play 'You're lying!', written by Klas Abrahamsson. He is one of Sweden's most awarded playwrights with experience of highlighting socially relevant topics for young people.
Opening up performing arts
However, the project is much more than a play. By also collaborating with performing arts teachers and cognitive scientists from Lund University, a broad approach is taken, including performing arts workshops. Pupils are encouraged to start thinking before the play begins and the actors remain after it ends. Pupils are invited to take a closer look at the scenes and to test out different argumentation techniques. The educational approach was developed by performing arts teachers and Agneta Gulz, cognitive scientist at Lund University, and her research team, which has extensive experience in learning.
"Our learning model is based on processing, repeating, reflecting, maturing and reviewing. It has been shown that being exposed to something just once does not lead to positive results. The work pupils do after the play includes information about human cognition, including what we can do to hold conversations in which you listen to each other without immediately going into polemics."
Agneta Gulz has broad research experience in what it is that motivates and drives learning in young people. She now has high hopes that performing arts can be a stimulating and effective way for pupils to gain insight into their own thought patterns.
Right initiatives early on
Agneta Gulz is also adamant that schools must reinforce the conditions for pupils to be able to tackle knowledge resistance and conspiracy theories.
Rapid digitalisation has created new power relationships in society that control how media flows move between people. Young people are a very vulnerable group, and an under-studied one. Nearly all research has been carried out on upper secondary school pupils and university students. However, what does the development psychology look like for lower and middle secondary school pupils? Which educational approaches work, and which methods actually trigger more knowledge resistance? Agneta Gulz emphasises the importance of introducing the right initiatives early on in schools.
Filter bubbles follow algorithms that push you towards things you have previously liked
"The number of opinions young people are exposed to makes it very difficult for them to recognise any underlying agendas. Filter bubbles follow algorithms that push you towards things you have previously liked. There is no clear line between fact and opinion. I have my facts, you have yours - I have my opinion, you have yours."
For a long time, Swedish schools have actively worked on teaching pupils about source criticism. However, Agneta Gulz wants to take it a step further and ensure teachers work on source trust in the classroom. More tools and methods are needed to provide pupils with the opportunity to distinguish between fact-based information, fake news and lies.
"You cannot be an expert on everything yourself, but you must choose who you have good reason to trust. Other important things include understanding what data is and that data can be skewed, understanding the work behind tables and diagrams, for example, and understanding that certain conclusions cannot be drawn from the data presented."
Each class divided
When actors and performing arts teachers visit the schools only half of each class will see the play and participate in the subsequent performing arts workshop. Agneta Gulz and her research colleagues will then measure any differences between the pupils in each class who saw the play and those who did not. In this way, they will obtain better knowledge of teaching models, learning and how adults can guide pupils to source trust. After the measurements, the rest of the class will also see the play and participate in the performing arts workshop.
"Currently, we do not have any national guidelines or advice for schools. In this project, we are working together on mapping and finding puzzle pieces that fit together. I believe there will be a significant response from the schools."
