DE FACTO Providing educators with a science-based toolbox to understand and counter misinformation and disinformation Erasmus Project

Project Title

DE FACTO Providing educators with a science-based toolbox to understand and counter misinformation and disinformation

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

We live in a world which is increasingly governed by information. It flows in every direction and imprints on every aspect of our professional and social lives. Information is also the key ingredient in education and training. This is why it is very important that we can rely on its accuracy so that we can make our decisions, form opinions, produce arguments, participate in positive debates. Yet there are those who, willingly, produce disinformation. Their objective is to deceive, to confuse, to spread fear and uncertainty. And there are others who, unwillingly, help them by repeating what they believe is true, spreading disinformation. And form opinions which are misinformed, and, ultimately, believe things that are not true to be true. We believe that education and training contexts should be free from misinformation and disinformation. And that we should try and find ways to avoid being consciously or unconsciously manipulated. That’s why we created De Facto. It is our way of putting science in service of educators to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

This is an oversimplification of very complex processes which Cognitive Science has began to understand in the last few decades, but which remain unknown to the wider audience. Cognitive science tells us how our brains receive and process information, how they decide which information to keep, and which to reject, which are the factors that weigh in when we decide whether to believe an information or its source, how our brains make a lot of decisions for us and without us even consciously knowing that this is happening. We have identified four major scientific concepts, the four pillars around which we built our project:
> Frames (Batheson, Lakoff)
> Systemic Causality (Lakoff)
> Motivated Cognition (Hughes, Zaki)
> Equivalency and Emphasis Frames (Chong, Druckman).
We have developed explanatory texts and examples on these pillars to make them easier to understand, and made sure that these pillars underpinned the entirety of our work on the project deliverables. That brings consistency, reliability, validity and scientific backing to the method.

Based on these 4 pillars, we developed a comprehensive resource base and a toolbox for educators which will consist of:
– A full-blown Framework with classification of types of misinformation and disinformation, education-related layers, harmful impact assessment, and the Eggshell model for source- and fact-checking
– A digital and an analog game demonstrating the detection algorithms challenges and limitations
– Disinformation case studies, a rich collection of around 40 individual ready-to-use lesson plans in 7 major categories
– Disinformation production kit for leading learners through the mindset and techniques of those who produce disinformation
– Guidebook to fact-based reading and teaching with focus on the cognitive science pillars, ready-to-use examples, and a guide on how to use each of De Facto resources and tools
– Blueprint for the entire project, so that other professionals can replicate and expand on our work
– A set of cognitive cards (digital and printed/paper-based) to assist educators and learners in any activities under the De Facto method

We have conducted 4 trainings for educators where we demonstrated the 4 pillars and how they work, and we presented the rich collection of resources and tools which we have developed. We reached directly 43 educators (a total of 87 training mobilities, with participants in C1-C2 also attending the advanced level course (C3-C4). In the Multiplier events, we reached directly a further 268 (with 140 initially planned) educators and stakeholders – 42 in 2 physical events, 226 in webinars.

Further, we have started the process of sending these resources and tools directly to adult, SE, HE and VET education and training organisations. We already see that after the educators – when they set a new learning project or assignment – demonstrate how powerful they are, the learners willingly adjust their behaviors and habits with regard to information they receive and produce. We are seeing (albeit in smaller scale due to Covid-19 school closures and restrictions) cascading impact effects on their immediate contact circle (incl. family, friends, local communities). The behavioural change is also very prominent.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 263458,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

National Training Center & Country: BG

Project Partners

• Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Lodzi
• ARTEVELDEHOGESCHOOL
• Andragoski zavod Ljudska univerza Velenje
• Euroface Consulting s.r.o.
• The Learning Machine Ltd
• New Service srl