Combating Disinformation to Foster 21st-Century Learning Skills: A Didactic Proposal

The widespread integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into daily life has profoundly transformed traditional literacy practices, giving rise to a digital culture shaped by audio-visual and multimodal content. In this context, students are increasingly exposed to misinformation and disinformation, necessitating a pedagogical shift towards the development of critical reading and thinking skills. This article presents a didactic intervention aimed at fostering key 21st-century competencies—particularly critical thinking, digital literacy, and problem-solving—among 4th-year students of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) in Spain. The intervention was implemented in March 2024 at Vizcaya School, a semi-private secondary institution located in the Basque Country. Over the course of six sessions, students engaged in a series of structured activities rooted in Project-Based Learning (PBL) and cooperative learning methodologies. These included the analysis and production of news content, collaborative webquests, class debates, and digital challenges designed to raise awareness of the mechanisms and implications of disinformation. Digital tools such as Genial.ly, Padlet, Mentimeter, and Canva were employed to facilitate student engagement and foster collaborative inquiry. The learning activities were designed to promote autonomous information retrieval, critical evaluation of online sources, and reflective peer interaction. Assessment combined formative and summative strategies, incorporating teacher-led observation, rubric-based evaluation, and peer assessment of the final student productions. The results of the intervention revealed a notable enhancement in students’ ability to critically assess information, increased motivation and participation, and the successful development of transversal competencies central to contemporary education. These findings suggest that a digitally supported, inquiry-based pedagogical approach can meaningfully contribute to equipping students with the cognitive and social tools necessary to navigate the challenges of the post-truth era as informed, autonomous, and responsible individuals.