Sarit Barzilai

I am a Professor in the Department of Learning and Instructional Sciences in the Faculty of Education of the University of Haifa.

My primary research interests are understanding and fostering learners' digital literacy and epistemic thinking (i.e., thinking about knowledge and knowing) so that they can cope with the complexities of twenty-first century networked societies.

My current research addresses three interrelated goals:

Developing an account of epistemic performance and growth that can inform educational efforts to promote learners' ways of knowing in a digital world.
Designing and investigating learning environments and scaffolds that promote critical evaluation and integration of (un)reliable online information sources.
Developing ways to educationally address the current "post-truth" climate.

My studies have been funded by the Israel Science Foundation, the Binational US-Israel Science Foundation, and the Israel Ministry of Education.

I am currently a member of the OECD's PISA 2029 Reading Expert Group and the PIAAC Cycle 3 Expert Group.

You can explore my research on Google Scholar and ResearchGate.

Photo by Avigail Piperno-Beer

Recent publications:

Barzilai, S., Talmon, I., & Chinn, C. A. (2026). Social regulation of epistemic thinking during collaborative inquiry with multiple documents. Metacognition and Learning, 21, 18.
Primor, L., Hadar, L. L., Barzilai, S., Goldfarb Cohen, S., & Copti-Mshael, T. (2026). Fostering critical evaluation of online information sources across the curriculum. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 59, 102015.
Chinn, C. A., Barzilai, S., & Elby, A. (2026). Epistemic rights in tension and accord: Expanding the analysis of source evaluation criteria. Educational Psychologist, 61(3), 135-150.
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2025). How do source evaluation criteria develop? A microgenetic study of growth of epistemic ideals. Computers in Human Behavior, 108729.
Barzilai, S., Tal-Savir, D., Fayez, A., Mor-Hagani, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2025). Scaffolding source evaluation during document-based scientific inquiry: The contributions of document mapping and shared criteria scaffolds. Computers in Human Behavior, 165, 108547.
Barzilai, S., & Stadtler, M. (2025). Learning to evaluate (mis)information in an online game: Strategies matter! Computers & Education, 227, 105210.
Barzilai, S., & Chinn, C. A. (2024). The AIR and Apt-AIR frameworks of epistemic performance and growth: Reflections on educational theory development. Educational Psychology Review, 36(91).
Kozyreva, A., Lorenz-Spreen, P., Herzog, S. M., Ecker, U. K. H., Lewandowsky, S., Hertwig, R., Ali, A., Bak-Coleman, J., Barzilai, S., Basol, M., Berinsky, A. J., Betsch, C., Cook, J., Fazio, L. K., Geers, M., Guess, A. M., Huang, H., Larreguy, H., Maertens, R., . . . Wineburg, S. (2024). Toolbox of individual-level interventions against online misinformation. Nature Human Behaviour.
Primor, L., & Barzilai, S. (2024). Teachers' perceptions of the epistemic aims and evaluation criteria of multiple text integration. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 77, 102270.
Zohar, A., Gilead, T., Barzilai, S., & Arcavi, A. (2024). Designing guiding principles for twenty-first century curricula: Navigating knowledge, thinking skills, and pedagogical autonomy in the Israeli curriculum. Interchange, 55(1), 93-113.
Dishon G., Barzilai S., & Verissimo-Yanai, J. (2024). Grasping psychological evidence: Integrating evidentiary practices in psychology instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 42(1), 56-91.
Barzilai. S., Mor-Hagani S., Abed F., Tal-Savir D., Goldik N., Talmon I, & Davidow O. (2023). Misinformation Is Contagious: Middle school students learn how to evaluate and share information responsibly through a digital game. Computers & Education, 202, 104832.
Abed, F., & Barzilai, S. (2023). Can students evaluate scientific YouTube videos? Examining students' strategies and criteria for evaluating videos versus webpages on climate change. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 39(2), 558-577.
Barzilai, S., Tal-Savir, D., Abed, F., Mor-Hagani, S., & Zohar, A. R. (2023). Mapping multiple documents: From constructing multiple document models to argumentative writing. Reading and Writing, 36, 809-847.

Department of Learning and Instructional Sciences

Faculty of Education

University of Haifa

199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa, 3498838, Israel

Room 523, Education and Sciences Building

sarit.barzilai@edu.haifa.ac.il

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