CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN FILTERING INFORMATION IN FACEBOOK; AN ASSESSMENT IN SELECTED GRADE 12 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES STUDENT AT BESTLINK COLLEGE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Abstract

This study investigates the perceptions of Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences students at Bestlink College of the Philippines regarding their ability to filter information on Facebook. Effective information filtering is essential for enhancing decision-making, efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness in the learning process. Therefore, students must develop critical thinking skills to assess online content. However, as Collins et al. (2020) highlight, social media users often rely on various sources but struggle to evaluate the credibility and quality of information due to the overwhelming volume available online. This issue underscores the need to strengthen students' information literacy skills for more responsible social media use. This study aims to evaluate the critical thinking skills of Grade 12 Humanities students in filtering information. In today's digital age, the ability to assess online content is crucial for various aspects of life, including social engagement, entertainment, business promotion, and staying informed about current events. The research adopted a descriptive quantitative method and utilized simple random sampling to ensure a representative selection of participants. A questionnaire was used as the data-gathering tool to collect responses from 150 Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students. The findings revealed that students perceived Facebook as a platform for assessing information based on the following criteria: Reliability (3.29), Usefulness (3.36), and Confidentiality (3.28). Overall, students strongly agreed with the assessment, with an average rating of 3.42. The discussion provides a summary of findings on the assessment of critical thinking skills in filtering information among Grade 12 Humanities students. It also includes recommendations from the researchers on improving information filtering strategies and enhancing students' ability to assess and verify the credibility of information effectively.