Principal Investigators:
Núria Castells & Mercè García-Milà
Researchers:
Elisabet Galindo, Jose Luna Luján, Rocío Pérez, Esther Pérez-Sedano, Amèlia Tey, Lady Villabona
Andrea Miralda-Banda (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona), Ruth Villalón and Mª Ángeles Melero (Universidad de Cantabria);,Laura Granizo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Cristina Marín and Mª Elena Asenjo (Universidad a Distancia de Madrid)
Collaborators:
Dyanne Escorcia (Université Clermont-Auvergne), Ángela García (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Eva Lordán (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), Sandra Gilabert (Universitat Ramon Llull), Mariana Miras, Isabel Solé, Sílvia Alcaraz, Júlia Arnáiz (Universitat de Barcelona), Constanza Villarroel (San Sebastián University, Chile)
Main lines of research
- Reading, critical thinking, and argumentation to deal with fake news.
- Intervention proposals and gamification.
- Reading comprehension and writing composition strategies: teaching and learning.
- Use of external representations in problem solving.
- Dialogue and argumentation for cultural literacy.
- Epistemic reading and writing: learning processes and outcomes through written texts in Secondary Education and University.
Ongoing projects
Critical thinking and misinformation management: involved factors and educational intervention
Funding agency: Ministry of Science and Innovation (137311OB‑I00)
Principal investigators: N. Castells & M. Garcia-Mila
Start: 2024 — End: 2026
Developing critical thinking in first‑year university students through a videogame vs. critical questions
Funding agency: University of Barcelona (REDICE 24‑3671)
Principal investigator: N. Castells
Start: 2024 — End: 2026
Critical thinking competence in the post-truth era among Secondary Teacher Training Master’ Students
Funding agency: IDP‑ICE University of Barcelona
Principal investigator: N. Castells
Start: 2022 — End: 2023
Critical use of information in secondary education students: reading and writing argumentative texts
Funding agency: Ministry of Science and Universities
Principal investigators: N. Castells & M. Garcia-Mila
Start: 2018 — End: 2021
Resources developed by the research group:
Castells, N., Hurtado, D., Maestre, E., Alcaraz-Domínguez, S., Arnáiz, J., Asenjo, M.E., Galindo, E., Gaya, V., Granizo, L., Luna, J., Marín, C., Melero, A., Miralda-Banda, A., Pérez, E., Villalón, R., Esteban, F., Falco, M. Tey, M.A. & Garcia-Milà, M. (2025). Nomy. (Versió 1.0.2). [Aplicació mòbil]. Cubus Games.
Selected publications
Castells, N., Garcia-Mila, M., Granizo, L., & Melero, M. Á. (2026). (Coords.) ¿Cómo detectar fake news en el aula? Preguntar, argumentar y jugar. Ediciones Octaedro.
Garcia-Mila, M., Castells, N, Minguela, M., Pérez-Sedano, E., & Galindo, E, (2026). Measuring counterargumentation to fight fake news in secondary school pre-service teachers and students. European Journal of Educational Psychology.
Pérez, R., Castells, N., & Minguela, M. (2025). A proposal for teaching how to formulate and answer critical questions in order to understand argumentative texts / Una propuesta para enseñar a formular y responder preguntas críticas para la comprensión de textos argumentativos. Culture and Education: Cultura y Educación, 37(4), 896-911. https://doi.org/10.1177/11356405251385513
Pérez, R., Castells, N., & Minguela, M. (2025). Assessing contradictory information: effectiveness of a program for the development of critical thinking in adolescents/Evaluando información contradictoria: efectividad de un programa para el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en adolescentes. Revista de Investigación Educativa, 43. https://doi.org/10.6018/rie.597921
Castells-Gómez, N., Garcia-Mila, M., Minguela, M., Pérez-Sedano, E., & Luna, J. (2024). Gestió de la desinformació per part del futur professorat d’Educació Secundària. REIRE Revista d’Innovació I Recerca En Educació, 17(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1344/reire.45491
Castells, N., Minguela, M., Nadal, E. (2023). Writing a synthesis versus reading: strategies involved and impact on comprehension. Reading and Writing, 36, 849–880. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10341-y
Rapanta, C., Miralda-Banda, A., Garcia-Mila, M., Vrikki, M., Macagno, F., & Evagorou, M. (2023). Detecting the factors affecting classroom dialogue quality. Linguistics and Education, 77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.101223
Castells, N., Minguela, M., Solé, I., Miras, M., Nadal, E., & Rijlaarsdam, G.(2022). Improving Questioning–Answering Strategies in Learning from Multiple Complementary Texts: An Intervention Study. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(3), 879-912. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.451
Castells, N., Garcia-Mila, M., Miralda-Banda, A., Luna, J., & Pérez, E. (2022 ). Adolescents’ reasoning to manage fake news. Educación XX1, 25(2), 291–313 https://doi.org/10.5944/educxx1.31693
Garcia-Mila, M., Felton, M., Miralda-Banda, A., Castells, N. (2022). Pre-service teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and predispositions to teach argumentation in their disciplines. Journal of Education for Teaching. 49(2).1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2022.2150536
Garcia-Mila, M., Miralda-Banda, A., Luna, J., Remesal, A., Castells, N., Gilabert, S. (2021). Change in Classroom Dialogicity to Promote Cultural Literacy across Educational Levels. Sustainability, 13, 6410. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116410