scholarly journals Knowing and doing

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Ellen Nierenberg ◽  
Torstein Låg ◽  
Tove Irene Dahl

This study touches upon three major themes in the field of information literacy (IL): the assessment of IL, the association between IL knowledge and skills, and the dimensionality of the IL construct. Three quantitative measures were developed and tested with several samples of university students to assess knowledge and skills for core facets of IL. These measures are freely available, applicable across disciplines, and easy to administer. Results indicate they are likely to be reliable and support valid interpretations. By measuring both knowledge and practice, the tools indicated low to moderate correlations between what students know about IL, and what they actually do when evaluating and using sources in authentic, graded assignments. The study is unique in using actual coursework to compare knowing and doing regarding students’ evaluation and use of sources. It provides one of the most thorough documentations of the development and testing of IL assessment measures to date. Results also urge us to ask whether the source-focused components of IL – information seeking, source evaluation and source use – can be considered unidimensional constructs or sets of disparate and more loosely related components, and findings support their heterogeneity.

Author(s):  
Jamshid Beheshti ◽  
Joan Bartlett ◽  
Anna Couch ◽  
Cynthia Kumah

The importance of acquiring information literacy (IL) knowledge and skills in high schools as a prerequisite to entering colleges and universities has been well-documented in the literature (e.g., Cahoy, 2002; Fitzgerald, 2004; Saunders, Severyn, & Caron, 2017).  This paper investigates the IL knowledge of Canadian and international high school graduates, as they enter a university in Canada. More specifically, the focus is on information seeking behaviour (ISB), part of the Access and Evaluation stages of the IL spectrum (Sparks, Katz, & Beile, 2016).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Nierenberg ◽  
Torstein Låg ◽  
Tove I. Dahl

There is a need for short and easily administered measures for assessing students’ levels of information literacy (IL), as currently existing measures are long and cumbersome. We have therefore created a suite of tools, the “Tromsø Information Literacy Suite” (TROILS), for IL assessment. This suite of tools is freely available on an open platform for others to both use, adapt, and supplement. In this presentation, we introduce three TROILS assessment tools: 1.a test to assess students’ knowledge of key aspects of IL 2.a source evaluation measure to assess students’ abilities to select and critically evaluate sources 3.a source use measure to assess students’ abilities to use sources correctly when writing Together, these tools measure what students know and do regarding key facets of IL. We will discuss the tools’ development and present results of our research with students at different levels higher education.The IL test was developed using procedures intended to ensure acceptable psychometric measurement properties. These included expert consultation for content validity, student think-aloud-protocols for readability, item selection based on a pilot sample, exploratory factor analysis, and measures of reliability and validity. The test was deployed during the fall semester of 2019. In addition to assessing students’ IL levels, test results were used to explore the dimensionality of the IL construct. Results indicate that IL is a heterogeneous construct, and we will discuss important implications of this find for how IL is measured. Results from the source evaluation and source use measures were compared with test results to see whether what the students actually do in their coursework correlates with what they know, based on the test. Results indicate weak to moderate, but statistically significant, correlations. All three measures will be used longitudinally to measure students’ progress over three years.


Author(s):  
Shelagh K. Genuis

This qualitative paper explores how health information mediated by the internet and media is used and made valuable within the life of consumers managing non-crisis health challenges, and how informal information seeking and gathering influences self-positioning within patient-clinician relationships. Findings have implications for health information literacy and collaborative, patient-centred care.Cette étude qualitative explore comment l’information sur la santé relayée par Internet et les médias est utilisée et rendue utile dans le contexte de consommateurs gérant des problèmes médicaux non urgents, et comment la recherche et la collecte d’information informelles influencent l’auto-positionnement dans la relation patient clinicien. Les résultats ont des applications dans la maîtrise de l’information médicale et les soins collaboratifs centrés sur le patient.


Author(s):  
Brooke Shannon

A social constructionist methodology was used to explore how Kenyan women university students interact with information in everyday life. Focus was on how participants interpret experiences within the historical, cultural, and material spaces they inhabit. Methods used were linguistics pragmatics, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. Conceptual implications for information literacy are discussed.Une méthodologie sociale constructioniste est utilisée pour explorer comment les étudiantes universitaires kenyanes interagissent avec l’information au quotidien. Nous avons insisté sur les façons dont les participantes interprètent leurs expériences dans les espaces historiques, culturels et matériels où elles habitent. Les méthodologies utilisées comprennent la pragmatique linguistique, la phénoménologie et l’herméneutique. Nous discutons finalement de leurs implications sur la maîtrise de l’information. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubeena Zakar ◽  
Sarosh Iqbal ◽  
Muhammad Zakria Zakar ◽  
Florian Fischer

BACKGROUND Amid to the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health literacy (DHL) has become a significant public health concern. OBJECTIVE This research aims to assess information seeking behavior, as well as the ability to find relevant information and deal with DHL among university students in Pakistan. METHODS An online-based cross-sectional survey, using a web-based interviewing technique, was conducted to collect data on DHL. Simple bivariate and multivariate linear regression was performed to assess the association of key characteristics with DHL. RESULTS The results show a high DHL related to COVID-19 in 54.3% of students. Most of the Pakistani students demonstrated ~50% DHL in all dimensions, except of reliability. Multivariate findings showed that gender, sense of coherence and importance of information were found to be significantly associated with DHL. However, a negative association was observed with students’ satisfaction with information. CONCLUSIONS This led to the conclusion that critical operational and navigations skills are essential to achieve COVID-19 DHL and cope with stress, particularly to promote both personal and community health. Focused interventions and strategies should be designed to enhance DHL amongst university students to combat the pandemic.


Author(s):  
Fabiola Cabra-Torres ◽  
Gloria Patricia Marciales Vivas ◽  
Harold Castañeda-Peña ◽  
Jorge Winston Barbosa-Chacón ◽  
Leonardo Melo González ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Blundell

As presented at DOCAM’14, this proceedings paper discusses my ongoing dissertation research: Documenting the information-seeking experience of undergraduate students enrolled in a remedial English course at a 4-year state university in Ohio, United States. Because the information behaviors, needs, and information literacy abilities of these students are understudied areas in library and information science and higher education literature; I chose to investigate these areas in my dissertation research toward contributing research to this gap, using descriptive phenomenological (qualitative) methodology to do so. Although secondary data analysis is still in progress, this paper presents findings from primary analysis (a necessary step in phenomenological study to eliminate bias and assumption from secondary analysis). Ultimately, I aim to use study findings to create targeted, needs-based instruction for remedial undergraduate students, toward supporting their academic progress through information literacy development, and consequently encouraging their persistence toward graduation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Borg ◽  
Marie-Louise Eriksson

Librarians and writing tutors in higher education are working intensely to teach information literacy to students. But the extent to which this work is done collaborative or separately differs greatly between the universities. •How can we facilitate collaborative learning on questions regarding the teaching of academic information literacy? •How do we relate this teaching to various national and international frameworks and guidelines? •How do we find new ways and methods for writing tutors and librarians to work together? •Is it possible to create a platform to facilitate the exchange of ideas and tools? These are some of the questions that led us to start this project: to develop an open web course on student learning of information literacy in higher education. But instead of targeting students in higher education the target group for this course is librarians and writing tutors at Swedish universities. The project is funded by the Swedish library Association.The purpose of the course is to: •Place information literacy in an academic context, where academic writing is included together with information seeking, referencing, plagiarism etc. •Develop national cooperation on issues related to the teaching of information literacy and academic writing •To facilitate online peer learning between collegues on issues related to teaching information literacy and academic writing •Develop a platform for sharing experiences regarding tools and methods The participants will get the opportunity to participate in workshops and PBL-inspired group work on themes regarding the teaching of information literacy in higher education. In this way we hope to facilitate a creative and collaborative learning environment. The first iteration of the course will take place April-May 2021. This presentation will be about the development of the course and what we have learned so far.


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