scholarly journals A study of secondary students’ decision-making processes with respect to information use, particularly students’ judgements of relevance and reliability

Author(s):  
Curtis L. Watson

This report details an ongoing investigation of the decision-making processes of a group of secondary school students in south-eastern Australia undertaking information search tasks. The study is situated in the field of information seeking and use, and, more broadly, in decision making. Research questions focus on students’ decisions about the relevance and reliability of information. Data collected include video screen captures, think-aloud reports, and interviews. Qualitative data analysis developed a preliminary grounded theory to describe decision-making processes. Students depended on system-provided relevance cues, rejected particular resource categories, examined remaining items for general and specific relevance, and primarily used a process of corroboration to assess reliability. Selected implications for educators are raised.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 338
Author(s):  
Peter Balsarini ◽  
Claire Lambert ◽  
Maria M. Ryan ◽  
Martin MacCarthy

Franchising has long been a method by which organizations seek to expand and facilitate local market development. However, franchising as a growth strategy can often be hampered by lack of suitable franchisees. To mitigate this shortage, some franchisors have engaged in recruiting franchisees internally from the ranks of their employees in addition to the traditional approach of recruiting franchisees externally. Predominantly franchisees are individuals rather than corporations and thus purchasing a franchise should most commonly be characterized as a consumer acquisition. To explore the relationship between subjective knowledge, perceived risk, and information search behaviors when purchasing a franchise qualitative interviews were conducted with franchisees from the restaurant industry. Half of these respondents were externally recruited having never worked for the franchisor and half were internally recruited having previously been employees of the franchisor. The external recruits expressed a strong desire to own their own business and engaged in extensive decision-making processes with significant information search when purchasing their franchises. Contrastingly, the internal recruits expressed a strong desire to be their own boss and engaged in limited, bordering on habitual decision-making processes with negligible information search when acquiring their franchises. The results reveal that differences in subjective knowledge and perceived risk appear to significantly impact the extent of information search between these two groups. A model of the relationship between subjective knowledge, perceived risk and information search in the purchasing of a franchise is developed that reconciles these findings. The findings also have practical implications for franchisors’ franchisee recruiting efforts which are integral to their capacity to develop local markets.


Web Portals ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 270-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Moon ◽  
Frada Burstein

The aim of this chapter is to review the way portal technology can assist users seeking medical information. There has been an increase in health Internet usage, and better health-care delivery outcomes are predicted as users are better informed when making medical decisions. At the same time, there is much concern about the need for medical portals to meet community information needs. This chapter discusses what constitutes an intelligent portal, discusses desirable portal components and attributes of intelligent portal features, and how these can be implemented to meet the needs of diverse users. Seven Australian medical Web sites have been analysed according to intelligence features. The results and analysis are presented and discussed, in particular, with respect to their functionality as defined for intelligent portals. The discussion is focused on the extent to which these attributes help users with their information seeking and therefore support their decision-making processes.


Author(s):  
Cassie B. Barlow ◽  
Amy J. Hammond

Decision making in the domain of risk has traditionally been studied by examining gambling behavior. The control of outcome probabilities obtained in these paradigms masks much of the subjective nature of everyday risk decision choices, such as product selection and information search patterns. A study was undertaken to examine decision making processes in Risky and NonRisky consumer product decision tasks. Subjects completed two Information Display Board (IDB) decision tasks, one selecting a Risky consumer product (oral contraceptive) and one selecting a NonRisky consumer product (toothpaste). The results supported the hypotheses that consumers view the decisions to purchase risky and non-risky products differently and use different patterns of information acquisition in making decisions in the selection of these products. Few anticipated differences were found between Experienced and NonExperienced users of oral contraceptives in information acquisition. Implications for health care professionals providing oral contraceptive information to patients are discussed.


Author(s):  
Remigiusz Rosicki

The objective scope of the analysis performed in the text encompasses the energy security in the European Union and its member states, and includes the perspective of geopolitical conditions. The geopolitical conditions should be understood as a variety of relations between geographical conditions and decision-making processes concerned with energy security. The main objective of the text is to present a selection of theoretical problems encountered in the study of energy security, as well as to link them with such issues as gas import dependence and the risk of gas supply disruptions, mainly from the Russian direction. In order to elaborate the objective scope of analysis, the following research questions are presented: (1) To what extent do geographical conditions determine decision-making processes in the energy policy pursued by the European Union?; and (2) To what extent do geographical conditions determine threats to the security of gas supplies to the European Union and its member states? The text is chiefly an overview, but the theoretical part loosely makes use of the premises of the research program concerned with the integration of knowledge as part of the studies of energy security and energy transitions, presented by E. Brutschina, A. Cherp, J. Jewell, B. K. Sovacool and V. Vinichenka. Additionally, knowledge contained in the literature on energy and gas security has been synthesized and enriched with a critical approach, and the author’s own assessments and conclusions.


Author(s):  
Georgios Chionas ◽  
Anastassios Emvalotis

The investigation of students’ images of scientists and their work is of interest to researchers due to the widely held belief that the students’ perceptions are important preliminary indications for the future academic and professional choices. This study explored the images of 218 Peruvian high school students about scientists and their work (convenience sampling). Specifically, ‘Draw–A–Scientist Test’ (DAST) was administered, while the analysis framework included an enriched version of ‘Draw–A– Scientist Test–Checklist’ (DAST–C). Several descriptive and inferential analyses were performed in order to address the research questions. The results showed that Peruvian students hold common images of the scientists. The majority of the students depicted scientists as men, working indoors, wearing lab coats, surrounded by research symbols and involved in chemistry. In addition, the results showed, to a significant degree, that girls more frequently draw symbols of knowledge than boys. On the other hand, boys drew, on average, more stereotypical images than girls regarding the alternative stereotypical image subscale for scientists. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the remaining indicators and scales. Finally, it is noteworthy that Peruvian students' drawings included, on average, less stereotypical indicators than students of similar age from South Korea, Turkey, the United States of America, India, Greece, Bolivia, and Colombia.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Adel ◽  
Xin Dai ◽  
Rana S. Roshdy ◽  
Chenfeng Yan

Purpose The present research extends the existing literature of halal tourism and Muslims’ travel decision-making by applying information-seeking models and the planned behavior theory to identify the process of decision-making to travel to non-Islamic destinations. This study aims to identify the views of Muslim travelers who traveled before to non-Islamic destinations to evaluate their information search experience and how their travel decision is formed. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a sample of Muslim travelers who visited a non-Islamic destination during the past five years. Data saturation resulted in 17 interviewees from different Islamic destinations, namely, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Pakistan. Findings Muslim interviewees indicate the relative importance of reference groups compared to the government websites as a source of information. This study concludes some remarkable results regarding the importance of some halal marketing strategies such as halal searchability and availability, halal certification and appraisal, halal at airports and halal hotels. It presents an emergent framework that shows the factors affecting visiting a non-Islamic destination regarding halal issues for Muslim travelers. Practical implications It provides destinations’ official tourism managers with various strategies to brand their destinations as Muslim-friendly destinations. Originality/value Investigating the process of decision-making of traveling to non-Islamic destinations from Muslim travelers’ perspective is limited. Examining the role of information-seeking behavior in Muslim travelers’ decision-making is scarce.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Gamze Özcan ◽  
Mehmet Şeren

The purpose of this study was to reflect on the opinions of secondary school students about their effects on school management's decision-making processes. In this descriptive study, comparative survey method has been used according to sub-purposes which require difference tests. Population of the research was 2883 students who are having education at eight secondary schools in Beypazarı district. Purposive sampling method was used to determine the research group. This research group was 116 students who had been chosen as class representatives by their classmates. The questionnaires were taken to the schools mentioned above in 2008-2009 Academic Year's second term. Arithmetic mean, standard deviation, t test, Kruskal-Wallis H test and Mann-Whitney U tests are used to analyze data. According to the findings of the research, the general state levels are found noteworthy lower than the general demand levels on decision-making processes of school management's for students. In addition to this, students emphasize that they're more effective and willing on decision-making processes when school management takes instructional decisions rather than administrative decisions. It doesn't make any significant difference of the students' gender and the grade they are educated when the effectiveness and willingness are taken into the consideration. Students, who are having education at Anatolian High Schools, specify that they are unable to affect the school management's decision making processes. Also these students demand to affect decision-making processes much more than the other types of schools' students.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhanming Liang ◽  
Peter F. Howard ◽  
Sandra G. Leggat ◽  
Gregory Murphy

Objective. The objective of this paper is to present and provide justification for a framework to improve evidence-informed management decision-making among health service managers. Three research questions informed the study: How have different perspectives influenced how evidence has been defined? What are the barriers to the practice of evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM)? What are the factors that may encourage the application of evidence to guide management decision-making processes? Methods. A literature review was conducted to identify studies that examined the practice of EIDM among health service managers. Information relevant to the three research questions was collectively analysed, compared and contrasted based on their relevance to the EIDM process. Conclusion. Several factors have played different but significant roles in affecting the practice of EIDM among health service managers. Although interaction between these factors is complex, the framework developed in this paper may guide the development of strategies to encourage and improve the utilisation of evidence in management decision-making process. What is known about the topic? EIDM has been promoted as a mechanism for improving the quality of management decisions, and hence better service delivery, effectiveness and efficiency. Previous studies have explored and discussed various factors that may affect the practice of EIDM amongst health service managers. However, a greater understanding of how these factors interact is required so that relevant strategies to promote the increased use of EIDM can be developed. What does this paper add? The paper clarifies ‘evidence’ from the view of both managers and members of the research community. It discusses factors that may affect the practice of EIDM among health service managers and develops a framework to for better understanding of how these factors interact and affect practice at various levels. The framework will guide the development of strategies to encourage the utilisation of evidence among health service managers. What are the implications for practitioners? To encourage the practice of evidence-informed decision-making amongst health service managers, multi-level changes in the system, organisation and individual levels are required. To maximise the benefit and relevance of research evidence, managers should be actively involved in setting research agendas and guiding the appropriate presentation of research findings to meet the needs of potential readers.


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