Author: Gordon, Carol A. Source:
Knowledge Quest v. 30 no4 (Mar./Apr. 2002) p. 16-21 ISSN: 1094-9046 Number:
BLIB02004246 Copyright: The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of
this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this
article in violation of the copyright is prohibited.
Whether our students are sitting in a fifth-grade classroom or an
undergraduate lecture hall, invisible yet strictly enforced boundaries define
the learning. The view that sits outside the classroom window is not just for
daydreaming--it is, albeit small, a part of the business of life. School,
according to John Dewey is not:.
to prepare the child for any particular business, but ... there should be a
natural connection of the everyday life of the child with the business
environment about him, and ... it is the affair of the school to clarify and
liberalize this connection, to bring it to consciousness.(FN1).
For the child, school is life itself, and learning is an end in itself. As
librarians, we think of life itself as the life of the mind and its encounters
with the phenomena of the world. We erase artificial boundaries as we bring the
view from the window into the arena of learning. We promote inquiry and
investigation and hope that our students are ready for what comes next. But are
they?
TRACKING INFORMATION SEARCHING SKILLS ON CAMPUS
How do university students fare when asked to provide evidence that they
possess the basic information-searching skills critical to their success? A
survey of eighty-six graduate students conducted by the author in September 2001
yielded surprising results. Students surveyed were enrolled in masters and
doctoral programs and were at various stages of completion. Most (95 percent)
claimed that they had been inside a library at least once since January, 86
percent read at least one book a month, and 42 percent said they do most of
their research on the Web. From this stratified sample, 13 percent spoke a
language other than English as their first language. The questionnaire was
administered at the beginning of the semester, before the librarian taught
classes, offered tutorials, or conducted research counseling. Some students (6
percent) indicated on the questionnaire that they had received library
instruction within the last six months.
The questionnaire, composed of twenty items, was designed to determine
whether graduate students had basic research skills. The first set of questions
addressed skills that students would most likely learn in K-12 school library
media programs. Students were asked to give specific answers rather than their
perceptions of what they knew or could do in order to ensure that the data was
valid and represented what was really being measured. When asked whether they
learned how to use a library as part of their K-12 education, 80 percent of
respondents said they did. Only 25 percent, however, could recall three Boolean
words for searching with multiple terms. A little more than half of the
respondents (55 percent) were able to list three ways to search a library
catalog, and 70 percent could name a style manual for citing a source or writing
a bibliography. Respondents were less knowledgeable about using the Web as a
research tool. When asked to name a meta-search engine, fewer than 1 percent
provided a correct answer, and only 29 percent were able to list two criteria
for evaluating a Web site.
The second category of questions was designed to determine how well graduate
students were prepared to search electronic databases, which dominate the
searching environment of most universities. Twenty-three percent of respondents
could name two electronic indexes, and fewer than 1 percent could name two
full-text databases. When asked to give one reason for using a thesaurus in an
electronic database, 50 percent provided an acceptable answer, but most
responses did not indicate that respondents understood the concept of indexing
using a limited number of descriptors. When asked to name two ways to limit a
search in an electronic database, 31 percent provided satisfactory answers, and
21 percent could name two peer-reviewed, or refereed, journals. Scores indicate
that these graduate students do not have the information skills that are the
prerequisites of graduate work.
Despite their low scores, 64 percent of graduate students said they felt
prepared to do independent research. This statement, which required a yes or no
response to the statement "I feel prepared to do independent
research," appeared in items 3 and 20 of the questionnaire. Some students
(12 percent) who had responded affirmatively to item 3 wrote comments such as
"unsure" and "maybe" for item 20. It is possible that they
were reacting to their inability to respond satisfactorily to the statements
presented in the questionnaire. Most responses categorized as incorrect were, in
fact, left blank.
The survey results do not indicate that respondents were not taught
information searching skills. Nor can we generalize as to the population of
graduate students until the survey is administered to random samples from other
universities. However, these preliminary findings indicate that respondents have
not learned and retained these skills. The idea that the K-12 experience
prepares our students for what's next may be comforting but misleading.
THE COLLEGE LANDSCAPE
One strategy for identifying what college students need to know and be able
to do is to examine undergraduate research assignments. What assumptions do
college instructors make about the information literacy of their students? What
challenges do these assignments present? How can K-12 librarians prepare their
students for the college research experience?
Some professors are sending students to the literature with a focus, as
illustrated in task 1 following:.
Course: Special Education.
Topic: Disabilities.
Task 1: Collect current articles that pertain to aspects of disabilities
covered in class; summarize each article and relate it to course readings.
What are the skills implied in this assignment? Have your students had the
opportunity to learn and practice these skills?
* While K-12 students search and summarize, are they also asked to define
assignment and set their own conceptual limits?
* Do they know how to do advanced searching using Boolean operators?
* Do they know how to limit a search by whatever means the electronic index
offers (for example, chronology, geography, document type, language, or
components of the record, such as title, author, or words anywhere)?
* Do they know the difference between indexes and full-text databases?
* Are they able to retrieve full-text documents electronically?
* Will they be able to retrieve materials using the Library of Congress
system rather than Dewey Decimal system?
* Do they understand the concepts underlying the organization of materials
in a library? Do they know the difference between a library and the Internet? Do
they know that virtual libraries are not really libraries?
* Do they have the skills to deal with the information overload they will
encounter when they search the Web, a university library catalog, or scholarly
subscription databases? Are they easy prey for e-book subscription services that
contain a fraction of the number of volumes than university libraries and charge
a fee for access?
* Will they be able to summarize with discrimination, choosing concepts that
relate to other readings?
While K-12 information literacy standards cover these skills either
explicitly or by implication, are we scaffolding skills with a clear vision of
what college students will be expected to know and be able to do? Does our
instruction for eleventh and twelfth graders look different from the lessons we
teach to ninth and tenth graders? For example, have our twelfth graders ever met
an academic librarian or been in an academic library?
Some assignments do not have a focus, as seen in task 2 following:.
Course: Sport Psychology.
Topic: An area of your interest in sport psychology.
Task 2: On any aspect of sport psychology, write a fourteen-page research
paper that includes a statement of problem, literature review, data collected
from a survey or questionnaire, and analysis of results.
What are the challenges in this assignment?
* Have K-12 students moved past cut-and-paste practices that invite
plagiarism, and do they know how to cite using a style manual?
* Do they know how to weave a citation into their text to use it to support
a point? Do they know how to elaborate?
* Have they had practice in focusing their investigation on a problem that
resides in the arenas of both theory and practice? Do they know what
"theory" means?
* Do they know the difference between information and data? Do they know how
to construct a questionnaire and use it as a data-collection instrument?
* Have they ventured beyond main idea/supporting ideas, pro/con,
compare/contrast, cause/effect, and chronological modes of analysis to include
similarities/differences, relationships (human, spatial), themes (literary,
artistic, patterns, perspectives), best/worst, most/least, systems analysis (how
it works, defining characteristics), problem/solutions, procedures?
* Have they practiced representing and displaying data, classifying and
categorizing, generalizing, finding exceptions, predicting what's next,
imagining what if, determining what's wrong? Have they applied these kinds of
thinking as independent learners, outside the classroom, in a project-based
environment?
This example illustrates that the information skills our college-bound
students need are not only mechanical skills, but also thinking skills. If most
library instruction focuses on where and how to find things, what aren't we
teaching? When we approach the research process in a lock-step, "this is
what you do next" way, what message are we sending about the nature of
research?
Some assignments are paragons of ambiguity, as illustrated in task 3
following:.
Course: CORE Science.
Topic: Consciousness.
Task 3: Write a two-page paper that defines consciousness. Use at least two
sources other than the class textbook.
The high degree of ambiguity in this assignment presents difficult
challenges:.
* Are schools preparing students to deal with ambiguity and clearly define
the assignment?
* Have they worked with support materials such as proposal forms, concept
maps and graphic organizers, and style manuals?
* Do they know the difference between the Web and the "hidden Web"
of subscription, passworded databases?
* Do they know how to evaluate Web sites and find authoritative and reliable
sources?
This kind of assignment is the most difficult for first-year college
students and the most prone to plagiarism. It is not well suited to Internet
surfing, although that will be the first stop for most undergraduates. It
requires meta-cognitive skills, such as learning how to learn and being aware of
strategies for learning and problem solving. It points out the importance of
establishing critical thinking and habits of mind that are rooted in inquiry
from an early age. A common misconception (with apologies to Piaget) is that
young children can not think abstractly, that they are stuck in concrete
thinking until puberty. Are we nurturing curiosity in young children and
providing motivation and structure to their inquiry? Are we pigeon-holing skills
by grade levels, underestimating what children can do, and missing teachable
moments?
Some college assignments anticipate what students will be expected to do for
their theses and dissertations, as illustrated in task 4 following:.
Course: Foundations of Educational Inquiry.
Topic: Early Childhood Education.
Task 4: Write a proposal on an aspect of early childhood education that
interests you. Include statement of problem, significance of problem, review of
literature, plan of inquiry, and resources.
What is unique about this example of research is that it is on the highest
level of inquiry.
* Have K-12 students presented an oral proposal that outlines their research
problem, resources, anticipated problems and strategies, and plan of inquiry?
* Do they know how to find out about the range of resources available to
them in a large library and electronic environment for a review of the
literature?
* Do they know what review of the literature means? Do they differentiate
between this body of literature and the world of practice?
* Have they had practice working with an adviser who critiques and approves
their proposal?
This example contrasts with the reporting syndrome that has become the K-12
norm, even when we tell students they are doing research. It points to what we
are not doing when we support faulty assignments designed by teachers who have a
question-and-answer conception of resource-based learning. Our students can be
prepared for this kind of assignment if they are asked to go beyond a research
topic to formulate a research question.
Some assignments closely resemble K-12 assignments, as shown in task 5
following:.
Course: Physics for Science Teachers.
Topic: How does physics affect our lives?
Task 5: Choose an area of physics that you can apply to solve a problem (for
example, physical force, centrifuge). Conduct an experiment or apply a concept
to solve a problem (for example, how can force be used to separate particles in
a solution to produce a medicinal drug?). Write a report in science format and
publish it in WebCT. Work with a partner to assess the work of another student
that you can access from WebCT.
How is this assignment the same as and how is it different from a high
school science experiment?
* Have our students practiced identifying researchable problems?
* Do they know what a hypothesis is? Do they know how to test a hypothesis?
* Have your students learned how to develop criteria and apply it to another
student's work? Have they had practice in assessing their own work and becoming
their own best critics?
* Have they worked in an electronic environment to publish their work and
access the work of their classmates?
* Have they learned to work collaboratively?
Research is happening in K-12 science classes every day, but is there a
connection between what happens in the library and in the science lab? Do we
teach our students that research problems have a history and that doing research
is a collaborative experience that often crosses generations and centuries of
knowledge seeking?
College-level assignments not only involve advanced searching skills they
also focus on the fancy thinking skills that challenge students to the thinking
levels of evaluation and criticism. At the same time, college professors face
the same challenges as K-12 educators. While graduate student researchers
struggle to meet the demands of scholarship in spite of their poor searching
skills, undergraduates are not immune to the reporting syndrome. Their
frustration and lack of skills contributes to the problem of plagiarism. Several
studies have documented that academic dishonesty is widespread at colleges and
universities. In a study of six thousand students at thirty-one highly selective
colleges and universities, McCabe and Trevino found that two out of three
students admitted to dishonest academic behavior.(FN2) Studies by Cole and
McCabe, Davis and Ludvigson, and Davis et al. have documented that large numbers
of students engage in academic dishonesty.(FN3) Some professors are changing
their assignments to include oral presentations, electronic discussions through
course software, primary research and the collection of original data, and
peer-evaluation and review, as illustrated in tasks 1, 2, and 5.
Many professors still assign the traditional term paper to undergraduates,
as illustrated by tasks 1 and 3, and their undergraduate students, like their
K-12 counterparts, are monotonously reporting and reviewing the literature.
College professors echo the complaints of K-12 teachers as they struggle to
cover their course syllabi. Information literacy is not yet a household word in
classrooms of higher education, but constructivist teaching approaches that K-12
teachers have been using for decades are making their debuts on college
campuses. The contributions of research and practice from the K-12 sector have
been substantial, as such methods as concept mapping, graphic organizers,
inquiry-based and project-based instruction, cooperative and collaborative
learning, and alternative forms of assessment have found their way into the
literature and practice of academic library instruction. Constructivist teaching
and hands-on learning are beginning to supplant lectures and worksheets in
undergraduate classrooms.
Emerging from the information literacy standards developed by the
Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have been a variety of
strategies for packaging the teaching of information skills at
universities.(FN4) These include creating discrete, required courses; taking an
integrated approach; and developing self-directed electronic tutorials. It is
unusual, however, to find an information literacy curriculum at the college
level. In many universities, librarians do not hold faculty status and many lack
formal training in teaching. Academic librarians are beginning to take a more
active role as they expand their services from the reference desk to college
classrooms, although their teaching focuses on the mechanics of information
searching and location of resources. Not all academic librarians see instruction
as an integral part of their jobs. Some universities have created the position
of instructional or public services librarian to address instructional needs.
A CLOSE-UP VIEW OF THE K-12 JOURNEY
Information literacy standards published by ACRL do not differ significantly
from those published in Information Power: Building Partnerships for
Learning.(FN5) In practice, however, masters and doctoral students do research
while their younger counterparts in K-12 are trapped in a reporting mode. The
emphasis on pseudoresearch projects that require students to read and summarize
may result in misconceptions about the nature of research.
A study by Gordon of ninth graders revealed how students define research.
"You should be able to answer questions when you do research."
"Research is 'finding information. " It was "getting the main
idea and putting it all together." The process of doing research is to
"collect information." It is seen as a progression from question to
answer, and the answer was believed to be on a bookshelf. A student collaborator
admitted to having negative connotations with the word research: "You have
to do research whether you like it or not." It was described as "one
of the trials and tribulations of going to school." Research was seen as an
addition to schoolwork, not part of it, yet another hoop through which students
must jump to get to the finish line. It was clearly not perceived as an integral
part of school work and certainly not a priority. One student said, "we
could actually be learning other things in math. We could be learning real
things.... I learned one thing when we could have learned several things."
Value was placed on breadth, rather than depth, of learning. The library
component of the project was seen as an isolated experience that was not viewed
as part of classroom learning or as important as what goes on in the classroom.
Attitudes toward research seemed to be influenced by the authoritarian, top-down
model of learning: Students valued most highly what came from the teacher and
had less regard for what they themselves discovered.(FN6).
Research is not collecting information and rearranging facts. It is not a
linear process of steps or a recipe that dictates what happens next. It is not a
neat, grammatically correct paper. It is not an experiment or survey. Research
is methodical inquiry driven by curiosity. It is a question, problem, or
hypothesis that finds its roots in theory. It is a design for conducting a study
or experiment. Research involves data collection and analysis. It is a
contribution to a body of knowledge. The child who asks why the sky is blue may
be closer to the essence of research than the high school student who looks up
gun control and writes a paper that summarizes various points of view about the
topic. The third grader who investigates the effectiveness of flu shots by
gathering and analyzing evidence from physicians, nurses, and those who have and
have not received flu shots is doing research.
This is not to say that information searching is not important; it helps the
researcher build on prior knowledge so that he or she can ask good questions.
Information skills are thinking skills; there is a synergism between the ability
to manage information and the complex thinking processes involved in doing
research. Kuhlthau noted that the information search is essential for
independent learning, finding and verifying facts, and as an important part of
focus formulation.(FN7) Focus emerges from background reading and our
experiences that build the knowledge base. In fact, it is chapter two of a
doctoral dissertation. It frames the research, placing it in the context of a
related body of knowledge. Since research is not linear, the
information-gathering component of research recurs throughout the process of
doing research. But it is not research.
Our students need to practice information searches and report their
findings. They also need to practice the methods and tools of research. Inquiry
happens every day in K-12 and college classrooms, but is it linked to
information searching and methodical research? Information searching happens
every day in the school and university library, but is it linked to the process
of inquiry? A conceptual rather than mechanical approach to research may help
students to understand the meaning of research as it is used on the graduate
level. John Dewey observed, "The danger in those studies where the main
emphasis is upon acquisition of skill is ... the tendency to take the shortest
cuts possible to gain the required end. This makes the subjects mechanical, and
thus restrictive of intellectual power."(FN8) Does this mean we should
abandon the teaching of information skills? Absolutely not! Like the teaching of
reading, it is not harmful to deconstruct and analyze the text, but when we take
it apart we need to put it back together and place it in context. When we teach
information skills our students need to see the big picture to understand how
their skills can be used as tools to collect evidence as well as information.
In a study of one hundred tenth graders, the research assignment required
the collection and analysis of data in addition to information. Requirements
included design of a questionnaire or interview, data displays, and at least two
methods of analysis. Peer review was used in the editing process; rubrics were
used to grade the student's research papers. Gordon found that student
satisfaction with the assignment soared. A typical comment was, "I never
did proper research before. It was the first real serious research I have done.
It was much longer and more difficult than previous papers. It was also much
more interesting and more fun as well."(FN9).
If we look at how scholars and researchers work, both in academic settings
and within the research communities of various disciplines and fields of study,
we will discover models. Doctoral students write proposals that focus their
research and must be approved by a self-selected committee of advisers. Advisers
give input at every stage of the research. Doctoral candidates collect
information about the body of knowledge that relates to their focused question
or problem. They also design a study that provides for the collection of data,
or evidence, that will either support or negate their hypotheses. They develop
skills in designing or using instruments such as tests, interviews, or surveys
to collect data. They write their dissertation within a framework that
structures the progression of the research from background to the problem to
implications of the research findings. They present an oral defense of their
dissertations to their committees and the public at large. These methods can be
adapted to the K-12 environment.
THE BIG PICTURE
Higher education offers glimpses of where our students are going, helping
K-12 educators design instruction to include higher order thinking skills.
Kulthau's contributions in the K-12 arena have given definition to the
information search process, particularly with the identification of the focus
formulation stage, and have supplied a theoretical basis for subsequent research
that was grounded in constructivist educational theory.(FN10) This work has led
to the redesign of instruction to include scaffolding for higher-order thinking
skills. The primary setting for securing information literacy teaching and
learning is still K-12 schools and library media centers because that is where
our children are for twelve years. While it is not realistic, nor desirable, to
expect school library media programs to prepare students for the complex
electronic delivery systems characteristic of college and university libraries,
they can prepare students conceptually by creating opportunities for learners of
all ages to go beyond the mechanics of searching and reporting to practice the
skills and thinking processes of the researcher. Do our students realize that
there is a research community for every academic discipline and field of study,
and not just for science? Do they read age-appropriate literature that talks
about knowledge discoveries? Are they aware that there are research methods and
measures for the social sciences that yield a plethora of popular
"research" topics, such as abortion, capital punishment, and gun
control? Are we teaching them that research is an act of inspiration and
creativity?
There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story
intellects with skylights. All fact collectors, who have no aim beyond their
facts, are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using the
labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize,
imagine, predict--their best illumination comes from above, through the
skylight.(FN11).
Our students may climb the stairs many times before they reach the third
story, but the view is worth it.
Added material.
Carol Gordon.
cgordon@bu.edu.
Carol Gordon is Associate Professor and Head of the Educational Resources
Library, Boston University. She also is the author of Information Literacy in
Action (Great Glemham, England: John Catt Educational Ltd.) and Knowledge
Quest's "Measuring Up" column.
FOOTNOTES
1. John Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum and the School and Society
(Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1990), 76.
2. Donald McCabe and Linda Klebe-Trevino, "What We Know about Cheating
in College: Longitudinal Trends and Recent Developments," Change 28, no. 1
(1996): 28-33.
3. Sally Cole and Donald McCabe, "Issues in Academic Integrity,"
New Directions for Student Services no. 73 (spring 1996): 67-77; Stephen Davis
and H. Wayne Ludvigson, "Additional Data on Academic Dishonesty and a
Proposal for Remediation," Teaching of Psychology 22, no. 22 (Apr. 1995):
119-21; Stephen Davis et al., "Academic Dishonesty, Prevalence,
Determinants," Teaching of Psychology 19, no. 1 (1992): 6-20.
4. Association of College and Research Libraries, Information Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education, 27 July 2000, <www.ala.org/acrl/ilintro.html>.
Accessed 17 Dec. 2001.
5. Ibid.; American Association of School Librarians and Association for
Educational Communications and Technology, Information Power: Building
Partnerships for Learning (Chicago: ALA, 1998).
6. Carol Gordon, "Is Fish a Vegetable?" School Library Media
Quarterly 25, no. 1 (fall 1996): 27-33.
7. Carol Collier Kuhlthau, "Facilitating Information Seeking through
Cognitive Models of the Research Process," ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 328 268, 1986.
8. John Dewey, John Dewey on Education: Selected Writings (New York: Random
House, 1964), 236.
9. Carol Gordon, "Students as Authentic Researchers: A New Prescription
for the High School Research Assignment," School Library Media Research,
1999, <www.ala.org/SLMR/vol2/authentic.html>. Accessed 17 Dec. 2001.
10. Carol Collier Kuhlthau, Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library
and Information Services (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1993).
11. Oliver Wendall Holmes, quoted in Problem Based Learning, Robin Fogarty,
ed. (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Skylight Publ., 1997).