All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address ARTICLE usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
Reducing the Information Literacy Gap in High School Students
An Action Research Study
CB R A x
48 Knowledge Quest | Copyright and School Libraries in the Digital Age All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
Heather McPherson [email protected]
Margot Dubé [email protected]
Introduction Over the past eighteen years I (high high and two from senior high. A wealth of resources are school science instructor Heather) In her capacity as a district-wide available on information literacy. have encouraged students to resource (school board librarian Information literacy (IL) is a participate in school and regional as well as high school librarian), multifaceted skill that encompasses science fairs. Acting as head judge at Margot facilitated all team meetings. information seeking, identifying our regional science fair, I observed During the release time the team research questions, finding answers that an important component worked collaboratively to develop to research questions, and then of successful competition is the a set of student-friendly tools evaluating and using information students’ ability to conduct proper to improve literacy skills; these appropriately (ALA 2001). Much research for their projects. While tools were level-appropriate and research has been conducted on preparing students for local, correlated with the curriculum. the low level of IL found amongst regional, or national science high school students. Failure to fairs I found that many students Our first step was to establish make connections between IL lack the most basic information learning goals. Some were skills skills taught in high school and the literacy skills. Clearly, the teaching that we believed students needed skills required in post-secondary of information gathering and to develop so they could succeed education is another problem processing falls short of what is in high school research projects (Varlejs, Stec, and Kwon 2014). Our required for students to compete at such as prepping for a science fair. goal was to teach students critical- high-level science fairs. Rather than Other learning goals were tied to thinking skills related to digital simply accepting the status quo, I providing students with a set of and media literacy competencies decided that something needed to be skills to transition more easily from within the framework of our local done. The time had come for action high school to the rigors of research curricula. Students must be able to research and a talk over coffee with at post-secondary education navigate 21st-century technologies the school librarian Margot. institutions. as graduates transition from high school to post-secondary Together, Margot and I decided to In our school, the study was institutions and the work force. We apply for a professional development initiated with two classes of grade perceived the need for a formal grant from our school board. ten science students and two approach in the teaching of The purpose of the grant was to classes of grade eleven science research skills with an emphasis develop a standardized approach students. In year two, we presented on technology. The focus of this to teaching research skills that was the material to four new groups article is our teaching experience multidisciplinary and suitable for of grade ten students and to three with developing cross-curricular students in grades seven through groups of grade eleven students pedagogical materials and, over twelve. The grant included three who had received instruction in a two-year period, using those days of release time for a team of IL the previous year. This process materials to help students develop English, social studies/history, and provided us with useful information their research skills. science teachers: two from junior regarding students’ acquisition of
Volume 45, No. 2 | November/December 2016 49 All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
IL skills over a two-year period. We (and/or the other teacher After students had a clear idea Similarly, the junior high teachers participants) presented a slide about their research topics we involved with the project adapted the presentation with supplementary moved on to finding background materials to the level appropriate handouts (Appendices A and B) information. We advise students to for their students and incorporated in a seventy-five-minute class. In consult general and/or specialized and reinforced these skills within our school the presentation was dictionaries, encyclopedias, and their class research projects over a given in the school library, which Web directories to orient themselves two-year cycle. contains a class set of thirty-two in the context of their topics and to computers and an interactive help gather terminology to use when Teaching Methods whiteboard. Students viewed searching the Web. The following the slide presentation and were are examples of suggested resources We created handouts that focused provided opportunities to try to get students started: on research steps and selection of the techniques described in the Merriam-Webster’s online information sources, and a checklist presentation. Students were dictionaries and thesaurus to evaluate a website, as well as an required to create a two-sided, [free]
50 Knowledge Quest | Copyright and School Libraries in the Digital Age All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
not authoritative. Topics in Web AND, OR, NOT Shortcuts that most search engines directories are organized by subject employ are introduced. We use and are maintained by humans examples from Google: rather than software (Boswell 2014). Students look at sites • Dictionary, calculator, containing resources organized clock, “I’m Feeling Lucky” button by categories accessible through A B • Exact phrase: “underground menus. Examples include: railroad” HowStuffWorks. [free]
Volume 45, No. 2 | November/December 2016 51 All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
Tips for evaluating resources are Following our lesson, student Invaluable tips for students learning also provided: assignments show a marked to create bibliographies: • Look at the URL (Uniform reduction of attribution errors. • Record sources as you are doing Resource Locator). The Web Students are taught: your project; do not wait until the address indicates a company, • To clearly identify the sources end. institution, or person, and, used. • Place your sources in alphabetical often, the purpose of the site. • To cite both published and order. • URL endings are usually an unpublished sources. • For a website, record the date you indication of purpose: .org, .edu, • To avoid plagiarism. used it. .gov, .qc.ca, .gc.ca. • To lead readers to more • Try to use sources that provide their • Check the About Us feature on a information on the same or own citations: website’s homepage. similar subjects. − databases and e-books with an • Use our Website Checklist. (See • When in doubt, cite! auto-cite feature Appendix B.) − scholarly articles that provide The final lesson segment intro- their own citations Step 4: Fair Use: Why and How We duces citing sources in an official • Use the citation format you are Cite Sources format. High school students are told to use. (We teach students Students new to research might required to provide a bibliogra- MLA format because free citation have weak notions of plagiarism phy as an integral part of research builders such as EasyBib offer MLA and the necessity to cite works used assignments. Prior to this series free of charge. Also, Britannica in their research. We have all seen of lessons, students tended to School’s auto-cite default is MLA.) neophyte researchers cut and paste provide a simple list of book titles part of a website directly into their or website URLs in their bibliog- Online citation builder tools are assignments. (At times neither raphies, in no particular order. explained using free services such as: font size nor color matches the For many students, bibliographies EasyBib: The Free Automatic body of the project!) According to for science fair projects are their Bibliography and Citation Liz Sonneborn plagiarism is: “If first exposure to higher stan- Generator
52 Knowledge Quest | Copyright and School Libraries in the Digital Age All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
features, to evaluate the credibility of websites, to learn to cite properly and use online citation Findings indicated that the information literacy training builders? resulted in substantial improvements in basic literacy • assist students from grades seven through twelve, and facilitate the skills. Improvements were most profound in students who acquisition of formal research skills necessary for the twenty- received the instruction for two consecutive years. first century? Our goal was to address the information literacy gap that has into the search engine. Margot also arisen most significantly as the Evaluation of Project noticed that most students considered quantity of online information To assess the success of our action websites (like Wikipedia) that are sources has exploded in recent years. research plan, we had informal dis- frequently displayed at the top of the cussions with students. Comments list of results from a Google search received included: “I wish we had Study Methodology to be reliable sources of informa- known this a long time ago,” “I At the high school level, students tion, confusing the popularity of the never thought about using keywords were evaluated on their choice of resource with an indication of quality. before,” (students following a sources and correct citation format- In contrast, after the direct instruc- November presentation); “Thank- ting. All photos had to be correctly tion on effective strategies and ethical you for teaching us Boolean logic referenced. Rubrics developed information use, we both saw notable and correct citation format” (a by Margot were used to evaluate improvements we attribute to the IL recent graduate who was now citations and quality of information. instruction. For example: studying sciences at college). We The scientific content was evaluated • After receiving the IL instruction, also evaluated the research projects separately from the information fewer students added “.com” to students did over the period of two component of the assignment. their Web searches (example: “elec- years. We evaluated the diversity Following the evaluation of the tricity.com”). of resources used by students who assignment, informal discussions • Students with IL training were received the special instruction, with students focused on the process. more sophisticated in their online the quality of the resources, and searches. Instead of typing an students’ ability to cite references The cycle was repeated the following entire research question verbatim correctly. year, with a new group of incoming into a search engine, students grade ten students and groups of searched on keywords. They were Findings indicated that the infor- grade eleven students, some of whom also more likely to evaluate sources mation literacy training resulted in had been taught IL the previous instead of simply using the first substantial improvements in basic year. Science fair projects were also few sources identified in an online literacy skills. Improvements were evaluated in both years to determine search. most profound in students who the efficacy of our interventions. received the instruction for two • A marked improvement in the consecutive years. The quality of Prior to participating in the pre- number of students citing images science fair projects also improved sentations, Heather had noticed was seen. Prior to the lessons significantly. More projects moved that most students had a very on IL, no students seemed to be from regional to provincial fairs, haphazard approach to the research aware that using an image without and more projects advanced from project and often did not know proper citation is plagiarism. provincial to national fairs. how to get started. Prior to this This improvement was especially intervention, Margot had noticed apparent in students’ science fair students’ employing many ineffec- projects. Conclusion tive strategies such as attempting to • The number of students extracting High school students need guidance use “science fair” as a search term, text and using it without adding if they are to successfully engage placing “.com” as an extension to a or altering details was diminished. in research projects. The tools search topic, or simply typing the This change was most notable in described in this article are cross- whole research question verbatim the junior high school. curricular pedagogical materials
Volume 45, No. 2 | November/December 2016 53 All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
designed to help students develop This action research project was the skill set of secondary school practical, hands-on skills for presented at a school board- students and the expectations in planning research, and for searching, sponsored workshop. The college courses. We believe that evaluating, and using online infor- audience included teachers, action research involving teachers mation. Our goal was to provide high school administrators, and from multiple disciplines and school students with the knowledge school board (district) personnel. from multiple schools working to complete high school research Feedback was very positive. collaboratively is an effective projects, to ready graduating students Educators’ action research method to initiate change for college-level research, and was effective in addressing the and to overcome barriers in generally to prepare students to join problem of high school students’ successful implementation of the 21st-century work force. weak information literacy skills essential pedagogies, including and narrowing the IL gap between information literacy.
appendix a: selecting information sources
SOURCE: BEST FOR: ADVANTAGES: DISADVANTAGES:
Encyclopedias Background information Easy to use Out-dated information (Print /Online) Quick facts Broad overview Authoritative
Wikipedia Background information Easy to use May be inaccurate Quick facts Very accessible Info may be manipulated by others Obscure information Bias or slant
Specialized Books Historical information Age- or level-appropriate Not always current Quality bibliographies Well-organized Comprehensive
Newspapers or Current information Short articles for general use Possible bias News Magazines Local information Detailed analyses of events Authors are not necessarily experts on the subject
Popular Magazines Short articles Easy to understand Authors are not necessarily experts on the subject Photographs and illustrations Articles can lack depth Sources not often cited
Scholarly Journals In-depth information Peer-reviewed Terminology and depth of articles may be difficult for novices to Recent research Specialized audience: other understand researchers and professionals in Bibliographies field
Websites Government information Easy to find Difficult to browse Varied points of view on a topic Accessible Too much information Statistics Up to date Possible bias Company information Information may not be found Not all websites are available to anywhere else the general public Videos
Adapted from University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. 2016. "Select the Best Information Source."
54 Knowledge Quest | Copyright and School Libraries in the Digital Age All materials in this journal subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be used for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Address usage requests to the ALA Office of Rights and Permissions.
Heather McPherson is a senior science teacher at Margot Dubé is a school librarian. She Laval Senior Academy in Laval, Quebec, and a PhD is based at Laval Senior Academy and has student at McGill University. In 2016 she won the additional administrative responsibilities at McGill University Department of Integrated Studies in the school board level to provide support to Education “Indy” Educator Practitioner-Researcher other library staff within the district. She Award. Her article “Material Science and the Problem of Garbage: Where is a member of ABQLA (l’Association des bibliothécaires du Does All That Stuff Go?” will be published in the November issue of The Québec — Quebec Library Association). Science Teacher. With Maggie McDonnell, she wrote “Articulation between High School and CEGEP Science Post-Reform: Understanding the Gap,” which will be published in College Quarterly. Works Cited: American Library Association. 2001. “Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: appendix b: website checklist A Model Statement for Academic Librarians.”
Volume 45, No. 2 | November/December 2016 55