Exploring information literacy assessment: Content analysis of student prefocus essays

Abstract

Juggling the value of performance-based assessment of student information literacy competencies with the limited time and resources required to do this type of assessment remains an ongoing challenge for many librarians.This article chronicles our initial foray into content analysis, a fairly labor-intensive methodology, but one which allowed us to examine student approaches to the research process as narrated in their own words in the form of a prefocus essay. Our goal was to gather data that would help to inform our university library’s information literacy curriculum. What follows documents our process, methodology, results, and lessons learned in order to aid those at other institutions in their assessment planning.Colgate University is a selective, private liberal arts institution with an approximate student body of 2,900. The information literacy program is well-established, with an on-going presence in the Core Curriculum and First-Year Seminar courses, as well as frequent requests for library instruction in upper-level courses.

Confronting Failure: Building Confidence and Resilience in Undergraduate Researchers

“…For instance, in the information search process model of Carol Kuhlthau (1991, 366-67), she writes about the challenging feelings experienced by students in the early stages of research, beginning with uncertainty and apprehension as they realize they have a lack of knowledge or understanding and followed by feelings of confusion, frustration, and doubt that emerge in the "exploration stage." Other researchers have noted that students struggle with narrowing their topics as part of the research process (Buell and Kvinnesland 2018), and Fister (1992) writes that students in her study found that "getting a focus for research was the most challenging and the most time-consuming part of the entire project. "…”

“…Without an understanding of the role that failure plays in the research process, students can experience intensified negative feelings during the early stages of their research when they inevitably encounter roadblocks in the process . If these roadblocks lead students to conclude that they are unable to achieve the specific demands of the research task , the feelings noted by scholars like , Buell andKvinnesland (2018), andFister (1992) can become debilitating. This chapter proposes a method for helping students refocus and reframe their research topics so they can learn to see "failed" research questions as an important part of the research process.…”

Chapter 8. No Such Thing as a Bad Question: Using Rubrics to Help Students Learn from and Strengthen Failed Research Questions

“…For instance, in the information search process model of Carol Kuhlthau (1991, 366-67), she writes about the challenging feelings experienced by students in the early stages of research, beginning with uncertainty and apprehension as they realize they have a lack of knowledge or understanding and followed by feelings of confusion, frustration, and doubt that emerge in the "exploration stage." Other researchers have noted that students struggle with narrowing their topics as part of the research process (Buell and Kvinnesland 2018), and Fister (1992) writes that students in her study found that "getting a focus for research was the most challenging and the most time-consuming part of the entire project. "…”

“…Without an understanding of the role that failure plays in the research process, students can experience intensified negative feelings during the early stages of their research when they inevitably encounter roadblocks in the process (Henry et al 2019). If these roadblocks lead students to conclude that they are unable to achieve the specific demands of the research task (Henry et al 2019), the feelings noted by scholars like Kuhlthau (1991), Buell andKvinnesland (2018), andFister (1992) can become debilitating. This chapter proposes a method for helping students refocus and reframe their research topics so they can learn to see "failed" research questions as an important part of the research process.…”