The role of information competencies and skills in learning to abstract

Abstract

The ability to abstract information is a basic competency in today's knowledge society, characterised by the mass diffusion of information and the need to manage and access it effectively. Yet abstracting is not an easy task, and requires a specific learning process. This paper examines the process of abstracting information from the perspective of competencies and skills based learning. The competencies and skills necessary in this process are identified by analysing in detail the various stages and processes involved in writing an abstract. The general skills required for the whole process, as well as the specific skills for each stage, are determined. Guidelines and recommendations are put forward to facilitate the learning of these skills in the context of abstracting.Keywords: abstracting; skills;informational competencies IntroductionThe environment and philosophy of educational processes are changing, particularly in the area of higher education, where learning based on the student's competencies and skills is becoming increasingly important. These competencies and skills centre on analysis and synthesis, the organisation and management of information flows and the access to and use of information in decision making. The ultimate aim of these competencies is to enable the student to work autonomously, to use the appropriate tools interactively and to work in groups effectively. The link between knowledge and know-how should be maintained at all times. Theory must also be learned, although theory on its own is meaningless if it is not put into practice [1]. There is a distinct difference between memory-based learning, in which new knowledge is not incorporated into the reader's cognitive structure, and meaningful learning whereby learners consciously choose to integrate new knowledge into their previously processed knowledge. In this context of a changing electronic media environment in which information 1 Correspondence to: MariaPinto, Campus de la Cartuje, s/n 18071 Granada, Spain, mpinto@ugr.es Maria Pinto, Anne-Vinciane Doucet, Andrés Fernández-RamosJournal of Information Science, XX (X) 2007, pp. 1-17 © CILIP, DOI: 10.1177/0165551506nnnnnn 2 is ever-increasing, complex and in most cases, unstructured and disperse, information literacy provides the most appropriate overall frameworks. Information literacyInformation literacy entails the learning of the skills, competencies, knowledge and values to access, use and communicate information in any of its forms, in order to produce competent students and professionals trained in the routines of identifying, evaluating and recording information sources appropriately and with the knowledge to process and produce their own information. This is a continuous process and an intelligent commitment to lifelong learning on the part of education systems. Students should be aware of the goals for which they are going to use the information, and the context in which it is to be used (for personal use, acquiring information, generating knowledge, and so on). ...

Design of a competence model for testing teams

“…The White Book specifies generic transversal skills in relation to profiles in management and deployment of computer technologies [37]. Also, it defines the personal skills that are most valued for ICT engineers in the Spanish (ICT) sector [22].…”

Abstracting: information literacy on a professional level

“…It is LIS education where abstracting gets the most attention. While only very few information literacy competencies are explicitly taught in higher education, indexing and abstracting courses are directly related to the core information literacy competencies (Pinto et al, 2008b).…”

Library instruction and information literacy, 2008

“…Pinto and colleagues studied a relatively unexamined aspect of information literacy in their article on teaching students how to write good abstracts (Pinto et al , 2008) while Harris reviewed the values‐related objectives in information literacy standards (Harris, 2008). Important work is also being done in the area of cognitive development of college students and their readiness for information literacy instruction (Jackson, 2008; Orme, 2008).…”