School Libraries Worldwide
Volume 15, Number 1, January 2009

The full article is available as a PDF file

A Grounded Analysis of Year 8 Students' Reflections on Information Literacy Skills and Techniques

James Herring
School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Australia

This research, undertaken in a high school in the United Kingdom, focuses on the views of year 8 students who were asked to reflect on their use of information literacy skills when completing an English assignment. Students completed a diary during the assignment, and a semi-structured interview was carried out with the class teacher. A grounded analysis approach was taken in analysing the student diaries and the teacher interview. Findings reveal a number of categories which illustrate the students' views of and use of information literacy skills: Using information literacy skills and techniques; Making links; Being confident; Being reflective.

Introduction

This study took place in a state comprehensive school in the United Kingdom and focused on a class of 21 year 8 (2nd year of high school) students who were completing a discursive essay on a topical issue as part of their English syllabus. Students were allowed to select their own topic but, in the assignment, the students were expected to provide a balanced argument in relation to their topic (e.g., using animals for medical research) as well as their own views. There was an expectation that students would use their information literacy skills to define, research and write about their chosen topic. The teacher conducted a class brainstorming session on the range of topics and how topics might be defined. These students had been introduced to mind mapping by the teacher librarian in year 7 but had no experience of question formulation, so the teacher encouraged students to engage in question formulation as a method of defining the parameters of their topic. The teacher allowed the students themselves to think about how they might use questions later. Most of the students in this class were relatively high achievers.

The teacher involved volunteered to be part of the study after a call from the teacher librarian. At the time of the study, the teacher had five years experience of teaching English. The teacher librarian worked with the English teacher to identify relevant sites from which students could select if they wished to do so, supported students doing research in the library and reinforced aspects of the students' classroom experiences, e.g., reminding students about using their mind maps and/or questions. The researcher's role involved discussing brainstorming, mind mapping and question formulation with the teacher prior to student completion of the discursive essay; presenting the teacher with a draft student diary and agreeing to minor changes; and answering teacher questions during the essay completion period. The researcher had no direct contact with the students in this study.

Author Note
James Herring is a lecturer in teacher librarianship in the School of Information Studies which is part of the Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University, Australia. He was formerly the Head of the Department of Information Management at Queen Margaret University in Scotland. James teaches a range of subjects which focus on the school's information environment, ICT in school libraries, information literacy and knowledge management. James is the author of nine books on teacher librarianship, ICT in schools and information literacy in schools. He has presented research papers at a number of international conferences and has delivered workshops in many countries. James was one of the keynote speakers at the 2008 IASL conference in Berkeley, CA. James works partly from his home in Scotland and partly in Wagga Wagga, Australia.

Disclaimer
The views expressed in articles are those of the author(s) concerned and do not necessarily represent the views of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) Inc.

Last updated 17 June 2009 (KSB)