7 Things You Should Know About…RehmT 1

7 Things You Should Know About

the Information Seeking Behaviors
of High School Students
Traci L. Rehm
Georgia Southern University
7 Things You Should Know About…RehmT 2

7 Things You Should Know About

the Information Seeking Behaviors of High School Students

What is it?
Information literacy is defined by the AASL (2009), as learners being able to
“access high-quality information from diverse perspectives, make sense of it to draw their own
conclusions or create new knowledge, and share their knowledge with others” (p. 5). The AASL
has designed information literacy standards that set these expectations for learners. These new
standards go beyond the research to the attitudes and beliefs of lifelong learners. They cause
learners to take ownership of their own learning by teaching them to question and to become
skilled evaluators of information. In addition, learners must be able to organize information,
thoughtfully consider various viewpoints, and present it to audiences in meaningful ways . The
following scenario is a demonstration of effective information literacy skills. An 11th grade
social studies student has been given an assignment to research the Civil War. She is a skilled
researcher who is fluent in the DISCOVER method (Campbell, Heller, Horney, & Slater, 2007)
of information literacy. She begins her assignment, by creating a concept map to define the
possible terms. Her next step is to inquire. She thoughtfully develops a list of possible
information she will be looking for. Then she begins her search. She uses a wide-range of
credible sources, such as scholarly databases, .edu and .gov websites. As she is searching, she
collects a list of the possible resources by copying and pasting the url. As a skilled researcher,
she has no problem with organizing the information she has gathered and is able to answer her
list of questions. She also is careful to verify the contact information and homepage links of
internet sources, so she can give credit to authors and defend the authenticity of her work. Once
her research is complete, she creates a wiki for which she will express her information to an
audience of peers. Before expressing, she thoughtfully reflects on her project for modifications
and accuracy.
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Who is doing it?

Today’s high school students are immersed in a digital world. They enjoy social
networking sites, such as myspace and facebook. Today’s teens look for opportunities to express
themselves in creative ways by using web 2.0 tools to edit and share videos and pictures.
The following table contains information from a survey by Grunwald Associates, LLC (2007) in
cooperation with the National School Board Association.

Weekly activities of tweens and teens who have online access

Posting messages 41%

Downloading music 32%
Downloading videos 30%
Uploading music 29%
Updating personal websites or online profiles 25%
Posting photos 24%
Blogging 17%
Creating and sharing virtual objects 16%
Creating new characters 14%
Participating in collaborative projects 10%
Sending suggestions or ideas to Web sites 10%
Submitting articles to Web sites 9%
Creating polls, quizzes or surveys 9%

How does it work?

Since I am primarily interested in the information seeking behaviors of teenagers, my
target population is high school students. Specifically for this paper, I am referring to the
information retrieval behaviors of an 11th grade persuasive speech honors class. This study
was conducted in a suburban Maryland high school (Chung & Neuman, 2006), primarily
composed of middle-class students. Students were allowed to choose their own topics for a
speech. The first example behavior, is that all 21 students began research with the internet,
despite being encouraged to use eLibrary and EBSCO databases.
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The second example behavior, is that students had a difficult time finding resources on the
internet that were considered reliable. Therefore, many decided to use print sources and
databases. The third example behavior, is that students used subject guides or indexes to locate
print resources. The fourth example behavior is that students used keyword searches in natural
language while searching on the web and in databases. This caused much frustration and led to
many unrelevant searches. However, none of the 21 students used the subject search available in
EBSCO. Students began with a broad keyword search and then narrowed the search terms as
they gained more knowledge of their topic. Often, students would change their topic if they
could not find enough relevant information for their original topic. The fifth example behavior is
that students often used hyperlinks to gather more information. Students trusted the hyperlinks if
they were found on what they considered to be a reliable source. The sixth example behavior is
that students felt the need to have a physical copy of their resources. Most students emailed them
to themselves or printed them out. The seventh example behavior was how students selected
relevant information. It was found most often that students would only choose sources that
confirmed their personal point of view. The eighth behavior example is that students did not
spend much time reading. They spent most of their time skimming the sources for the needed
information. This caused many unrelevant sources to be chosen. This small study confirmed
many of the findings from the Ciber study conducted for the British Library and JISC (2007).
Both studies reported that learners do not adequately understand their information needs and
have poor search strategies. The studies revealed that learners prefer natural language in
searching and prefer to skim quickly through information. The studies also revealed that learners
have difficulty with finding relevant resources. (Chung & Neuman, 2006), (Ciber, 2007)

Why is it significant?
These findings are significant because it clearly shows that learners are lacking the skills
to be information literate. Students are missing out on the best resources because they prefer
quick searches on the internet. They are unskilled on how to perform effective database searches
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to retrieve reliable information and how to evaluate sources for relevance and reliability. When
entering college, these high school students will struggle with research papers and projects in a
place where they are expected to already be competent.

What are the downsides?

As school librarians, it is often difficult to teach information literacy skills for many
reasons. I firmly believe that it is vital for school administrators and teachers to support the
efforts of librarians in this process. Without their support, librarians may not be given adequate
time to teach such skills, as the demands of the classroom are already overwhelming. Teachers
must be trained to integrate these skills and expectations in their daily routines. While students
possess a high level of confidence in their skills, they must be made aware of their weaknesses
and allowed opportunities to develop and refine these skills.

Where is it going?
Future information is certainly headed for the digital world. In the future, virtually all
learners will have computers in their homes. Students will have electronic textbooks and more
resources available at their fingertips. Students from different states and countries will
collaborate together on projects and will need to share information and resources using web 2.0
tools. As the push for a global society continues, students will need to respect the diverse
opinions of others even more. As future librarians, we will have to equip early learners with the
necessary skills to succeed. No more waiting to middle school and high school to teach research
skills and computer literacy skills. Effective searching strategies on the web and in databases
must begin in elementary school.

What are the implications for teaching and learning?

Librarians must instill within students the dispositions and beliefs of the AASL standards.
Therefore, librarians must be a living example of these in their everyday lives and encounters.
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In order for students to be successful, they must be able to both find and evaluate information
independently. They must be fluent in technology skills. Students must actively formulate
questions and use diverse information strategies to gather information. Future students must be
reflective of their processes and products and be willing to persist in perfecting weaknesses.
They must be open-minded to the ideas of others and unbiased in their research. Future students
will need to see their work as a valued part of the information domain and be willing to share
their knowledge and ideas with the world.
(AASL, 2009)
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References

A. Campbell, E. Heller, E. Horney, & L. Slater (Creators). E. Horney (Poster) (2007, April 18).
Discover information literacy [Video] Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWzigkpR7yg&feature=related
American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Standards for the 21st-century learner

in action. Chicago: AASL.

Jin Soo, C., & Neuman, D. (2007). High school students' Information seeking and use for class
projects. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 58(10),
1503-1517. doi:10.1002/asi.20637
National School Boards Association. (2007). Creating & connecting //research and guidelines
on social – and educational – networking. Retrieved from
http://nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf
Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., Withey, R., et al. (2008).
The Google generation: the information behaviour of the researcher of the future.
Aslib Proceedings, 60(4), 290-310. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.