Abstract
Today’s students search, evaluate and actively use Web information in their school assignments, that is, they conduct an online inquiry. This current survey study addresses sixth-grade students’ self-efficacy beliefs in and attitudes towards online inquiry, and to what extent free-time and school-related Internet activity, gender and learning beliefs explain these. The questionnaire was administered in 10 schools to 340 sixth-graders in Finland. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed three elements of self-efficacy beliefs: self-efficacy in Web searching, the evaluation of sources and synthesising information. Furthermore, attitudes towards online inquiry loaded into two factors: a positive and a negative attitude towards online inquiry. A structural equation model was used to analyse the effects of the explanatory variables on the factors. The results of this work suggest that gender and free-time Internet use predict most sixth-graders’ self-efficacy beliefs in and attitudes towards online inquiry.
Highlights
The purpose of this study is to investigate six-graders’ self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes towards online inquiry
We emphasise the importance of the development and validation of tools that are useful for research and serve in educational practice
This study showed that validated scales can be developed to study self-efficacy beliefs in and attitudes towards online inquiry among young primary school students
Summary
The purpose of this study is to investigate six-graders’ self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes towards online inquiry. We mean the process of searching for information on the Internet, evaluating the reliability of retrieved sources and writing a synthesis based on the sources. Teachers are increasingly assigning online inquiry projects in schools [1,2]. Compared with traditional inquiry-based learning [6], online inquiry requires an additional set of skills. Kuhlthau’s [7] seminal research on the information search process (ISP) characterises the affective, cognitive and behavioural uncertainty faced by students in a genuine inquiry process. Research into online inquiry showed that students need skills to plan their online inquiry process, monitor the information obtained and synthesise that information [8,9]. Recent research convincingly reveals that students’ online inquiry skills are insufficient [10,11] and that teachers are experiencing serious difficulties when developing their pedagogical practices to overcome the challenge of missing skills in online inquiry (e.g. [10])
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