Is information literacy ability, and metacognition of that ability, related to interest, gender, or education level? A cross-sectional study of higher education students

Ellen Nierenberg,Tove I Dahl

doi:10.1177/09610006211058907

Abstract

How information literate are students in higher education, and how accurate is their metacognition related to that ability? Are students’ perceived needs to learn more and their level of interest in becoming information literate related to their pursuit of information literacy (IL) skill development? First-year undergraduates, master’s, and PhD students ( N = 760) took an objective IL test and estimated their scores both before and after the test. IL ability, as well as students’ estimation of their IL ability, increased with higher education experience and IL test experience, though also varied notably within groups. Low-performers tended to overestimate their abilities, while high-performers tended to underestimate them—both evidence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Furthermore, gender comparisons revealed that men tended to estimate higher, and more accurate, scores than women. Finally, PhD students reported greater interest in becoming information literate than undergraduates. Although undergraduates felt a greater need to learn more, PhD students were more inclined to pursue IL growth. For both groups, interest in becoming information literate correlated far more with their likelihood to invest effort into developing IL competencies than their perceived need to know more. What implications might these findings have for how we conceptualize the teaching of IL?

Highlights

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was stormed by individuals who believed information that results of the US presidential election were fraudulent, despite ample, and reliable media coverage of evidence to the contrary
There were no significant gender differences found for the master’s and PhD students. These findings show that students at higher higher education (HE) levels have higher estimates of their information literacy (IL) competency, and that they are better at accurately estimating their IL test scores compared to students at lower HE levels
Differences in IL competencies and metacognition related to those competencies in students of different genders and HE levels—both understudied to date—have been explored in this article

Summary

Introduction

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was stormed by individuals who believed information that results of the US presidential election were fraudulent, despite ample, and reliable media coverage of evidence to the contrary. The dissenting information sources motivating the angry skeptics were neither reliable nor credible, yet people were uncritically convinced by this misinformation, and the result of that was stupefying. When such events occur, many questions arise. Are we able to find reliable sources and use them appropriately when we produce information? Important, are we aware of when our abilities to evaluate, find, and use information are insufficient? The goal of this article is to theoretically and empirically frame issues related to students’ information competencies and metacognitive awareness thereof. Addressed are the competencies students in higher education (HE) have for finding, evaluating, and using information sources. We explore the relevance of student interest in possessing these skills, their felt need to develop them further, and their effort intentions related to that

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