Nuances of individual lecturers and its impact on students’ information behaviour and creativity

Dorcas Ejemeh Krubu

doi:10.4314/iijikm.v7i2.1

Abstract

The paper reveals one of the themes that emerged from a research work at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. The research was on the information behavior of Nigerian undergraduates in the world of Web 2.0, using a specialized university as a case study. Of the themes that emerged, of interest in this paper are the nuances of individual lecturers and its impact on students‟ information behavior and creativity. The research work employed mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative research. However, the aspect of data gathering that revealed the essence of this article are dialogue journaling on WhatsApp Messenger with 77 third year students of petroleum engineering department on group assignments and large group discussions with 15 of the 77 students. Kuhlthau‟s Information Search Process (ISP) Model was employed as a lens in studying the student‟s information behavior in the process of writing assignment while Blooms Taxonomy was used to rank the assignment as either Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) or Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The assignment was ranked LOTS because students were requested to read and summarize certain chapters of a textbook. The time allotted for the group assignment was about a week which did not give room for students to collaborate effectively, thereby undermining the pedagogy of group assignment. Due to the poor conduct of the assignment, students did not seem to conform to the Kuhthau‟s ISP model. Also, students expressed how some lecturers expect them to regurgitate what they have been thought without giving room for individual language, expression, and creativity, hence inhibiting their ISP process. Rather than employing Kuhlthau‟s ISP model to explore students information seeking process, the research recommends Theory of Change by Quality Education in Developing Countries (QEDC) (2008) and the theory and practice of critical education by Shor (2012). Keywords : Nuances of lecturers, Information behavior, creativity, Kuhlthau‟s ISP model, Theory of Change

Highlights

The research paper details one of the themes that emerged from a research work on the information behavior of Nigerian undergraduates in the world of Web 2.0, using a specialized university as a case study
This section explicates the key findings from the dialogue journals and the large group discussions that reveal the nuances of individual lecturers and the impact of students‟ information behavior and creativity
Some lecturers expect students to rehearse what they have given them word for word thereby inhibiting their information search process and impeding their information literacy skills acquisition, while some other lecturers give the latitude for self-expression, individuality, and creativity - by extension - enabling information literacy skills acquisition through freedom of information search and freedom of expression

Summary

Introduction

The research paper details one of the themes that emerged from a research work on the information behavior of Nigerian undergraduates in the world of Web 2.0, using a specialized university as a case study. Given the overriding importance of ICT within the nexus of higher education and the thrust of human capital development initiatives in Nigeria, the doctoral research was quite apt in addressing the information behaviour of undergraduates using Kuhlthau‟s Information Search Process (ISP) model (2004, 2008) and the Association of College Research Libraries (ACRL) (2011, 2012) information literacy competencies to investigate the information needs of Nigerian undergraduates in terms of their academic work and everyday life; the information resources and infrastructure available to undergraduates; the information seeking processes of Nigerian undergraduates; and the barriers that undergraduates experience in their information seeking. The conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap in one‟s knowledge is information seeking (Case, 2006:5; Krubu, 2015) Put differently, it is a conscious and constructive effort to derive the benefit of undistorted meaning from information for the purpose of knowledge acquisition and extension (Kuhlthau, 1991:361). A user must, first of all, remember a concept to understand it, and a concept can Figure 2: Blooms revised taxonomy by Churches (2009:5)

Methodology

Findings from the dialogue journals

Findings from the large group discussion

Conclusion and recommendations