Information Problem-solving Processes Research Articles

Dialogic intervisualizing in multimodal inquiry

Problem-based learning (PBL) designs are addressing the demands and potentials of an information-saturated era where accessing inquiry resources and new information is reconfiguring tutor-facilitated dialogues. Unclear is how incorporation of CSCL tools and the rich digital multimodal resources they collaboratively access and generate are re-shaping the traditional problem-based cycle of inquiry and intersubjective sense-making. This study in higher education adopts Interactional Ethnography (IE) as a logic-of-inquiry to examine how a group of medical undergraduate students and their facilitator (n = 12) collaborated to access, review, appropriate and devise multimodal digital and visual texts within and across one problem cycle (three face-to-face tutorials and self-directed learning). Drawing on concepts of ‘multimodality’ and ‘intervisuality’ from literacy theory, we extend theoretical understandings of how multimodal texts become actors within a developing PBL event, not just objects of study or cultural tools. Through this multi-focal approach, we make visible how what occurs at one point in time with these texts in the developing dialogic space is consequential for what students can and do undertake in subsequent engagements with such texts in and across one bounded cycle of learning activities. Arising from this analysis, we propose the concept of dialogic intervisualizing to characterize the dynamic interplay between and among information problem-solving processes, textual negotiations and purposeful, facilitated dialogue for deep knowledge co-construction within and across collaborative, computer supported learning activity in an inquiry cycle.

Task Characteristics as Source of Difficulty and Moderators of the Effect of Time-on-Task in Digital Problem-Solving

To be able to solve complex information problems in a digital environment is a key 21st century skill. Technology users usually expect to achieve their goals in a fast and accurate way. However, the actual relationship between time-on-task and task outcome is currently not well understood. We analyzed data from a large-scale international study in which representative samples of adults had to solve more or less complex problems using standard computer applications. Our results indicate that different task characteristics influence the relationship between problem-solving performance and time-on-task in specific ways. Spending more time on a task is more likely to compensate an average problem solver when task complexity can be attributed to intrinsic task and technology drivers than when complexity stems from the cognitive/metacognitive activities belonging to information problem-solving processes per se, especially acquiring and evaluating information. Thus, the interpretation of time-on-task should take the source of difficulty into consideration. Implications for personal and professional development are discussed.

Student Learning through Swedish School Libraries: Analysis, Findings and Recommendations

AbstractThis exploratory study examines the application of methods used in the United States to evaluate the impact of school library programs and services on student learning to a setting in Uppsala, Sweden. The Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries study of Todd and Kuhlthau served as the model for data collection in Uppsala middle and high schools and subsequent analysis. Modifications to the original study and details of the data collection and analysis are provided. Findings suggest that many students do perceive that the library program provides different categories of help in their learning processes, that students may benefit from direct instruction in all stages of the information problem-solving process, and that the application of methods to school library settings worldwide may enable meaningful comparisons of practice in school libraries. Findings are limited by the amount of time between data collection and analysis, and modifications to the methodology applied in the original study. Still, this effort marks a critical benchmark in international efforts to demonstrate the impact of the school library on student achievement.

Exploring patterns in undergraduate students’ information problem solving: A cross-case comparison study

Students today routinely conduct research in the digital world to solve problems in daily life and in learning tasks. Although research to date has proposed different models to describe the processes of information problem solving (IPS), little is known about the cognitive patterns demonstrated in the processes, particularly the iterative nature of IPS and the driving factors behind iterations. The current study employed the lens of a self-regulated problem-solving model to develop an in-depth understanding of learners’ IPS processes. Analysis and cross comparisons of three students’ on-screen research activities, think-aloud articulations, artifacts, and interviews revealed three representative patterns for performing an IPS task: reasoning-driven, prior knowledge/task-driven, and information-driven. These different patterns manifest qualitative differences in the three students’ research behaviors and iterations of problem-solving stages. The findings afford an in-depth understanding of the cognitive dimension of IPS, and yield important implications for scaffolding learners in effective IPS.

A pre-post study to assess the impact of an information-problem solving intervention on university students’ perceptions and self-efficacy towards search engines

This study investigates the changes in university students’ perceptions towards the use of Web search engines after their exposure to a teaching intervention centered on the information problem-solving process. A total of 138 students of the Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education of the University of Patras were surveyed to measure perceived ease of use and usefulness of search engines and search engine self-efficacy. A questionnaire, part of which was based on the Technology Acceptance Model, was developed and distributed to respondents, both before and after the course, to measure their perceptions. The results revealed statistically significant improvement for the ease of use and usefulness of search engines, as well as for search engine self-efficacy.

Introducing Information Literacy to Mathematics Classrooms: A Cross-Case Analysis

This study employs a cross-case analysis to explore the demands and opportunities that arise when information problem-solving tasks are introduced into college mathematics classes. Mathematics teachers at three universities developed and introduced tasks that required students to seek out, evaluate, and synthesize quantitative claims from disparate information sources. The results focus on a comparison of how the teachers balanced content-specific instructional demands with the information literacy goals of the tasks that they created. Three tensions were identified through this analysis: the need to balance mathematical content with opportunities for students to engage in a realistic approximation of the information problem-solving process, the limitations imposed by the students’ mathematical knowledge, and the ill-defined nature of teachers’ desired outcomes with respect to student dispositions towards quantitative claims. These findings provide tools for better understanding how to productively incorporate information literacy practices into subject-specific instruction while maintaining a focus on content goals.

When metacognitive prompts help information search in collaborative setting

IntroductionIt is not surprising that information problem solving (IPS) as “metacognitively complex situations” (Veenman et al., 2004) become an interesting area to study ways to foster the metacognitive processing they required, but that are not spontaneously activated. ObjectiveThe goal of the present study was to investigate the positive effect of metacognitive incentives, provided as question prompts, on the metacognitive processing required to collaboratively solve the information problem, and on the IPS scores. MethodOn the basis of the literature, the prompts were embedded in the IPS process and aimed to support three steps of IPS: information search, information classification and information presentation. Such question prompts were expected to positively impact IPS scores related to each step, compared to a condition without prompt. Moreover, we assumed that the positive effects of question prompts would be mediated by the level of metacognitive processing they activated. An experimental study involving IPS partially conducted in dyads was conducted with two conditions (with prompts, n=12 and without prompts, n=14). ResultsResults partially confirmed the direct and mediated effects of question prompts, but only when oriented on the first step of information search. There were no effects of the question prompts orienting on the next steps of information classification and information presentation. ConclusionResults of this study shed light on the role of metacognition in IPS and allowed to suggest some instructional implications of question prompts to support the IPS process.

Improving Information Problem Solving skills in Secondary Education through embedded instruction

This empirical study consists in an investigation of the effects, on the development of Information Problem Solving (IPS) skills, of a long-term embedded, structured and supported instruction in Secondary Education. Forty secondary students of 7th and 8th grades (13–15 years old) participated in the 2-year IPS instruction designed in this study. Twenty of them participated in the IPS instruction, and the remaining twenty were the control group. All the students were pre- and post-tested in their regular classrooms, and their IPS process and performance were logged by means of screen capture software, to warrant their ecological validity. The IPS constituent skills, the web search sub-skills and the answers given by each participant were analyzed. The main findings of our study suggested that experimental students showed a more expert pattern than the control students regarding the constituent skill ‘defining the problem’ and the following two web search sub-skills: ‘search terms’ typed in a search engine, and ‘selected results’ from a SERP. In addition, scores of task performance were statistically better in experimental students than in control group students. The paper contributes to the discussion of how well-designed and well-embedded scaffolds could be designed in instructional programs in order to guarantee the development and efficiency of the students’ IPS skills by using net information better and participating fully in the global knowledge society.

Evaluating text-based information on the World Wide Web

This special section contributes to an inclusive cognitive model of information problem solving (IPS) activity, touches briefly IPS learning, and brings to the notice methodological pitfalls related to uncovering IPS processes. Instead of focusing on the IPS process as a whole, the contributing articles turn their attention to what is regarded the heart of IPS, namely the evaluation of information. In this commentary we reflect on theoretical, methodological, and instructional design issues. Results are commented upon and future research is addressed. A vignette is presented to illustrate the aforementioned issues.

The effect of embedded instruction on solving information problems

In higher education students are often faced with information problems: tasks or assignments that require them to identify information needs, locate corresponding information sources, extract and organize relevant information from each source, and synthesize information from a variety of sources. Explicit and intensive instruction is necessary, because solving information problems is a complex cognitive skill. In this study instruction for information problem solving (IPS) was embedded in a competence and web-based course for distance education students about research methodology in the field of Psychology. Eight of the 16 students following this course received a version of the course with embedded IPS instruction. The other half received a variant of the course without extra IPS instruction. The analysis of the thinking aloud protocols revealed that after the course students in the experimental condition regulate the IPS process more often than students in the control condition. They also judged the information found more often.

Information problem solving by experts and novices: analysis of a complex cognitive skill

In (higher) education students are often faced with information problems: tasks or assignments that require them to identify information needs, locate corresponding information sources, extract and organize relevant information from each source, and synthesize information from a variety of sources. It is often assumed that students master this complex cognitive skill of information problem solving all by themselves. In our point of view, however, explicit and intensive instruction is necessary. A skill decomposition is needed in order to design instruction that fosters the development of information problem solving. This research analyzes the information problem solving process of novices and experts in order to reach a detailed skill decomposition. Results reveal that experts spend more time on the main skill ‘define problem’ and more often activate their prior knowledge, elaborate on the content, and regulate their process. Furthermore, experts and novices show little differences in the way they search the Internet. These findings formed the basis for formulating instructional guidelines.