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| The information skills
survey sought information from students about their strategies for, involvement
in, and enjoyment of information gathering activities. The questions were
the same for year 4 and year 8 students. The survey was administered to
the students in an independent tasks session (four students working individually
on tasks, supported by a teacher). The questions were read to year 4 students,
and also to individual year 8 students who requested this help. The survey included seven questions which invited students to record a rating response by circling their choice, two questions which used a yes/no response format, and two questions which invited students to tick up to three options from a list (including an “other” option where students could describe an additional response).
Another item asked students to indicate what they do when they can’t find information they need. They could tick up to three options. Their responses are shown here, in order of popularity for year 4 students, with 1997 percentages in parentheses for comparison. Compared to year 4 students, year 8 students placed less emphasis on keeping looking themselves, and markedly more emphasis on asking other people (parent, teacher, friend or librarian). Compared to students in 1997, students in 2001 placed greater emphasis on asking a parent, and at year 8 level less emphasis on asking a librarian.
A pair of questions (questions 10 and 11) asked students if they had used library card or computer catalogues. The percentages were higher at year 8 level. Since 1997, the percentages of students reporting experience of using a card catalogue have declined markedly (at both year levels, but especially year 8), while the percentages reporting experience of using a computer catalogue have not changed greatly. The remaining seven items used a rating format. The percentages of students choosing each response to these five questions are shown in the two tables opposite. Where available, 1997 percentages are shown in parentheses for comparative purposes. |
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Year
4 Information Skills Survey
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%
responses 2001 (1997)
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| heaps | quite a lot | sometimes | never | |
| 1. How often do you have to find information for a study (research topic/project)? | 13 (13) | 32 (33) | 52 (53) | 3 (1) |
| 2. How often do you have a really interesting study for which you have to find information? | 12 (14) | 31 (27) | 51 (51) | 6 (8) |
| 3. How often do you look for information because you want to, not because you’ve been told to? | 17 (15) | 22 (23) | 45 (45) | 16 (17) |
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| 4. How much do you like hunting for information? | 42 (38) | 34 (38) | 15 (14) | 9 (10) |
| 5. How good do you think you are at hunting for information? | 33 | 43 | 17 | 7 |
| 6. How much do you like sharing with others the information you find? | 51 | 25 | 15 | 9 |
| 7. How much do you like writing down what you find out? | 43 (41) | 25 (32) | 19 (14) | 13 (13) |
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Year
8 Information Skills Survey
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%
responses 2001 (1997)
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| heaps | quite a lot | sometimes | never | ||
| 1. How often do you have to find information for a study (research topic/project)? | 18 (18) | 47 (52) | 34 (29) | 1 (1) | |
| 2. How often do you have a really interesting study for which you have to find information? | 7 (8) | 28 (27) | 61 (61) | 4 (4) | |
| 3. How often do you look for information because you want to, not because you’ve been told to? | 8 (9) | 19 (19) | 58 (60) | 15 (12) | |
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| 4. How much do you like hunting for information? | 17 (18) | 51 (51) | 25 (24) | 7 (7) | |
| 5. How good do you think you are at hunting for information? | 23 | 52 | 20 | 5 | |
| 6. How much do you like sharing with others the information you find? | 37 | 41 | 17 | 5 | |
| 7. How much do you like writing down what you find out? | 23 (16) | 37 (35) | 24 (34) | 16 (15) | |