Experimental Research Question: For Secondary School Students

The Effect of Teaching an Information Literacy Course on Enhancing the Research Skills of Secondary School Students

1. Why is it an experimental research?

This research is to study whether the information literacy levels will have positive effect on secondary school students' research skills.

2. How can data for the variables be collected?

Sample:
Participants in this study will include 40 F.4 students of a secondary school in Kowloon. There will be an equal number of female and male students.

Procedure:
The participants will be given a 30-minute information literacy class once a week over a period of 3 months (one semester). Gender differences will be examined across all of the study variables.

Instrument:
Questionnaires will be used to collect the necessary data which would allow us to find out if and how the students’ research skills are enhanced after taking the information literacy class:
a. Student Questionnaire
Students will be asked to complete a questionnaire before and after taking the course. The questionnaire will contain Likert-scale response items designed to assess students’ evaluation of the usefulness of the course in enhancing their research skills. The scale will include such items as “I am required to research information for completing my class assignments/projects”, “The class taught me how to find needed resources” and “I am now more confident in researching information”. Items will be scored on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The questionnaire will also ask participants to give background information about themselves (class, sex, and age) and estimates of their competency level of research skills.
b. Teacher Questionnaire:
There will also be a questionnaire to solicit teachers’ evaluations of the students’ research skills before and after the course. The questionnaire will contain Likert-scale response items designed to assess teacher’s evaluations. The scale will include such items as “The students do not need to research information for class assignments/projects”, “The course helped the students to become more confident in researching information”. Items will be scored on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

3. How this study can contribute to improvements in some aspect of education/teaching and learning?

In this information age the need for better research or information literacy skills have become more evident. This study will test the hypothesis that an information literacy course will enhance secondary schools students’ research skills (which in turn will help improve their academic achievements). If there is a positive outcome of information literacy level, it will help demonstrate the need for teaching information literacy courses in secondary schools. This is important as in Hong Kong many school principals and teachers do not see the need for information literacy courses and therefore fail to give the necessary resources and support to teacher librarians in this respect.

The study will also provide insight as to whether there is any significant gender difference in the competency level of research skills after taking an information literacy course.
The findings of the study will also help identify how students’ research skills are changed after taking the information literacy course. This will shed light on the future design of the course and provide information for course improvements.