The Effect of Early Adolescents’ Psychological Needs Satisfaction upon Their Perceived Competence in Information Skills and Intrinsic Motivation for Research

The American Association of School Librarians’ Standards for the 21st Century Learner make clear that information skills alone are not sufficient for student success; students must also value those skills, use them in a productive and responsible manner, and have the motivational “dispositions in action” to support successful research and independent lifelong learning. Self-determination theory highlights perceived competence and autonomy as two basic psychological needs that support intrinsically-motivated behavior. This study investigates the extent to which context factors inherent to the school library influence students’ perceived competence in the domain of information skills (PCIS), and their intrinsic motivation for research (IMR). The study explores this relationship among 1272 eighth grade 13-year old students in 20 states. Findings indicate that student perceptions of their school librarian’s autonomy supportiveness and their perceptions of the librarian’s technology competence contribute significantly to PCIS and IMR. These findings are important in that they highlight the important role that the school librarian may play in influencing student affect towards the activity of information uses and research, and likely their consequent learning outcomes

Supporting Inquiry by Identifying Gaps in Student Confidence: Development of a Measure of Perceived Competence

Critical to inquiry-based learning is information literacy. Educators can enhance students’ experiences during the inquiry process if they are aware of the skill areas in which students either have or lack confidence. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Perceived Competence in Information Skills (PCIS) measure. Educators can use the measure to support student inquiry by identifying and addressing gaps in student confidence. The measure is freely available through Syracuse University’s Center for Digital Literacy

Curiosity as an influencing variable in achievement in an interactive learner control environment

This study investigated the effect of curiosity in first and second grade children as an individual difference variable in learning in a computer-based interactive learner control environment. The instruction was an art education lesson and contained both facts and concepts. Learner control varies by the degree of instructional control which a student has over his/her own learning. In a complete learner controlled lesson, the learner makes his/her own decisions about issues such as content selection, sequencing, pace, and remediation. In a learner controlled with advisement lesson, the learner makes the same type of decisions but is provided advisement about the decisions and other learner control options. This study used two learner control treatments: (1) learner control without advisement (No Advisement) and (2) learner control with advisement (Advisement). High curious subjects, who generally prefer a higher degree of unfamiliarity and uncertainty, were predicted to perform better in a learner control environment than low curious children; both treatments represented a learner control environment. All children regardless of curiosity level were expected to perform better in the Advisement condition than in the No Advisement condition. As predicted, there was a significant difference in achievement scores in favor of the high curious children in both learner control conditions. The results of this study suggested that differences in curiosity influenced performance within either type of learner control CBIV lesson. The differences were independent of grade level or gender. Research has shown curiosity to be independent of IQ. Although there were no significant differences overall for treatment, there was a significant interaction between grade level and treatment. Grade one subjects performed significantly better in the Advisement condition than in the No Advisement condition while grade two subjects performed significantly better in the No Advisement treatment. Examination of in-treatment data indicated that the grade one subjects heeded advisement more than the second grade subjects which might explain why that group performed better in the Advisement treatment. A possible explanation for the unexpectedly high scores of second graders in the Advisement treatment may have been due to the predominance of high curious subjects in that treatment group; high curious subjects would be expected to perform better in a situation of greater uncertainty than low curious subjects. Implications of the findings for instructional designers and educators in planning instruction are discussed

Empirical Support for the Integration of Dispositions in Action and Multiple Literacies into AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner are based on a number of common beliefs, including the importance of reading and technology skills, and the acknowledgement that the concept of information literacy has indeed become more complex since the last century. The data provided in this article support the importance of considering the dispositions-in-action component of the new standards when planning instruction. Specifically, this article investigates the contributions of perceived competence in information and digital literacy skills, perceived competence in reading, the disposition to read for enjoyment, and the disposition of curiosity, towards actual performance in an information and digital literacy skills knowledge test. Study participants included more than twelve hundred eighth grade students from twenty states. The study is grounded in historical literature on the construct of curiosity and on self-determination theory. Implications for curriculum design are discussed. The research was supported by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services