How a cycle of information literacy assessment and instruction stimulates attitudes and motivations of LIS students: A competency-based case study

Abstract

The main goal of this study is better understanding of LIS students’ affective and effective status with regard to a range of basic information literacy competencies, through their attitudes – belief in importance (BI), motivations – self/efficacy (SE) and actual levels of knowledge and skills (KS). In order to check to what extent specific pedagogical intervention may result in an improvement, a cycle of combined instruction and assessment was implemented with the following steps: (1) pre-test on affective and actual values concerning information literacy competencies; (2) information literacy instruction on ‘content analysis’ subject; (3) post-test replicating the same questionnaires (ILHUMASS and EVALCI). Various statistical methods such as paired sample tests, factor analysis and correlations were used for data analysis. Some significant relationships between students’ attitudes, motivations and actual levels of knowledge and skills are confirmed, but not in all competencies. Instruction has greater impact on students’ self-efficacy (SE) and lower on belief-in-importance (BI). Latent structures at pre- and post-instruction remain stable in SE and vary considerably in BI. In sum, instruction/assessment experience has been relevant for LIS students’ motivations (SE), ant to a lesser extent for their attitudes (BI). Thus, both information literacy dimensions should be approached separately, with higher emphasis on BI. Though limited to a group of LIS students from one institution, a new research path towards better understanding of the relationships between their affective and actual values on information literacy competencies is suggested. Through the combination of paradigms on both information literacy frameworks and information literacy competencies, outstanding results on the relationships between LIS students’ affective and actual status concerning information literacy competencies are delivered.