Modelling how people find and use information has been a significant area of research in academia for decades.
Generally, the models represent – usually on an abstract level and in diagrammatic form – the circumstances in which a need for information arises in an individual’s life, the actions they take to pursue appropriate material, and how they exploit what they have found to resolve the situation that triggered the search. Barriers and other factors that affect the relevant processes may also be shown.
Such models serve a range of practical purposes. In education, teachers can draw on them to discover more about the problems students typically encounter during independent learning projects as well as to gain insights into how their skills can be developed further.
Much is often made of the importance of students deriving meaning from their learning experiences via reflection. Many strategies are available for facilitating this, but the use of models of information behaviour (IB) as outlined above is one option that has gone for the most part unexplored.
Encouraging student reflection
Any teacher wishing to encourage reflection through the model-oriented route may choose from two main courses of action. Both are best suited to high-ability sixth-formers. The demands each makes in terms of abstract thinking render them less appropriate for younger learners.
Route 1: Direct comparison
The first possibility involves either the students tracking down for themselves an existing IB model which allows them to trace from start to finish the course of their work for the assignment in question or the educator presenting their group with one such structure.
Two models I have used successfully with my own students taking the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) can be obtained by emailing me (see below).
The youngsters determine the extent to which the model accurately reflects their research experiences. Where there are differences, the learner may deem it necessary to tweak the structure so that it represents more closely what actually happened.
There is, however, the danger in these circumstances that the ultimate creation does little more than describe the processes associated with the production of the assignment, and reflection on the critical level that the teacher may have intended is largely absent.
Route 2: Original modelling
An alternative strategy lies in asking the student to construct their own model. They may be introduced to the task by being provided with a rudimentary exemplar structure. I have long favoured in this context a linear, three-stage diagram, with separate elements devoted to inputs, processes, and outputs.
Inputs deal essentially with the information accessed by the learner. Here it would be sensible for the student to give thought to:
- The source types.
- The means by which the material was acquired.
- Its relevance to the research question.
- Topics the information addresses.
- Its age.
- Its overall authority, credibility, and quality.
- The complexity and readability of the material.
- The kinds of content (e.g. facts, interpretations, or opinions).
- The information forms (e.g. text, images, or other audio-visual matter, such as video documentaries or podcasts).
Processes, meanwhile, refer to what was done by the individual once the material had been acquired. It may involve:
- Recording details of the sources.
- Employing established frameworks to evaluate the items.
- Applying reading strategies (notably skimming and scanning) to locate relevant content more precisely.
- Note-making and annotating sources.
- Comparing and weighing up evidence.
- Thinking about approaches to producing the product.
- Using quotations, paraphrasing, and summarising.
- Implementing planning tools.
- Managing time to ensure deadlines are met.
Finally, outputs are concerned with the end product. It may well take the form of an essay, a report, or an oral presentation. Here the individual may think critically about:
- The length of their work.
- The subject aspects they elected to cover.
- The nature of their treatment, e.g. chronological or thematic.
- The structure and arrangement they adopted.
- The balance they gave both to individual issues and to the evidence/their own conclusions.
Ideally, the inputs – processes – outputs model outlined here should serve as inspiration for students to construct their own. In arriving at a suitable diagram, they may be invited to:
- Identify in generic terms the key elements or stages in their research.
- Explore the more particular processes that the elements/stages embrace.
- Isolate obstacles which hindered progress and other factors which affected the work.
- Arrange the components in a way that reflects the entirety of the project.
A third way
Although many sixth-formers find it relatively straightforward to derive a model from the kind of mind-map that they produce routinely elsewhere in their studies, less able learners sometimes struggle to use the exemplar to stimulate the creation of their own.
In these circumstances, it may be appropriate to incorporate a degree of differentiation and suggest that those less comfortable with the task should view the bulleted points above and any other relevant issues highlighted by the teacher as prompts that help them summarise the principal characteristics of their work.
If, here too, the student cannot take a critical perspective on what they have done, thought may be given to them also setting down how, in a parallel universe, their endeavours in relation to inputs, processes and outputs might have proceeded differently and to better effect. Again, a proforma I have devised to promote such thinking is available by email.
Final thoughts
Use of the approach advocated in this article offers several benefits:
- It enables students to reflect in a way that will most likely be new to them and provides a welcome departure from the strategies typically employed to facilitate reviewing processes by learners.
- The inclusion within a teaching programme of existing exemplar models of information behaviour forges strong links between theory and practice – areas which often remain unconnected.
- It can lead to increased abstract thinking skills on the part of the student.
- If students are able to arrive at a model in the situation at hand which is reasonably generic, they may use it in the future to compare their experiences across different independent learning situations. It may be that, with greater experience, the individual enriches the model so that it represents more comprehensively a range of disparate episodes of their information behaviour.
The intellectual demands associated with the creation of models should not be underestimated, however, and the success of students in producing them may depend to a considerable extent on the degree and nature of support the teacher is prepared to contribute.
- Dr Andrew K Shenton works at Whitley Bay High School in several capacities, one of which is research. To read his previous articles for SecEd go to www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/dr-andrew-k-shenton. You can email him at ashenton1@outlook.com