Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
Some people might be unaware of misinformation and unable to resolve conflicting information. Undergraduate students become the pillars of the society in the future. Do they have enough capability when confronted with conflicting scientific or medical information on the web? Do students majoring in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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National Taiwan University
2018-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Library and Information Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://jlis.lis.ntu.edu.tw/files/journal/j46-3.pdf |
| Summary: | Some people might be unaware of misinformation and unable to resolve conflicting information. Undergraduate students become the pillars of the society in the future. Do they have enough capability when confronted with conflicting scientific or medical information on the web? Do students majoring in library and information science (LIS) differ from non-LIS students in epistemological beliefs, search behavior, and problem-solving skills? Pre-experimental design, interviews, questionnaires, observation, and search log analysis were adopted in this study. From LIS, liberal arts, and science & engineering (S&T) students, we recruited 90 students. Participants were assigned the search task and their search behaviors were analyzed. The results showed that LIS students consider authority as a critical factor and show more diversified search strategies when solving problems on the web. Moreover, LIS and S&T students’ epistemological beliefs changed significantly from their pretest to posttest while liberal arts students did not. This indicated that LIS and S&T students possess higher-order knowledge and thinking disposition than liberal arts students. Although S&T students displayed higher scientific literacy than the LIS and liberal arts students, there was no significant difference in problem-solving capability and performance of search results among students with different background. This study is helpful for undergraduate students to develop their multiple reflections and web literacy skills. (Article content in Chinese with English extended abstract) |
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| ISSN: | 1606-7509 1606-7509 |