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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Main Author: Yuan-Ho Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: National Taiwan University 2018-06-01
Series:Journal of Library and Information Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jlis.lis.ntu.edu.tw/files/journal/j46-3.pdf
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author Yuan-Ho Huang
author_facet Yuan-Ho Huang
author_sort Yuan-Ho Huang
collection DOAJ
description 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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spelling doaj.art-613cc5748a54476d96864ee845e16bd82022-12-21T23:01:35ZengNational Taiwan UniversityJournal of Library and Information Studies1606-75091606-75092018-06-01161457510.6182/jlis.201806_16(1).045Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific InformationYuan-Ho Huang0Department of Library and Information Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei, TaiwanSome 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)https://jlis.lis.ntu.edu.tw/files/journal/j46-3.pdfinformation search behaviorepistemological beliefsproblem-solving skillscredibility of web information
spellingShingle Yuan-Ho Huang
Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
Journal of Library and Information Studies
information search behavior
epistemological beliefs
problem-solving skills
credibility of web information
title Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
title_full Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
title_fullStr Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
title_full_unstemmed Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
title_short Search Behavior of Undergraduate Students toward Conflicting Scientific Information
title_sort search behavior of undergraduate students toward conflicting scientific information
topic information search behavior
epistemological beliefs
problem-solving skills
credibility of web information
url https://jlis.lis.ntu.edu.tw/files/journal/j46-3.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT yuanhohuang searchbehaviorofundergraduatestudentstowardconflictingscientificinformation