Despite the wealth of information available on the Internet, a recent study suggests that many students lack basic research skills.
According to the latest Project Information Literacy Progress Report, 84 percent of students say that when it comes to course-based research, getting started is their biggest challenge. The three sources cited most often by students were course readings, search engines like Google, and scholarly research databases. Only 30 percent asked a librarian for research help. The online survey polled 8,353 students from 25 college campuses nationwide.
Alison J. Head, a co-principal investigator for the project, said the results suggest that today’s students struggle with a feeling of information overload.
“They feel overwhelmed, and they’re developing a strategy for not drowning in all information out there,” she said. “They’re basically taking how they learned to research in high school with them to college, since it’s worked for them in the past.”
Ms. Head said the findings show that college students approach research as a hunt for the right answer instead of a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation.
“Not being aware of the diverse resources that exist or the different ways knowledge is created and shared is dangerous,” she said. “College is a time to find information and learn about multiple arguments, and exploring gets sacrificed if you conduct research in this way.”
However, Ms. Head said the state of college research isn’t completely discouraging. In the report, only 26 percent of students said they had a problem evaluating sources. Also, students on average used at least four standards when evaluating the legitimacy of a print-based source and at least seven standards when it came to a Web-based source.
34 Responses to Students Lack Basic Research Skills, Study Finds
katenonymous - November 9, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Unfortunately, I find that the problem is not limited to academic research. I encounter too many students who are unable to conduct the simplest of web searches. Without direction, a dismaying number can’t find a list of majors, or information about housing, or the location of a university. If they can’t do that, how are they going to be able to evaluate sources and arguments?
arrive2__net - November 10, 2010 at 3:55 am
Although only 30% may have asked the librarian for help, that help may have made a big difference for the success of those 30% of students, and the success of 30% of students actually is a big deal.
I don’t think feeling overwhelmed is anything new and probably shows that the students are truly being challenged. College is a learning experience so the students aren’t really supposed to start off already knowing how to do everything. Still, perhaps it highlights a need for more direct instruction on how to do that type of research. When do the students get direct instruction on that?
As for looking for the right answer instead of exploring options, I wonder what gets rewarded with grades, getting directly to the correct school solution or spending a lot of time exploring various options. Paper requirement often specify a number of pages the paper should be, and exploring options may take more pages. Writing a paper for one class while taking five classes can tend to be a quick and expedient business, and looking for one correct answer can just be the quicker algorithm.
Bernard Schuster
Arrive2.net
educationnet2007 - November 10, 2010 at 7:49 am
A decent set of research skills are required for the thesis or dissertation. Prior to these, nobody seems to have a clue.
educationnet2007 - November 10, 2010 at 7:49 am
A decent set of research skills is required for the thesis or dissertation. Prior to these, nobody seems to have a clue.
robinsong - November 10, 2010 at 8:21 am
Information overload is real. There are lots of ways to deal with it, including Google, Wikipedia and academic research tools. What is the quality of research assignments that students submit? If the quality is lacking but “works” to get them the desired grade, where is the incentive to improve? Do group projects where the lack of research skill by some students can be covered by the ability of other students help? If a large number of students have poor research skills, but submit high quality work what does that mean?
alexsim - November 10, 2010 at 8:50 am
Teaching students (undergrads and grads) the basics of academic research is a big part of my job as a subject and instruction librarian. I always tell them that the good/bad news is that there is a lot to choose from, and to try on focus on a few resources that are best for their disciplines. Of course, we need to help them find those resources. I have found that most students are very appreciative of our help, and their instructors say that they do much better after our classes or one-on-one sessions. We are also doing webinars, online tutorials, Jing videos, and other tools to reach out to distance learners.
Another factor is that our faculty are often unaware of the databases and other tools we have. If they don’t know, then their students don’t either, and students are highly influenced by their professors when it comes to research. It is an ongoing challenge, but seeing our students improve their researching skills and gaining more confidence is truly worth it.
austinbarry - November 10, 2010 at 9:05 am
If the purpose of research is to find sources which collaborate an already established conclusion (I.E. the objective of many high school “research” papers), then students may have learned a research technique which doesn’t help them when they don’t already know the answer. This might account for the students who can do “research”, but can’t find a list of majors. Encouraging real research means asking questions for which there is no one established answer or where the information isn’t immediately available (such as a history of an obscure place or non-famous person).
wittseek7 - November 10, 2010 at 9:23 am
That students have poor research skills may reflect the obsession with novelty that infects U.S. culture. Sadly, most adults, as well as the young, suffer from a passion for the latest news–news increasingly defined as the latest celebrity break-up and the snarkiest fresh political comment. Oh, and the natural disaster of the day and the music download of the moment. And young and old do not seek these details out; rather, the details wash over them. They expose themselves to media by which they may passively receive the buzz they crave. Impatient for an ever newer and stronger source of this buzz–which, significantly, brings many of them relaxation–they develop an attention span that grows increasingly smaller. We live in a culture of pervasive shallowness. How can we expect the young to take to researching for deeper, quietly-important information? But we must keep trying, so that more than 30% can experience the profound satisfaction of active discovery.
mbelvadi - November 10, 2010 at 9:30 am
Other research in this area suggests that student self-reporting is worthless as a research tool when it comes to questions of what they can do, e.g. “only 26 percent of students said they had a problem evaluating sources”, because when evaluated objectively, it turns out that they actually have no idea how to do what they think they can do.
Studies like this should never be summarized as being about what students can do, but only about what students think/feel they can do.
In many cases, their perception gets in the way of teaching them what they need to know. For instance, when I schedule an Info Literacy class session with a prof, sometimes the prof (without my fore-knowledge) tells them that if they “already know how to do research” that they don’t have to come to my session. This is a big mistake, because many students really don’t know what they don’t know and blow off the session that could have helped them.
sanjoaquin - November 10, 2010 at 9:48 am
I teach a lot of research methods and statistics classes. I find that a little time on the front end finding out what the students already know and find important, and then using that as a basis for the discussion of the logic and procedures, helps them embed the new information faster and builds proficiency of use because they can see how it might fit into their lives right away.
Many of our students have actively been discouraged from thinking for themselves…it may take a couple terms for them to pick up the new skills, so when you are looking at curriculum building, you can seek multiple points of reinforcement and augmentation as their classes progress to help them acquire the tools they need.
ambouche - November 10, 2010 at 9:51 am
Students (and most faculty members) have never had very good basic research skills. If I had not had a library degree and seven years’ experience as a college librarian before I started grad school in the humanities I would not have had good research skills either. Research skills are rarely taught optimally, i.e. by subject specialists who have the skills to start with, and can apply them in subject-based contexts where they are likely to stick. Most academics (in the humanities anyway) only use a few research strategies and tools, the ones they learned about in doing their dissertations. This is a wonderfully open field for improvement, but is being threatened by the economics of research publication which is tending more and more to lock smaller or poorer institutions out of the major resources and tools. It is hard to teach research effectively if you don’t have access to the major databases and journals in the field, and many of us don’t.
lbills - November 10, 2010 at 10:49 am
From the sublime to the mundane — along with the lack of the larger skills of searching and evaluation, there is a real challenge for students in just locating materials. Most students do not know how to read a citation and cannot tell the difference between a citation to a book and one to a journal article. As I think back I realize that I learned how to read citations by learning how to write them. While I think that programs like EndNote and RefWorks are wonderful tools, their presence means that we need to consciously teach students this skill as well.
Suggestion: why not make citations in articles, books and indexes readable without forcing people to learn a series of arcane visual clues (that actually change from style manual to style manual) — Otherwise this will continue to be one more unnecessary barrier to learning.
charlesbwhite - November 10, 2010 at 10:55 am
“Ms. Head said the findings show that college students approach research as a hunt for the right answer instead of a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation.”
That is a developmental stage in thinking about knowledge; that there is a right answer and that their job is to find that right answer, not to find the best answer, the best argument in support of one of many possible answers.
bekka_alice - November 10, 2010 at 11:06 am
mbelvadi nicely summarized my reaction to the students’ opinion that they don’t have difficulty determining validity of data. And while it’s followed up with the sentence that the students use X number of ways to validate the probable integrity of the data, I wonder how many of them marked various standards on a checklist while thinking “What does that mean? Sure, I’ll mark that one, that one sounds good.” I strongly support an introductory course in research, logic and support of argument – I could have really used one when I started college, and I’m sure the case is still the same for many students (just read the snowflake forum thread for examples).
mdhitchcock - November 10, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Two points:
1. The concept of information overload is based on the belief that everything written down (or posted on the internet) is information. In researching a tax question on I found hundreds of sites that either paraphrased or copied directly the IRS manual. Since the IRS manual didn’t answer my question, none of these sites provided me with any information. Students are not experiencing information overload, they are experiencing the difficulty of finding information in a sea of garbage.
2. After a couple of years of reading poorly researched papers, I decide to incorporate research methods in the paper writing assignment. So I give my students specific assignments: using the library catalog to find a book; using the library’s online databases to locate magazine articles, scholarly journal articles, first person accounts; doing personal interviews. The students still struggle but they get an idea of what they are supposed to do.
11186245 - November 10, 2010 at 2:07 pm
There’s been a lack of information seeking and finding skills for decades, pre and post Internet. And there have been some fine efforts by many librarians, working with teaching faculty, to improve on the general student’s ability in info seeking and finding. Still, the best advice I can offer a student is to find a good librarian and for the student to stay in touch with that librarian throughout his/her college career.
I am surprised that the Chronicle article of the study does not link this report on impoverished info lit skills with the huge drop off in hours spent studying. A quote from the Boston Globe’s What Happened to Studying?: “the average student at a four-year college in 1961 studied about 24 hours a week. Today’s average student hits the books for just 14 hours”. The article is at: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/04/what_happened_to_studying/
and summarizes recent longitudinal studies of student studying behavior (covered by the Chronicle). We need to add a question mark to that seemingly ubiquitous campus banner raised high and emblazoned with “Study Hard! Party Hard!”
John Lubans Jr.
11111924 - November 10, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I remember spending some time thirty years ago with a young friend who was then a first-year student at Harvard and was struggling with writing a history paper. It gradually emerged that her biggest problem was that she was trying to present the Right Answer to a question, rather than choosing one of two or three defensible answers and defending her choice. In other words, she had a high school understanding of what history was, and her university instructor had not (or hadn’t successfully) given her a more sophisticated model. How is a student supposed to do “research” when he or she doesn’t understand how to think about the topic at all?
infosherpa - November 10, 2010 at 4:57 pm
How does this continue to be news? California has the lowest level of school and public library service in the nation. The places where children practice research are poorly stocked and understaffed. And one reporter after another misses the story.
We would have to build 1000 public libraries and hire 5000 school librarians to be AVERAGE.
christian_d - November 10, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Is this really news? Isn’t this old hat by now? Have the bulk of students ever been good researchers?
I’d like to see some pointers to online resources for teaching research skills and possibly taking a step to correcting the problem. Can anyone share a few links? And no, don’t just Google them and post them (I can do that!) — I’d like something you can vouch for based on experience.
intexas - November 10, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Like others, I suspect that TMI (too much information) is more of an excuse than anything else. Does anyone remember what it was like going though the print version of the MLA directory? Does anyone remember going through the stacks? Does anyone remember how large a library can be and the resulting information in said library? Don’t get me wrong; I love my MLA database and all others I can access. I don’t go to the library as much as I used to because I preview hundreds on Google Books and buy them if they work for me (my only solution to late fees). Rather than blaming poor researching skills on TMI, look elsewhere. And one other thought–I suspect that professors assume students know how to engage in thoughtful, productive research when they walk into a classroom. Too many profs are in denial. They know better. I would suggest that in every department all freshman and sophomore classes should have a “learning how to research” component (including community colleges). A little repetition is good for the soul.
sm9494 - November 10, 2010 at 5:34 pm
christian_d – I point to The Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, produced by the Association of College and Research Libraries . These standards have also been adapted for the specific research methods and tools for various disciplines.
The “Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students” (January 2008) were developed by librarians with teaching faculty input. The goal of such work is to support the integration of research skills into the curriculum via collaboration between librarians and faculty.
Other discipline specific Standards include:
Political Science Research Competency Guidelines (PDF) (July 2008)
Psychology Information Literacy Standards (June 2010)
Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English (June 2007)
Information Literacy Standards for Science and Technology (June 2006)
sm9494 - November 10, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Sorry the links aren’t showing! All are accessible at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/
v8573254 - November 10, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Agreed. Not news.
rosmerta - November 11, 2010 at 8:45 am
What does seem new to me are the number of students who have no understanding of something as simple as a library catalog, or how to use it. I’m pretty sure in grade school we were all taught how to search the library catalog and use a call number to find a book on the shelf. Now it seems students can make it through 12 years of grade school without learning even this very basic skill.
Teacher education needs to focus on teaching library skills as well as content.
amatan - November 11, 2010 at 11:15 am
It does not surprise me that our students are coming in ill-prepared for post secondary education. One cause is that there are too many “independent contractors” in the field of K-12 education that would rather teach their “fun” units of study they have done for years as opposed to explicitly teaching skills that will help students for their post-secondary future. For the most part, K-12 educators do not read current research trends and do not adjust their instruction to meet the needs of the students. It is time for us to revamp our curriculum and adjust to the 21st century classroom. http://core4all.wordpress.com
pt8105 - November 11, 2010 at 6:01 pm
I took a class at my community college in order to renew my teaching certificate. Although the class consisted of classroom teachers (or assistant teachers) the instructor did not take for grant that we new research inside out. The librarian conducted a seminar on effective research and evaluating websites and articles. It should not be assumed that high school graduates know how to properly evaluate data and synthesize data to present an idea.
iriselina - November 11, 2010 at 9:08 pm
So many valid points have been made here and I dont wish to repeat that students are poorly equipped witht res. skills etc etc, because I remember how I felt when I joined college and walked into a huge library myself.
As a teacher however, (for those who want concrete help , not google postings) I taught Study Methods along with English and in this course I introduced a project called Simulated Academic Research which spread across 6 weeks.I got this idea from Roger Budd,in the ELTJ of 1989(English language Teaching journal, UK)but adapted it to suit my purposes.I guided them through topic creation, questionnaire writing,tabulation and evaluationand interpretation,conducting real-life interviews with folk to whom I had written earlier or for whom letters of introduction were provided and then helped them with, first writing it all down in a 500 word essay which was to be expanded later into a 12pg essay with Bibliography etc etc.
yes, Style Manuals change annoyingly and so we must give them practice in what our institution requires and insist on this being followed.Not easy for the teacher, but how else can we hope to see school kids turn college graduates!
I also conducted a Library-Hunt 2hour session earlier to guide them through the vast sources in the library and introduced them to the Librarian personally!
I am no expert, but having gone through the paces myself I felt I had to share this with the younger ones who are , yes, passive receivers etc etc
The SAR Project changed them dramatically!Meeting real-life folk with a serious academic issue to be researched, was a tremendous ego-booster for them.
We should not complain if we dont help.
Iris
richardtaborgreene - November 12, 2010 at 5:45 am
AT WESTON HIGH SCHOOL in Massachusetts, years ago, a mentor and I developed an Educate Your Extended Mind program of measuring the quality of mind extensions of each student each year and grading them for what was learned as seen in each mind extension. The quality of student personal file systems (paper and electronic), personal libraries, personal networks of friends who perform cognitive functions for them–editing, challenging, news, etc., cognitive architecture…..and so on were measured yearly till high school graduation.
No teachers actively “educated” these mind extensions of students, instead they were trapped in an unthinking image of stuffing things into brains and then struggling to pull stuff out of brains. Schooling as long as it stays brain centered is waste–we need to educate mind extensions as well as or better than we educated brain matter.
trolden - November 16, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Fascinating range of comments here, obviously with a US focus.
Just to add something from this side of the pond, we are finding that, with the massive expansion in the university sector over here, the quantity and quality of university teaching is being squeezed. Students are simply not getting the sort of support and teaching they need to be able to undertake degree-level and post-graduate research projects properly.
Several years ago, at the beginning of this academic ‘dash for cash’ I had 170 students turn up for my 16 place seminar. The university assigned three extra classes – which meant that I was lecturing to 74 students in one group. Hardly the personalised supported education that they had signed-up for.
Sadly, we are told that our unsustainable expansion is in imitation of our friends in the USA. Something of an insult to you guys and a brutal misunderstanding of the ideal of a university.
Neil de Reybekill
http://www.liferesearch.co.uk
http://www.trolden.wordpress.com
yoyoid - February 25, 2011 at 1:42 am
I would think it’s better than the candidate who doesn’t say anything.
ktucker - March 3, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Seriously now, that’s ridiculous. So what if that candidate dominates the discussion? How about him/her actually being the smartest in the room? Wouldn’t you want to have someone who’s smarter than you in your team? Isn’t the opposite just promoting mediocrity? How about adopting some of the corporate growth mentality? At the end of the day, it might even help us bring some sanity into public finances around campuses. I’d rather hire fewer “smartest in the room” folks than a growing bunch of mediocre ones who’s daily agenda before they get off bed is “how do I push this item off my agenda and on to someone else’s.”
11236504 - March 3, 2011 at 5:36 pm
If you need someone to dominate and make every decision, great. If you are looking for a team-player, collaborative, considerate, willing to learn context before offering solutions and rule changes, then think twice about hiring the person that seems to be self-proclaimed as smartest in the room.
oldphilprof - March 4, 2011 at 2:46 pm
If a candidate is naturally a chatty-cathy and fears s/he may not be able to control it, ask questions! Pontificating will not endear you. Being (or at least appearing) interested in others is much more attractive.
jim68243 - October 6, 2011 at 11:15 am
Yes, there is a quiet confidence that speaks to maturity. I don’t see this very often but it is refreshing when it appears. mechanical engineering internships