Improving Student Information Search: A Metacognitive Approach

Metacognition is a set of active mental processes that allows users to monitor, regulate, and direct their personal cognitive strategies. Improving Student Information Search traces the impact of a tutorial on education graduate students’ problem-solving in online research databases. The tutorial centres on idea tactics developed by Bates that represent metacognitive strategies designed to improve information search outcomes. The first half of the book explores the role of metacognition in problem-solving, especially for education graduate students. It also discusses the use of metacognitive scaffolds for improving students’ problem-solving. The second half of the book presents the mixed method study, including the development of the tutorial, its impact on seven graduate students’ search behaviour and outcomes, and suggestions for adapting the tutorial for other users.

• Provides metacognitive strategies to improve students’ information search outcomes
• Incorporates tips to enhance database search skills in digital libraries
• Includes seminal studies on information behaviour

Barbara Blummer is the Reference Librarian for the Center for Computing Sciences in Bowie, Maryland, USA. She received a MLS from the University of Maryland in 1995, a master’s degree in Communications/Digital Library from Johns Hopkins University in 2005, and an EdD from Towson University in Instructional Technology in 2012. She has published numerous articles in the library literature and presented at various information literacy conferences.

Jeffrey M. Kenton is the Assistant Dean for the College of Education at Towson University, USA. Among his research interests are: instructional technology, technology literacy, problem-solving, assessment and metacognition. His present work revolves around studying the intersections between classroom technology use and pre-service preparation, content knowledge and metacognition.