cognitive development, college students, & information literacy meghan sitar instruction and...

Cognitive Development, College Students,

& Information Literacy

Meghan SitarInstruction and Outreach Librarian

University of Texas [email protected]

www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/meghan.html

mailto:[email protected]

Goals for Today

Examine models of intellectual and cognitive development in college students

Understand which stages most college students are at when we’re working with them as librarians

Discuss the challenges presented by the ACRL IL Standards and possible solutions for improving our instruction to address these challenges

Most Useful References

Jackson, R. (2007). Cognitive development: The missing link in teaching information literacy skills. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 46(4), 28-32.

Jackson, R. (2008). Information literacy and its relationship to cognitive development and reflective judgment. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2008(114), 47-61.

Perry’s Scheme (1970)

Interviewed mostly male students at Harvard in the 60s

9 stages of intellectualdevelopment that occur in undergraduates


1. The authorities know“The teacher knows what is right and wrong"

2. The true authorities are right, the others are frauds“My teacher doesn't know what is right and wrong but other's do"

3. There are some uncertainties and the authorities are working on them to find the truth“My teachers don't know, but somebody out there is trying to find out"

4. (a) Everyone has right to their own opinion(b) The authorities don't want the right answers. They want us to think

in a certain way.“Different teachers think different things““There is an answer that the teachers want and we have to find it"

William G. Perry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Perry.


5. Everything is relative but not equally valid“There are no right and wrong answers, it depends on the situation, but someanswers might be better than others"

6. You have to make your own decisions“What is important is not what the teacher thinks but what I think"

7. First commitment“For this particular topic, I think that…”

8. Several Commitments“For these topics I think that...."

9. Believe own values, respect others, be ready to learn“I know what i believe in and what I think is valid, others may think differentlyand I’m prepared to reconsider my views"

William G. Perry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Perry.


1 – 2. Dualism•There are right/wrong answers, known to Authorities.•“What is the right answer?”

3 – 4. Multiplicity•There are conflicting answers. •"Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion."

Jackson, R. (2007). Cognitive Development. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 46(4), 28-32.

Rapaport, W.J. William Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development. http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/perry.positions.html.


5 – 6. Relativity•Evidence is needed to support an opinion.•There are few areas in which "right" answers exist, and that most knowledge is"contextual and relativistic." •What was once Authority (with a capital "A") becomes authority (with a lowercase "a"), and there may be multiple authorities who might often disagree.

7 – 9. Commitment• Integration of knowledge learned from others with personal experience and

reflection. • Students must make choices based on consideration, weighing alternatives, and

coming to conclusions about areas of life such as relationships, careers, and values.

• Commitments are constantly reaffirmed or altered based on new evidence.


Rapaport, W.J. William Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development. http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/perry.positions.html.

King and Kitchener (1994)

More diverse sample20-year longitudinal studyBased their measures on

the solution of ill-structured problems

7 stages of reflective judgment, similar to Perry’s Scheme


Pre-reflective thinking

Students progress through the inability to "understand that two people can disagree about an issue“ and believe that "knowledge is gained through the word of an authority figure or through firsthand observation, rather than through the evaluation of evidence.

1. "I know what I have seen."

2. "If it is on the news, it has to be true."

3. "When there is evidence that people can give to convince everybody one way or another, then it will be knowledge, until then, it's just a guess."

King, P.M. & Kitchener, K.S. (1994). Developing Reflective Judgment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers


Quasi-reflective thinking

Students progress through an inability to an understand that "knowledge is assumed to be absolutely certain, or certain but not immediately available“ and do not understand how evidence entails a conclusion and tend to view judgments as highly idiosyncratic.

4. "I'd be more inclined to believe evolution if they had proof. It's just like the pyramids: I don't think we'll ever know. Who are you going to ask? No one was

there."

5. "People think differently and so they attack the problem differently. Other theories could be as true as my own, but based on different evidence."



Reflective thinking

Students progress through an inability to recognize “that in some areas knowledge will never be certain," and finally to the understanding that "the adequacy of . . . solutions is evaluated in terms of what is more reasonable or probable on the basis of current evidence and is reevaluated when relevant new evidence, perspectives, or tools of inquiry become available.'“

6. "It's very difficult in this life to be sure. There are degrees of sureness. You come to a point at which you are sure enough for a personal stance on the issue.”

7. "One can judge an argument by how well thought-out the positions are, what kinds of reasoning and evidence are used to support it, and how consistent the way one argues on this topic is as compared with other topics."


Other notable models

Belenky et al,

Women’s Ways of

Knowing (1986)SilenceConnected knowing,

stepping into what one is trying to know rather than stepping back

Baxter Magolda,

Knowing and Reasoning

in College(1992)Epistemological

reflectionRole of genderIntersections of

intellectual, identity, and relational development in young adulthood

Magolda, M. B. B. (2006). Intellectual development in the college years. Change, 38(3), 50-54.

Whitmire, E. (2003). Epistemological beliefs and the information-seeking behavior of undergraduates. Library & Information Science Research, 25(2), 127-142.

Perry’s students at Harvard

Most students ended freshman year at

Position 3 or 4.3. There are some uncertainties and the authorities are working on them to find the truth“My teachers don't know, but somebody out there is trying to find out"

4. (a) Everyone has right to their own opinion(b) The authorities don't want the right answers. They want us to think

in a certain way.“Different teachers think different things““There is an answer that the teachers want and we have to find it"




Most students at the end of their undergraduate career had attained at leastPosition 6.

6. You have to make your own decisions“What is important is not what the teacher thinks but what I think"




Most of the students did not get beyond Position 5.

None reached Position 9.

5. Everything is relative but not equally valid“There are no right and wrong answers, it depends on the situation, but someanswers might be better than others"

9. Believe own values, respect others, be ready to learn“I know what i believe in and what I think is valid, others may think differentlyand I’m prepared to reconsider my views"



Other researchers using Perry’s Scheme found that students at other institutions:Reached Position 2 or 3 at the end of their

freshman yearMay reach Position 4 or 5 by the time

they graduate



King and Kitchener

"the functional level…is betweenStages 3 and 4

[and] they may be able to comprehend Stage 5 concepts."'

3. "When there is evidence that people can give to convince everybody one way or another, then it will be knowledge, until then, it's just a guess."

4. "I'd be more inclined to believe evolution if they had proof. It's just like the pyramids: I don't think we'll ever know. Who are you going to ask? No one was

there."

5. "People think differently and so they attack the problem differently. Other theories could be as true as my own, but based on different evidence."



Keep in mind…

Don’t make assumptions based on a student’s year in school.

Students can be at different stages in different subject areas.

There’s an emotional component -- stress, anxiety, and confusion can cause regression.

What are the ACRL IL Standards asking undergraduates to accomplish developmentally?

Standard One, outcome 1.f.

“the information literate student recognizes that existing information can be combined with original thought, experimentation, and/or analysis to produce new information.”



Standard Two, outcome 5.a.

“the information literate student selects among various technologies the most appropriate one for the task of extractingthe needed information"



Standard Three

“The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.”


Possible Solutions - Jackson

Lower undergraduate levelsStandard One, Outcome1a

Identification of a topic is doableIdentification of what type of information they might

need would push development

Standard One, Performance Indicator 2Outcomes focusing on concrete information would

be doable



Possible Solutions - Mellon

Dualistic: only basic strategies for solvinginformation problems should be taught, though students should be made aware of more complex information-seekingprocesses, and they should encouraged toask questions of librarians.

Mellon, C. A. “Information Problem-Solving: A Developmental Approach to Library Instruction,” In C. Oberman and K. Strauch (eds.), Theories of Bibliographic Education: Designs for Teaching. New York: Bowker, 1981.


Multiplistic : Mention that search strategy is a very individual thing and that the aim of a library instruction is to produce an independent library user who hasdeveloped a successful problem-solving search strategy.



Relativistic: Librarians are free to discuss all the complexities of information retrieval and evaluation and analysis of sources.


Possible Solutions - Fields

Scaffolding – design prompts and questions that help students build on exiting knowledge

Encourage students to move beyond their current level without skipping levels

Fields, A. (2006). Ill-structured problems and the reference consultation: The librarian's role in developing student expertise,” Reference Services Review 34(3), 405-20.

Possible Solutions - Jackson

Make sure faculty recognize the impact of their authority on student research“Find a journal article in a journal like X”“Don’t use the Web”

Work with faculty to establish the librarian as an authority with whom students may interact



Possible Solutions - King & Kitchener

“If students perceive disrespect or lack ofemotional support, they may be less willing to . . . take the intellectualand personal risks required for development.”


cognitive development, college students, & information literacy meghan sitar instruction and...

Documents

cognitive development

right answers

ethical development

undergraduatesperrys

viewsperrys scheme

itperrys scheme

authorities dont

true authorities