What Are Undergraduates Thinking? Implications for the Reference Interview

1. What Are Undergraduates Thinking? Implications for the Reference Interview Ethelene Whitmire American Library Association’s 8th Annual Reference Research Forum Atlanta, Georgia June 2002

2. Overview • Theoretical foundation • An empirical study • Implications for reference & information services

3. Adult Intellectual Development Theories • Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development • Women’s Ways of Knowing • Epistemological Development Model • Reflective Judgment Model

4. Can be described with a high degree of completeness Can be solved with a high degree of certainty Experts usually agree on the correct solution Cannot be described with a high degree of completeness Cannot be resolved with a high degree of certainty Experts often disagree about the best solution, even when the problem is considered solved. Well-Structured vs. Ill-Structured Problems (Definition)

5. Converting a unit of measure between its English and metric equivalents Solving for x in an algebraic equation Calculating the trajectory of a rocket’s flight Determining what really happened at the Hue massacre in Vietnam Judging the adequacy of a theoretical proposition Predicting how to dispose of nuclear waste safely Well-Structured vs. Ill-Structured Problems (Examples)

6. Learn to reason to correct solutions Learn to construct and defend reasonable solutions Well-Structured vs. Ill-Structured Problems (Educational Goal)

7. The Three Phases of the Reflective Judgment Model • Pre-reflective thinking • Quasi-reflective thinking • Reflective thinking

8. University of Wisconsin at Madison Study • 15 first-year students • 9 women and 6 men • Variety of academic disciplines

9. Data Collection Methods • Interviews, • Instrument – Measure of Epistemological Reflection, and • Transaction log and verbal protocol analyses

10. Interviews – Two Pivotal Questions (#1) • “I really don’t trust the Internet on points of view because it’s just people’s perspectives” • “Usually I go to the first 10 or 20 sites that pop up, they tend to be the ones related to the issue. I also look at who it was published by” or • “I eliminated anything that went against my viewpoint”

11. Interviews – Two Pivotal Questions (#2) • “I talked to my professor to see what he thought about it” • “I would put it in my paper too because you can’t really give one side. You will have to give the opposite side too”

12. The Instrument - MER • Do you prefer classes in which the students do a lot of talking, or where students don’t talk very much? • Why do you prefer the degree of student involvement/participation that you chose above?

13. Transaction Log and Verbal Protocol Analyses • A preliminary questionnaire • Used Lotus ScreenCam • Two tasks • Searching the Internet • Searching the OPAC

14. Searching the Internet – Search Engines

15. Searching the Internet – Search Strategies

16. Searching the OPAC – Search Methods

17. Searching the OPAC – Search Strategies

18. Findings & Conclusions • Adult intellectual development levels influence the critical evaluation of information sources • Undergraduates need assistance with forming reflective judgments about information found in digital environments.

19. Implications for the Reference Interview • Peer-reviewed journals • Interdisciplinary indexes • Term papers