Motivation Power: Exciting Kids about Research.

Abstract

In the past 15 years, a number of literacy models have been developed to describe the skills needed to successfully conduct research and solve problems. All of these models are useful and share a common framework that the authors have synthesized into eight major categories of skills, each with a set of sub-skills, sequenced across three broad research stages. The format of this list is not intended to imply a lockstep linear process but, in actuality, represents iterative process in which any or all skills may revisited in order to modify or expand on previous ones. The Beginning Stage includes definition, selection, and planning; the During Stage includes exploration, collection, and organization; and the Ending Stage includes presentation and evaluation. Based on what is known from Kuhlthau's research, at the beginning of the research process when students are required to define their research task, select and narrow their research topic, and plan their research strategy, motivational goals should lead to instructional design that: generates student interest in the research process; helps students recognize the importance of learning literacy skills; and builds students' confidence in their ability to successfully conduct research tasks. During the research process, as students explore, gather, and organize motivational goals should focus on: maintaining students' interest in the research process; promoting continued valuing of learning literacy skills; and reinforcing students' confidence in their research ability. As students proceed through the concluding stage of the process in which their research results must presented and evaluated, motivational goals should emphasize encouraging students' ongoing confidence in their research ability; promoting students' satisfaction in their research accomplishments; and motivating students' continuing exploration. The underlying motivation theories for each of these stages are also specified. (Contains 10 references.) (AEF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can made from the original document. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIALHAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Introduction Motivation Power: Exciting Kids About Research Ruth V. Small Syracuse University Marilyn P. Arnone Creative Media Solutions, Inc. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Information literacy, the ability to find, select, organize, use, manage, evaluate, and present is a critical literacy for the 21 century. In a society dominated (and often overwhelmed) by in a multitude of formats (e.g. video, audio, text, graphics), a major challenge in education is to teach our nation's youth to be able to recognize when is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information (American Library Association, 1989, p.1). To literate is to an effective user of ideas and information, according to Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, the professional guidelines for the school library field (AASL/AECT, p. 6). Education goals on both the national and state levels specify the importance of students' ability to use to solve problems, make decisions and develop skills for lifelong learning. Information Literacy Models In the past 15 years, a number of literacy models have been developed to describe the skills needed to successfully conduct research and solve problems. For example, Eisenberg and Berkowitz's Big Six° Approach to Information Problem-Solving (1990) specifies a general approach to the problem solving process consisting of six major steps. The Big Six Approach begins with defining the parameters of the task or problem and ends with evaluating both the results of the process and the process itself. Stripling and Pitts' Research Process Model (1988) follows a more linear approach to research, a ten-step process interspersed with eight reflection points that allow students to evaluate and revise or repeat completed steps where needed. Kuhlthau's Model of the Search Process (e.g.1993) uses the results of several years of research to describe the six stages that students undergo during the research process. She found that, rather than a neat and sequential set of skills, it is a learning process that can somewhat messy and more iterative in nature. She also found that there are both cognitive and affective aspects to the seeking process. For example, students frequently explore and collect before they have done adequate job of formulating and narrowing their topic. All of these models are useful and share a common framework that we have synthesized into eight major categories of skills, each with a set of sub-skills, sequenced across three broad research stages (see Fig. 1). The format of this list is not intended to imply a lockstep linear process but, in actuality, represents iterative process in which any or all skills may revisited in order to modify or expand on previous ones. Beginning Stage Definition