Date Approved

5-13-2000

Embargo Period

6-17-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in School and Public Librarianship

Department

Special Educational Services/Instruction

College

College of Education

Advisor

Willett, Holly G.

Subject(s)

Computer-assisted instruction; Information literacy--Study and teaching (Elementary)

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Abstract

In an attempt to determine if computer technology helps elementary students achieve information literacy, a quasi-experiment was conducted using the Solomon four-group design with two fourth grade and two fifth grade classes. Information Literacy Standards from Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning and Eisenberg and Berkowitz' Big 6™ Information Literacy model were used to structure the experiment. The researcher was a participant observer, the school's librarian. Two classes were pretested and posttested, the other two were only posttested following Solomon four-group protocol. The researcher used a rubric to assess students at each step of the Big 6™ Information Literacy model in the course of their information problem-solving search. The scores from the pre- and posttests were not conclusive in themselves. While one class demonstrated improvement on its posttest scores, all the classes' posttest scores were within a few percentage points of each other. Likewise, the Rubric for Assessment determined the four groups to be "adequate" or slightly better at each of the Big 6™ steps. The role of the teacher-librarian was also studied and found to be crucial. Continuing study of teacher-librarian roles is recommended as computer technology advances and its use continues to increase in education.

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