Peninsula College Library Biblio-Bits: Employers Value Research Skills Promoted by Information Competency Instruction

20080123

Employers Value Research Skills Promoted by Information Competency Instruction

Information Literacy has often been characterized as "learning how to learn". The goal is to promote independent learners capable of self-direction who can navigate through the seas of information to fish out (find and evaluate) relevant information from the global knowledge ocean in order to solve a problem or deal with an issue.

For example, most scholarly sources are copyrighted. They are not available in full-text on the "free Web" using a search engine. Most scholarly materials are only available in and through libraries, in the print and electronic resources libraries contain. Students need to know how to find scholarly sources, sources which have been evaluated for quality, such as journal articles and monographs.

A new survey of 301 employers, How Should Colleges Assess And Improve Student Learning? (dated Jan. 9, 2008, released Jan. 22, 2008) was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates on behalf of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The survey found that, of 10 skills desired by employers, only 23% of new graduates were "very well prepared" with respect to "Self-direction" and only 18% were "very well prepared" with respect to "Global knowledge". (p. 3)

Complex projects requiring information competency, such as writing research papers or maintaining electronic portfolios, are forms of authentic assessment valued by a majority of the employers. Only 5% of the employers ranked multiple choice tests as an effective means of assessment.

The only assessment that receives low scores from the majority of employers is the idea of requiring college students to complete multiple-choice tests of general content knowledge.

These findings affirm the importance of including authentic assessment in college education, through projects which require information competency. Research, which information competency skills facilitate, is a complex process of planning, finding quality sources, reading, thinking, and writing. Writing research papers is one form of authentic assessment of student learning. Research papers are a way to both promote and assess the student information competency skills which employers value.

The survey of employers was conducted between November 8 and Dec. 12, 2007 and has a margin of error of +/- 5.7 percentage points.

Faculty Reading Recommendations

ARANA, M. (2006). Cellophane: a novel. New York, Dial Press.
BERNSTEIN, C. (2007). A woman in charge: the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
BESCHLOSS, M. R. (2007). Presidential courage: brave leaders and how they changed America, 1789-1989. New York, Simon & Schuster.
FRIEDMAN, T. L. (2007). The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century [version 3.0]. New York, Picador.
GORE, A. (2007). The assault on reason. New York, Penguin Press.
OBAMA, B. (2006). The audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream. New York, Crown Publishers.
RITTER, S. (2007). Waging peace: the art of war for the antiwar movement. New York, Nation Books.
WARD, P. D. (2007). Under a green sky: global warming, the mass extinctions of the past, and what they mean for our future. New York, Smithsonian Books/Collins.
WEINER, T. (2007). Legacy of ashes: the history of the CIA. New York, Doubleday.

Librarian's List: Selected Stage Conceptions

BECK, D. E., & COWAN, C. C. (2004). Spiral dynamics. Developmental management. Cambridge, Mass [etc.], Blackwell Business.
COMMONS, M. L. (1989). Adult development: comparisons and applications of developmental models. New York, Praeger.
FEUERSTEIN, G., & GEBSER, J. (1987). Structures of consciousness: the genius of Jean Gebser-- an introduction and critique. Lower Lake, Calif, Integral Pub.
GHOSE, A., & DALAL, A. S. (2001). A greater psychology: an introduction to Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought. New York, Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam.
GILLIGAN, C. (1982). In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press.
KEGAN, R. (1982). The evolving self: problem and process in human development. Cambridge, Mass, Harvard University Press.
KOHLBERG, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco, Harper & Row.
LOEVINGER, J., & BLASI, A. (1976). Ego development: [conceptions and theories]. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers.
MILLER, M. E., & COOK-GREUTER, S. R. (1994). Transcendence and mature thought in adulthood: the further reaches of adult development. Lanham, Md, Rowman & Littlefield.
PERRY, W. G., JR. (1999). Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years: A Scheme. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series.
PIAGET, J., GRUBER, H. E., & VONÈCHE, J. J. (1977). The essential Piaget. New York, Basic Books.

Faculty Retreat Books for Discussion Groups (Fall 2007)

ANGIER, N. (2007). The canon: a whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. (suggested by Dan Stengel)
DUMAS, F. (2003). Funny in Farsi: a memoir of growing up Iranian in America. New York, Villard. (suggested by Dan Yezbick)
GOLEMAN, D. (2007). Social Intelligence The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam Dell Pub Group. (suggested by Aleilah Lawson)
LEDERMAN, L. M., & TERESI, D. (2006). The god particle: if the universe is the answer, what is the question? Boston, Houghton Mifflin. (suggested by Jeff Zirul)
MACMILLAN, M. (2007). Nixon and Mao: the week that changed the world. New York, Random House. (suggested by Steven Olson)
ROSE, M. (2005). Lives on the boundary: a moving account of the struggles and achievements of America's educationally underprepared. New York, N.Y., U.S.A., Penguin Books. (suggested by Janet Lucas)
SPENGLER, O., WERNER, H., HELPS, A., & ATKINSON, C. F. (1962). The decline of the West. New York, Knopf. (suggested by Wes Cecil)

Librarian's List: Social Epistemology

LACKEY, J., & SOSA, E. (2006). The epistemology of testimony. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
MCINNIS, R. G. (2001). Discourse synthesis: studies in historical and contemporary social epistemology. Westport, Conn, Praeger.
REMEDIOS, F. (2003). Legitimizing scientific knowledge: an introduction to Steve Fuller's social epistemology. Lanham, Md, Lexington Books.
SPINDEL CONFERENCE, HENDERSON, D. K., & TOLLEFSEN, D. (2006). Spindel Conference 2005. Social epistemology. Memphis, Tenn, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Memphis.

Librarian's List: Tat Tvam Asi and Potpourri

JACOBY, S. (2004). Freethinkers: a history of American secularism. New York, Metropolitan Books.
KELLY, E. F., & KELLY, E. W. (2007). Irreducible mind: toward a psychology for the 21st century. Lanham, Md, Rowman & Littlefield.
KRIPAL, J. J. (2007). Esalen: America and the religion of no religion. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
MAXWELL, N. K. (2006). Sacred stacks: the higher purpose of libraries and librarianship. Chicago, American Library Association.
SCHROEDER, G. L. (2001). The hidden face of God: how science reveals the ultimate truth. New York, Free Press.
WILBER, K. (2007). The integral vision: a very short introduction to the revolutionary integral approach to life, God, the universe, and everything. Boston, Shambhala Publications.

Peninsula College Library Biblio-Bits

20080123

Employers Value Research Skills Promoted by Information Competency Instruction

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