GRADUATE STUDENTS’ LEVELS OF HAVING DIFFICULTIES IN INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS

Dr.Meral Guven
Dr.Bahadir Eristi
Anadolu University

Abstract

The information literacy skills have primary role and significance among the fundamental competencies that information age people should have. When the related literature has been reviewed, it is revealed that the significance of information literacy skills for individuals at each period is widely emphasized, and at the same time the competency domains, which information literate individual is expected to have, differ in terms of education grade. As learning level increases, the competency domains vary and expectations are enhanced. One of these learning grades is higher education. It is of great importance for the students studying in higher education institutions to have the expected information literacy skills during their education and after their graduation in order to improve their qualifications. At this point, it is crucial to determine the students’ information literacy competencies, the domains that the students have difficulty with the information literacy, and their uneasiness level in order to make necessary arrangements to improve their qualifications. The purpose of this study is to determine the difficulty level of graduate students in information literacy skills. This study which aims to define the difficulty levels of graduate students in their information literacy skills was conducted with descriptive research design. The participants of this study involved the students studying at Education and Science Graduate Schools at Anadolu University. This study was conducted with 428 graduate students. The data for this study was collected through “Information Literacy Scale” which was developed and validated by Polat (2003). Findings indicated that graduate students had relatively fewer problems regarding information literacy. Significant differences were found among graduate students in diffuculty level of information literacy skills, age, gender, education level, instruction field and professional group.

Keywords

Information literacy, Graduate students, Lifelong learning.