Information Literacy of Polish Ph.D. Students: The Learning Outcomes Approach

Objectives

Students are arguably one of the most-researched populations, including in the context of information literacy (IL). However there is significantly less research on Ph.D. students. Nevertheless, the information competences of doctoral students are crucial factors that impact the efficiency and validity of their research and future career prospects. We will discuss the development of an ILDoc questionnaire dedicated to researching IL of Ph.D. students.

Methodology

The first step was to refer to well-known and verified tools such as ILSES (Kurbanoglu, Akkoyunlu and Umay, 2006), IL-HUMASS (Pinto and Sales, 2010; Pinto, 2012), PKIM (Świgoń, 2013), and ALFINVES (Pinto et al., 2013). The other step was to include the learning outcomes approach into the questionnaire. Quantitative data from the survey allowed for statistical analyses to identify potentially core variables. The CAWI technique was used due to its applicability in the case of a dispersed group such as Ph.D. students. The survey was conducted between September 2022 and January 2023 among Ph.D. students from five Polish universities. The selection of universities was dictated by a pragmatic approach in which we focused on easy access to the sample. Due to the important context of systemic changes, we chose only research universities which we knew offered the unique perspective of doctoral schools. The population of Ph.D. students at Polish universities is about 12,000, therefore the required number of people to take part in the survey amounted to 261. Responses were collected from 294 students of various disciplines using snowball sampling – the survey was distributed via peers from selected institutions. Data was analysed using internal consistency reliability tests, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as structural equation modelling.

Outcomes

This paper describes the development of the ILDoc questionnaire and the results of a preliminary study. Using factor analysis, we identified 14 core variables that reflect four theoretically consistent factors. Based on the findings, we propose that these identified latent factors could form the basis for determining the variables in the SEM analysis. The presented approach provides valuable insights into the key factors that shape the information literacy of Ph.D. students in Poland, grounded in their self-assessment of skills, knowledge, and attitudes.

References

• Kurbanoglu, S. S., Akkoyunlu, B., & Umay, A. (2006). Developing the information literacy self‐efficacy scale. Journal of Documentation, 62(6), 730–743.
• Pinto, M. (2012). Information literacy perceptions and behaviour among history students. In Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 64(3), 304–327.
• Pinto, M., Fernández-Ramos, A., Sánchez, G., & Meneses, G. (2013). Information competence of doctoral students in information science in Spain and Latin America: A self-assessment. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 39(2), 144–154.
• Pinto, M., & Sales, D. (2010). Insights into translation students’ information literacy using the IL-HUMASS survey. Journal of Information Science, 36(5), 618–630.
• Świgoń, M. (2013). Personal knowledge and information management–conception and exemplification. Journal of Information Science, 39(6), 832–845.

Magdalena Paul¹, Marek Deja⁵, Ewa Głowacka², Małgorzata Kisilowska-Szurmińska¹, Marzena Świgoń³, Maja Wojciechowska^4
1University of Warsaw, Poland; ²Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland; ³University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland; ⁴University of Gdańsk, Poland; ⁵Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland