5.4 Data Analysis Based on Themes from Research Questions
5.4.5. How IL was Conducted
5.4.5.1 Types of User Education/IL Programme Offered
The librarians were required to state what type of user, reader education or information literacy programme the library offered to undergraduate psychology students. The following responses were recorded; the most consistent programme was how to use the e-resources and how to access the e-books and citation management. All the respondentsindicated that they conducted library orientation for new students; and organised training for groups of students and lecturers. Others provided instruction services through their classes, known as the ‘first-year experience’ or ‘library 101’. The findings revealed that IL programmes in the library involved training users on how to use library facilities and resources, namely: print and E-books, print and E-journals, OPAC and general information retrieval skills.
The respondents were required to state what areas/topics were covered during IL training sessions in the library. Table 5.18 shows the findings.
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Table 5.18: Areas/Topics Covered in IL Sessions (N=12)
Areas/Topics Covered (N=12) Frequency Percentage
E-resources searching 9 75
How to use OPAC 7 58.3
Available information sources 5 41.7
Citation management 4 33.3
Plagiarism 2 16.7
The results in Table 5.18 reveal, in decreasing order, the topics covered as: E-resources searching (75%); how to use OPAC (58%); available information sources (41%) citation management (33.3%) and plagiarism (16.7%). The findings revealed that librarians were more heavily inclined to teaching availability and use of electronic resources than any other topics, suggesting the growing use of electronic resources at Kenyan universities.
Respondents were asked to state who conducted the information literacy training programmes in their institutions, in order to establish whose responsibility it was for teaching IL in the library. All the respondents 12 (100%) indicated that only qualified librarians with Master’s degrees and above were allowed to teach IL programmes, with one respondent saying,
“according to our policy, only those with postgraduate qualification are allowed to teach.” This could be an indication that IL teaching is taken very seriously by libraries, as demonstrated by the high qualifications required to teach the course.
Student respondents were required to state whether or not they had received any specific IL training designed for psychology undergraduate students, apart from the general sessions provided by the library to all students. The purpose of the question was to establish whether or not universities had made an effort to provide for IL that was discipline-specific. Responding to a Yes/No question, the study indicated that 80 (62%) of the students had received some form of specific IL training to psychology students apart from the general sessions by the library taught to all students, in their first year. The remaining 50 (38%) indicated that they had only been given the general training by the library in their first year, during orientation. Those 30 students who could not remember any IL-related content after first year are likely to be in the group of
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the 37 students in Table 5.28, from the bottom of the table, who did not have a clear understanding of the IL concept.
The study subsequently sought to discover the nature of training the students had received. The aim of this question was to establish in which course or activity the students had received IL instruction. The findings recorded in Table 5.19 revealed, in descending order of ranking:
training in use of ICT 49 (61.25%) - searching the library catalogues and internet; topic on use periodicals, 36 (45%). Other responses included counselling 30 (37.5%) and training to do research 10 (12.5%). These findings from student respondents are in agreement with findings from librarians’ responses on the content of their IL instruction offered to students (see Section 5.5).
Table 5.19: Nature of Training Imparted to Students (N=80)
Since most of the academic journals were in electronic format, the training on use of these journals was done in the computer lab or multi-media centres in the library, which made ICT the most critical component in IL training.
Students were asked to evaluate their IL learning experiences by responding to a number of questions on a scale of 5 to 1, starting with strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree, respectively. Results in Table 5.20 show the average mean for teaching and content as 3.8. The most important approach of teaching IL that impacted students the most was that which included plenty of examples and illustrations. This helped the students to
Frequency Percentage
ICT 49 61.25
Periodicals training 36 45
Counselling 30 37.5
Lectures on doing research 10 12.5
Group discussion 4 5
Peer education at work 3 5.75
Groups 2 2.5
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understand the lessons better (mean of 4.05), followed by the lessons that had hand-outs and other materials given (mean of 3.96). A large number of students 101 (with 3.92 mean), stated that they found the lessons intellectually stimulating, as shown in Table 5.20.
Table 5.20: Teaching and Content: Descriptive Statistics (N=130)
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Agree Mean S/D N It was clear to me what I was supposed to learn in the
information literacy course
3 13 37 54 23 3.59 0.962 130
The topics seemed to follow each other in a way that made sense to me
2 14 38 53 23 3.62 0.951 130
I found my studies intellectually stimulating 2 8 19 66 35 3.92 0.929 130 The hand-outs and other materials we were given
helped me to understand the unit
1 5 24 64 36 3.96 0.839 130
I could see how the set work fitted in with what we were supposed to learn
2 8 34 62 24 3.75 0.874 130
Assessments of the information literacy course/sessions helped me learn better
3 5 40 57 25 3.71 0.893 130
Plenty of examples and illustrations given helped us to grasp things better
2 4 28 56 40 4.05 0.883 130
Findings on the teaching approach and content of the information literacy programme revealed that the way the programme was delivered greatly affected the experience of students’ learning.
An approach that includes illustrations and examples with take-home handouts seemed to appeal to the students. Curriculum developers and policy-makers in universities need to bear this in mind when designing IL programmes. The study also set out to test how the content of IL and the way it was taught affected the learning of information literacy by fourth-year psychology students. A factor analysis was computed. The results are given in Table 5.21.
Table 5.21: Teaching and Content: KMO and Bartlett's Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0.866 Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 382.974
df 21
Sig. 0.000
a. Based on correlations
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The KMO test of measure of sampling accuracy value of 0.866 suggested that the matrix was statistically significant, with a p-value of 0.000, and 21 degrees of freedom. P is less than 0.05.
The KMO test is a measure of validity which tests the relationship between items in a Likert scale. The result must produce an alpha of over 0.5 in order to be considered adequate for inference. The result of 0.866 is therefore adequate.
Using the Principal Component Analysis, one component was extracted with the Varimax and Kaiser Normalization rotation method. The results in Table 5.22 illustrate that the most important aspect of teaching and content of IL was that students found IL studies intellectually stimulating (0.207).
Table 5.22: Teaching and Content:Component Score Coefficient Matrixa (N=130)
Component 1
It was clear to me what I was supposed to learn in the information literacy course 0.204 The topics seemed to follow each other in a way that made sense to me 0.206
I found my studies intellectually stimulating 0.207
The handouts and other materials we were given helped me to understand the unit 0.169 I could see how the set work fitted in with what we were supposed to learn 0.173 Assessments of the information literacy course/sessions helped me learn better 0.190 Plenty of examples and illustrations given helped us to grasp things better 0.188 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Component Scores
a. Coefficients are standardized.
After factor analysis was carried out, and a Scree plot generated, only values with integer one and above rose upwards. The value is regarded as a principal component if the value is an Eigen value and above 1. Figure 5.7 shows the two principal components.
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Figure 5.7: Teaching and Content Scree Plot