Educational Needs for Information Literacy of University Freshmen in Hong Kong: Current Competencies, Perceptions, and Past Learning Experiences

To cope with globalization and a knowledge-based society, the Education Commission (2000) of Hong Kong made "Learning for Life, Learning through Life" the aim of education for the 21st Century. In line with this aim, the university curriculum should be revised to accommodate the need for life-long learning. While universities around the world have put a great effort to integrate information literacy (IL) into their curricula, universities in Hong Kong should also review their curricula in light of this global trend. To provide IL learning experiences to the students, understanding of the educational needs of IL among incoming university students in Hong Kong is essential. In view of the wide research gap in this area, in the current study, the educational needs for IL of university freshmen in Hong Kong were investigated. The IL competencies of university freshmen in a comprehensive university were assessed while their IL perceptions and past IL learning experiences were explored in Fall 2010. Multiple methods were employed to gain an in-depth understanding of the students' needs, including (1) a survey of IL competency and investigation of the IL experiences and perceptions among undergraduate freshmen; (2) process analyses of an information task performed by these students in their natural educational settings, to throw light on how they think about information, where they seek and how they find information, and how they select and apply the information they found; and (3) semi-structured interviews for an in-depth holistic study of individual student participants' IL.;The findings of the current study reveal that the university freshmen of Hong Kong had very limited experiences in information use in their school years, and these past learning experiences had a strong impact on both their IL competency and perceptions. They were weak in using a variety of scholarly information sources and search tools, and had problems in developing and refining search strategies for complex research topics. They also lacked the awareness and capability to evaluate information and acknowledge the sources. Moreover, they had a tendency of heavy reliance on quick web information for their research tasks. Their scarce past experiences and inadequate competency in using scholarly search tools for more authoritative and reliable information sources prevented them from using these valuable resources for complex research.;University freshmen urgently need proper IL learning experiences to facilitate them to abandon the unhealthy habit of using brief and incomprehensive web information, and to use scholarly information effectively for in-depth research instead. Based on the findings of the current study, it is suggested that IL education should be incorporated into the school and university curricula with the following keys to implementation: distinguishing IL from IT in education, establishing close teacher and librarian collaboration, building individual and collective capacity that focuses on improving IL learning, changing the educational value to a learner-centered and process approach to teaching, providing adequate information resources, and aligning assessment with the IL learning outcomes. Lastly, ongoing research on the educational needs of IL among students is needed.