Spanning information behaviour across the stages of a learning task: Where do personality and approach to studying matter?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of personality (intellectual curiosity, conscientiousness and negative emotionality) and approach to studying (deep, strategic and surface) on students’ learning-related information behaviour in inquiry tasks.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 219 senior high school students with the use of three questionnaires.

Findings

The findings showed that students’ individual traits influenced different aspects of their learning-related information behaviour from information need to information use.

Research limitations/implications

The results were based on survey data. Reliability issues with the scales are discussed. In future research qualitative data would enrich the understanding of the phenomena.

Practical implications

The results are informative for teachers and librarians who guide students in inquiry tasks.

Originality/value

The study spanned learning-related information behaviour across the whole inquiry process: from task construction through task performance to task completion. The findings showed that individual traits were particularly influential at the task completion stage, that is on information use.

Citation

Heinström, J., Sormunen, E. and Kaunisto-Laine, S. (2014), "Spanning information behaviour across the stages of a learning task: Where do personality and approach to studying matter?", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 70 No. 6, pp. 1076-1097. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2014-0041