Search results

Information literacy (IL) is clearly important for academic performance, as evidenced by literature. It could be defined as a set of abilities, attitudes and experiences that enable people to recognize when they need information to solve an issue. The importance of investigating students’ IL competencies cannot be overstated. This study therefore aims to look into the IL development and competencies of high school students in Accra, as there appears to be a dearth of systematic study on this in Ghana.

To investigate this phenomenon, the study used a survey research design with a mixed-methods approach and a post-positivist research paradigm. A total of 454 high school students, 3 librarians and 3 heads of ICT departments from three senior high schools in Accra participated in this study. This study used two methods: an audit of the IL programmes and practices available at the selected schools as well as IL literacy assessment through the use of a standardized test instrument. The data collection tools used were a semi-structured interview schedule and a questionnaire.

This study found that high school students in Accra had low IL competencies. Again, the findings of this study revealed that inadequate infrastructure and lack of formalized IL instructions in schools hindered the IL development of students.

The author considers the study original both in conceptualization and design. The main question being interrogated stems from identified gaps in the literature and this study intends to fill these knowledge gaps. This study’s originality also stems from the fact that there is a paucity of information on the subject of study in the context of Ghana. This study recommends the need to integrate IL in the school curriculum to ensure effective and efficient IL instructions in high schools.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception of high school students on the factors impacting their career decisions and whether gender and grade have an influence on the decision‐making process.

Literature review was used to identify relevant factors which were incorporated into the design of the survey instrument. The questionnaire was administered via a postal survey and information collected from 599 male and 491 female high school students in the Western Cape Province. Survey response data were subjected to descriptive statistics and subsequently parametric tests.

Salary, working conditions, opportunities for promotion and lifelong learning were reported by both male and female students as the most important factors, whereas family tradition and peers were the least important factors according to the male and female high school students, respectively. Grade had a significant impact on the process with students in Grade 11 scoring higher on salary, working conditions and lifelong learning opportunities whereas Grades 12 and 10 scored higher on skills shortage and family tradition, respectively.

The cross‐sectional data made it difficult to generalise the findings.

The findings are of particular importance to high school teachers and guidance counsellors who influence career choices amongst high school students. It is likely that teachers and counsellors themselves have been negatively influenced by the poor image of the construction industry. The identification of factors enables the development of viable strategies and balances the social dynamics of the male dominated environment.

There are few studies which try to investigate the career decision‐making process of high school students in an African environment. These results challenge the factors impacting career decision making among South African high school students and provide information rarely examined. Conclusively, the paper finds that control variables such as grade and gender are significant in the career decision‐making process of high school students. This paper contributes to bridging that gap.

We examined the relationship between high school and collegiate organizational involvement and their differential and collective effects on the development of leader self- efficacy, motivation to lead and leadership skill. Our goal was to better understand how the student leader development process unfolds at different points in time over young adulthood. The study investigated members of registered student organizations (n=757) during the Fall 2016 semester. Results of the study indicated strong developmental relationships between past high school involvement, current collegiate involvement and leader capacity change. Positional leadership and students’ priority placed on their involvement during high school were predictive of leader skill and self-efficacy, while in college, only mental and physical engagement in organizations predicted leader development.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2020.

The paper provides a brief description of all 440 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested in a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the perceptions of New Zealand high school and tertiary students regarding accounting and accountants, as well as the perceptions of high school accounting educators and career advisers who potentially influence these students.

The methodology used here is qualitative, including semi‐structured interviews and focus groups.

The paper finds that the majority of the high school students and first‐year tertiary students have little understanding of the tasks accountants perform, and their image of an accountant was the typical “boring” stereotype. However, the final year tertiary students have a good understanding of what accounting entails and do not have a negative image of an accountant. The high school accounting educators have a favourable view of accounting and are positive about a career in accounting, in contrast with the career advisers who view an accounting career as dull and boring or a backstop to other more exciting careers.

Recently, there has been a decline in the number of New Zealand accounting graduates, which may in part be caused by negative stereotyping and limited accurate knowledge about accountants. The challenge for the local professional accounting body is to attempt to change this stereotype and find new ways of promoting accounting careers to the current generation of New Zealand high school and tertiary students.

The paper integrates the study of students' perceptions of accounting in New Zealand with that of the high school accounting educators and career advisers to provide a comprehensive qualitative study of the current New Zealand situation.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on student trust and to examine the relationship between student trust, behavior, and academic outcomes in high school. It asks, first, does trust have a positive effect on high school outcomes? Second, does trust influence student behavior, exerting an indirect effect on schooling outcomes? Third, are school size and student socioeconomic status (SES) antecedents of trust?

A nationally representative sample of students attending public high schools in the USA (n=10,585) is drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the relationship between student trust, behavior and high school outcomes, controlling for SES, school size and prior achievement. Multiple measures of academic achievement are considered.

There is a significant relationship between student trust, behavior and high school outcomes. Students who trust have fewer behavioral incidents and better academic outcomes with results suggesting that trust functions through behavior. This is true regardless of SES, school size or prior achievement.

School leaders cannot change parental income or education, but can build trust. Developing and attending to student trust may not only mean that students are better behaved but, more importantly, are more successful academically.

In spite of decades of policy and legislation intended to improve schools, closing the achievement gap has proven elusive. One reason may be the relentless focus on physical artifacts of schooling, such as school organization, curriculum, testing and accountability, and a concomitant lack of attention to sociocognitive factors key to learning. Schools are social systems, and high levels of learning are unlikely to occur without a nurturing environment that includes trust.

This research makes a valuable contribution by focussing on student trust in high schools and by illuminating the relationship between trust, behavior, and academic outcomes. Results suggest that trust impacts a broad range of high school outcomes but functions indirectly through behavior.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2019.

The paper provides a brief description of all 370 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2013.

Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper seeks to provide an overview of innovative high school to college collaborations and initiatives at Kent State University Library. These collaborations and initiatives may serve as models and resources for future academic library high school to college programs.

New and innovative collaborations and initiatives aimed at fostering successful high school to college student transitions are discussed.

Provides overview of the K‐12 educational environment in Ohio, the collaborative environment, and opportunities for outreach and collaborative information literacy programming with high schools. Discusses new and innovative initiatives, lessons learned and provides practical considerations.

This paper may serve as a guide and point out considerations and resources to both academic and high school libraries interested in exploring, expanding or establishing high school to college transition programming.

Academic and high school libraries will find value in this paper's discussion of the K‐12 educational environment, which identifies strong points of alignment and potential opportunities for collaboration. In addition, these libraries will find value in this paper's discussion of lesson learned and its overview of model programs and freely available online resources.

The purpose of this paper is to present the main findings of a nation‐wide survey of Danish high school students and their use of libraries and digital resources. The presentation of the main findings includes different organisations of the data in clusters and user types. This organisation and analysis gives indications of the factors that influence the high school students' use of libraries and digital resources and it also explains the preferences and expectations the students have.

The study was conducted as a nation‐wide online survey to a sample of high schools in Denmark. The data collection was conducted in several steps. A sample of high schools was selected and asked if they would accept the opportunity to participate in the study. If they agreed, the director or a person appointed by the director selected two to three classes of students. The students received a link to the online questionnaire and completed it during a class hour. The result was 998 usable and valid responses. There was no way to secure a true random sample, but the sample is very much like the student population as it is registered in statistical yearbooks in relation to characteristics such as type of high school, gender and geographical distribution.

The findings indicate that traditional demographic factors alone cannot explain all of the variability in the students' information behaviour. Type of high school, gender and study year influence the use of libraries and digital resources but it also becomes clear that perceptions of the study and study preferences influence the information behaviour. It is also indicated that a correlation exists between the amount of use of libraries and digital resources. Further, it is indicated that high school students possess a rather traditional view of the importance of the different services and facilities offered by libraries.

The limitations of the research are inherent in the methodology. First of all, one only gets answers in relation to the stated questions and statements. This implies that the students' use of other information grounds, horizons, social technologies are omitted from the study. It is probably valid to argue that the data collection methods bias the results in a “conservative” way.

The research is the first nationwide investigation into different aspects of high school students' use of libraries and information resources in Denmark.