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1 – 10 of over 14000Eva-Maria Berens, Kristin Ganahl, Dominique Vogt and Doris Schaeffer
Health literacy (HL) is considered an important prerequisite for informed, self-determined health decisions. HL research among older migrants is scarce, but especially important…
Abstract
Purpose
Health literacy (HL) is considered an important prerequisite for informed, self-determined health decisions. HL research among older migrants is scarce, but especially important, as older people face great challenges regarding management of chronic illnesses and, therefore, are in need of adequate healthcare. Therefore, this paper aims to report HL in the domain of healthcare (HL-HC) among older migrants in Germany stratified by different countries of origin.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected by a quota sample in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Computer-assisted personal face-to-face interviews were conducted in German, Russian and Turkish. For this analysis, a subsample of 192 first-generation migrants aged 65–80 years from Turkey, Poland, Greece or Italy was drawn from the main sample (n = 1,000). HL-HC was assessed using a sub-index of health literacy survey European questionnaire 47. Data analyses comprised descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate analyses.
Findings
Overall, 68.6% of the older migrants have limited HL-HC, and mean HL-HC scores vary significantly among different countries of origin. There is great variation in reported difficulties for the single HL-HC tasks by migrant groups. In multiple regressions, country of origin, not German as main language, low functional HL and low social status are significantly associated with lower HL-HC.
Practical implications
Interventions should be aimed at smaller target groups and should consider language issues and possible differences related to countries of origin into account. Both individual skills and system-related aspects need to be addressed.
Originality/value
This paper presents first data on HL-HC among older migrants in Germany and its determinants, stratified by different countries of origin.
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Sarah Amber Evans, Lingzi Hong, Jeonghyun Kim, Erin Rice-Oyler and Irhamni Ali
Data literacy empowers college students, equipping them with essential skills necessary for their personal lives and careers in today’s data-driven world. This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Data literacy empowers college students, equipping them with essential skills necessary for their personal lives and careers in today’s data-driven world. This study aims to explore how community college students evaluate their data literacy and further examine demographic and educational/career advancement disparities in their self-assessed data literacy levels.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey presenting a data literacy self-assessment scale was distributed and completed by 570 students at four community colleges. Statistical tests were performed between the data literacy factor scores and students’ demographic and educational/career advancement variables.
Findings
Male students rated their data literacy skills higher than females. The 18–19 age group has relatively lower confidence in their data literacy scores than other age groups. High school graduates do not feel proficient in data literacy to the level required for college and the workplace. Full-time employed students demonstrate more confidence in their data literacy than part-time and nonemployed students.
Originality/value
Given the lack of research on community college students’ data literacy, the findings of this study can be valuable in designing and implementing data literacy training programs for different groups of community college students.
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Pritika Reddy, Bibhya Sharma, Kaylash Chaudhary, ’Osaiasi Lolohea and Robert Tamath
The research surveyed the competency of information literacy of senior high school students in Fiji. This is to evaluate the strong predictors of information literacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The research surveyed the competency of information literacy of senior high school students in Fiji. This is to evaluate the strong predictors of information literacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a survey research design whereby a five-point Likert scale self-reporting questionnaire was administered to Year 12 and Year 13 secondary school students. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software-descriptive statistics of calculating the mean and standard deviation, a correlation and linear regression analysis to deduce the strong predictors of information literacy.
Findings
The study showed that 81% of the students surveyed were average to above average information literate. The strong predictors of information literacy were the ability of an individual to collaborate and share safely online, the ability to share files securely and the ability to access the credibility of any resource assessed on the digital platform.
Research limitations/implications
The current study evaluates information literacy of a cohort – stating how information literate the participants are, comprehending the strong predicators of information literacy so that there is an appropriate and effective implementation of interventions for the desired improvements.
Practical implications
The results can be used to improve information literacy of students at all levels of education in the Fiji Islands.
Social implications
If the youths are information literate they will be able to effectively contribute towards the development of their economy. Since the work environment today is technology oriented and involves a lot of information, being information literate means knowing how to use the information and differentiate between good and bad information. Hence, contributing effectively towards whatever task is performed.
Originality/value
This research if the first ever research done on evaluating the information literacy of individuals in Fiji.
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Neda Moinolmolki, Juana Gaviria-Loaiza and Myae Han
Nowadays children from immigrant families are the fastest growing group of youth in the United States. Despite the fact that emerging research has highlighted the significance of…
Abstract
Nowadays children from immigrant families are the fastest growing group of youth in the United States. Despite the fact that emerging research has highlighted the significance of strong partnerships between families and high-quality early childcare/education programs, many immigrant families face numerous barriers in accessing high-quality childcare/early education as well as establishing strong partnerships with centers. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the emerging challenges that immigrant families face in navigating the U.S. early childhood education system. This chapter first briefly reviews the literature on the role of family involvement in early childhood education within the general U.S. population. This is followed by a review of the unique funds of knowledge that immigrant parents engage in while interacting with their children at home. Then this chapter explores the barriers of immigrant families in developing strong partnerships with early childcare/education programs such as, communication, limited parental English proficiency, lack of public funding, acculturation, education, and cultural perceptions of involvement. Furthermore, this is followed by a focus on two distinct rising immigrant populations within the United States, Hispanic (specifically non-refugee) and refugee populations, and their unique sets of obstacles. Lastly, recommendations are provided for future practitioners and policymakers to support the establishment of stronger immigrant family and professional partnerships within early education and childcare settings.
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The purpose of this paper is to discover Spanish history students' subjective perception of their information literacy (IL) status in order to find and suggest some academic and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discover Spanish history students' subjective perception of their information literacy (IL) status in order to find and suggest some academic and individual improvement actions.
Design/methodology/approach
The implementation of the IL‐HUMASS survey provides diagnostic data on two IL quantitative dimensions (belief in importance and skills self‐assessment) and a third qualitative dimension (learning habits) deployed along 26 variables, which are grouped into four categories (search, evaluation, processing, and communication‐dissemination of information).
Findings
The analysis confirms that variables related to information processing (above all schematising and abstracting information) show high scores of belief in importance and skills self‐assessment among students. By contrast, variables related to technological advances (above all the use of bibliographic reference managers) show the worst results. In sum, there is a lack of subjective digital literacy in a set of skills related to the technologies of search, processing and communication of information. Among the less valued skills, independent learning reaches an excessive priority. However, this is really just an isolated learning.
Research limitations/implications
The help of classrooms and libraries as learning tools would improve these results. Policy makers and instructors need to improve their role in the learning process by means of more extensive planning processes and the promotion of specific courses, above all on skills related to the technologies of information search, processing and communication. The concept of independent learning needs to be clarified and enhanced.
Originality/value
This is a pioneering study that approaches IL from a triple perspective.
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Pritika Reddy, Bibhya Sharma, Kaylash Chaudhary, Osaiasi Lolohea and Robert Tamath
The purpose of this study is to evaluate student visual literacy skills using the newly designed visual literacy framework and visual literacy (VL) scale.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate student visual literacy skills using the newly designed visual literacy framework and visual literacy (VL) scale.
Design/methodology/approach
It includes a newly designed framework, a self-reporting questionnaire and a scale to evaluate an individual's VL skills and overall competency. The self-reporting questionnaire consists of 13 items with a five-point Likert scale.
Findings
The newly developed VL skill scale assessed the Fiji students’ competency (i.e. identify, understand, evaluate and communicate using visuals). The mean for the 13 items on VL skills showed average results, but 46.33% recorded high visual literacy competencies. The multiple linear regression analysis outcomes showed all 13 skills demonstrated significant contributions to becoming visually literate.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of this study is that the questionnaire is self-reporting, so the evaluation can be highly rated. The implications are that relevant stakeholders will be able to devise strategies and content to improve visual literacy in Fiji.
Practical implications
Images are playing an important role today, especially after COVID-19, which forced the education system to go online. Online learning involves a lot of visuals, and as such, visual literacy is important to students so that they can successfully learn online. This paper brings out the important aspects of visual literacy, which needs to be understood by the students.
Social implications
In society, everything involves visuals. This paper introduces a visual literacy scale and a visual literacy tool to measure the visual competencies of individuals. If people understand the components of visual literacy, then visual competencies of the people will also improve.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one on evaluating visual literacy competencies in Fiji and also in the South Pacific. The visual literacy tool is also new to the world.
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Jean P. Shipman, Erica Lake and Alice I. Weber
University of Utah has created various partnerships to improve health literacy and health outcomes among patient populations, employees and community members. Health sciences…
Abstract
Purpose
University of Utah has created various partnerships to improve health literacy and health outcomes among patient populations, employees and community members. Health sciences librarians have been key members of these partnerships. This paper aims to describe and share several of these partnerships, including training programs, research efforts and advocacy initiatives, to encourage others to engage in similar activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies include outreach projects and partnerships to foster health literacy and promote healthy living such as: highly visible information resource provision and associated outreach for patients and families; community health fairs; research on providing point-of-need information for vulnerable community populations; health literacy awareness and resources for professionals; health literacy education for interprofessional students; and a competition for interprofessional students to create health videos to address a variety of topics in multiple languages.
Findings
Partnerships and outreach efforts lead to improved awareness by institutional personnel of the importance of health literacy. Research on using health literacy to empower patients and increase patient satisfaction can demonstrate how to lower institutional costs and improve guideline compliance, as well out health outcomes.
Originality/value
Librarians’ instructional skills create personal health educational content for patients and professionals; engaging colleagues to address health literacy lowers health care costs, institutional costs and increases patient compliance and satisfaction.
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This study aims to gain insight into the motivations behind the decision to use high-cost payday loans by households who possess mainstream credit and to determine whether this…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to gain insight into the motivations behind the decision to use high-cost payday loans by households who possess mainstream credit and to determine whether this behavior has changed over time.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from Statistics Canada’s Surveys of Financial Security, probit models are used to examine the sociodemographic and financial indicators associated with payday loan use.
Findings
The analysis uncovers the sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan-user households with access to lower-cost short-term loans. The findings indicate that the likelihood of payday loan use has risen over time. Additional analysis reveals that indicators of financial instability are positively associated with payday loan use among this group.
Research limitations/implications
This research highlights the dichotomy of payday loan users and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.
Practical implications
This research highlights the distinguishing sociodemographic and financial characteristics of payday loan user households and recommends policymakers tailor solutions to the specific needs of different types of payday loan users.
Originality/value
This is the first study, to our knowledge, to focus analysis on payday loan use of those with access to lower-cost short-term credit alternatives in Canada and to include measures of financial instability in the analysis. This research is timely given the current economic environment of high interest rates and high levels of household debt.
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Saira Hanif Soroya, Malik Muhammad Yasir Iqbal, Muhammad Shahid Soroya and Khalid Mahmood
The study was designed to examine the predictors of information literacy self-efficacy skills (IL skills) of medical students.
Abstract
Purpose
The study was designed to examine the predictors of information literacy self-efficacy skills (IL skills) of medical students.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was quantitative in nature and was carried out by using survey research method. Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) and Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale for medical students (ILSES-M) were used to collect the data. Data was collected randomly from 223 out of 526 undergraduate medical students on proportionally random basis according to the number of students available in each year. PLS-SEM analysis was run with the help of SmartPLS 3.2.
Findings
The findings of the study revealed that three subconstructs for emotional intelligence (EI), that is, self-emotions appraisal, others-emotion appraisal, use of emotions, had a statistically significant positive impact (p < 0.05) on information literacy (IL) self-efficacy of the medical students. The findings further confirm that English language proficiency and frequency of attended IL instruction sessions also have a significant positive impact on IL self-efficacy of medical students.
Originality/value
The exploration of EI in relation to IL is comparatively a novel area. The study observed the influence of EI level on IL self-efficacy of medical students. The study will be a significant contribution to the IL literature. The results may help the information professionals/librarians, particularly those who are engaged in teaching and designing IL programs.
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