Information literacy and learning

This thesis explores the relationship between information literacy and learning. In formal education, students are frequently required to independently find and use information to learn about a topic, and information literacy is often claimed to be a generic skill and graduate attribute. However, to date; the experienced relationship between information literacy and learning has not been investigated. In order to investigate this experience, I have based this research on interviews with 19 students enrolled in third year music composition courses, and 18 students enrolled in a third year tax law course at an Australian university. My primary research question was 'What is the experienced relationship between information literacy and learning?' The secondary research question was "What are the generic and situated aspects of information literacy?' In this study, I have used phenomenography to describe the qualitatively different ways that students in two distinct disciplines experience the relationship between information literacy and learning. I have suggested curriculum implications of this description based on a relational approach to learning and teaching. The outcomes of the study include two related sets of categories which map the experience of students in music composition and tax law, and the theoretical GeST windows model for information literacy which is based upon literacy models and theories. The key findings of this study include: * A description of the nature of the experienced relationship between information literacy and learning in music composition and tax law as 1) Applying, 2) Discovering and 3) Expressing (music) or Understanding (tax law); * the theoretical GeST windows model and alignment of the model with the empirical study; * the presentation of curriculum implications in music and tax law, and * an exploration of the nature of information as-it-is-experienced. The findings may be used by teachers, students, librarians, academic skills advisors, academic developers and policy makers in higher education.

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