Key stakeholders' interpretations of scientific information literacy: a survey of Orange and Seminole County K-16 educators

Due to the constant presence of information, it is imperative that today’s students can evaluate and apply the information effectively. This skillset, known as information literacy (IL), is valuable in all fields, yet state and national education standards have little in terms of developing those skills in current curriculums. Due to this lack, it is increasingly important to have open discussions about IL with key education stakeholders, like K-16 educators, to identify their interpretations and assessment of IL and its potential integration into the science curriculum. We aim to answer three questions: (1) How do Central Florida education stakeholders interpret information literacy, (2) How is information literacy represented by stakeholders when teaching scientific content, and (3) How can data from education stakeholders support developing initial threshold concepts for scientific information literacy? To begin, a set of focus groups were conducted with Central Florida K-16 educators and librarians to determine how they interpreted and assessed IL, and the perceived obstacles they encounter with integrating IL in science instruction. As these educators and librarians are involved with the current guidelines and standards, the insight they provided from these discussions will be useful in aligning IL with these standards and threshold concepts. These discussions have also allowed for the survey development to probe at a larger set of higher educators. This survey will allow education stakeholders to evaluate IL within science classrooms. This survey data will allow us to generate greater awareness about IL and its teaching practices and better understand educator perceptions of IL.