Abstract:

Information Literacy has been a persistent institutional and critical interest of faculty in colleges and universities in the United States for a very long time. There have been many efforts to design courses in General Education curricula in order to support the informational competencies among first- and second-year undergraduate matriculating students. Further, additional efforts have been pursued in order to embed advance information literacy skills within academic program majors. However, the results of such efforts among college and universities have not been very successful. The most important evidence of the lack of success regarding such efforts borne out with the post graduate performance of students in professional employment and matriculation in graduate degree programs. Many studies have been conducted over time with the primary goal of producing at least “a general blueprint” for the successfully design and implementation information literacy skill development initiatives that will yield positive outcomes for postgraduates. Unfortunately, rigorous assessment most the initiatives produce evidence that is less than satisfactory. One of the most important observation is the lack of a common definition that most colleges and universities adhere to. The lack of a common core definition gets more elusive in the academic program major curricula. However, the lone exception is in academic program majors that are governed by rigorous national standards. Some example include Nursing, Engineering, Health Information Management, etc. However, in those academic specialty program majors are “not perfect”. They do have their challenges. Because this issue remains and will remain a critical component of what is generally described as a cornerstone of higher education, the quest continues. For the current study, a survey of general education curricula at a sample (N = 400) of colleges and university was generated in order quantitatively analyze current curricular strategies. The sampling design for the current study was limited to random samples of four years liberal arts-oriented institutions. Sample data were categorized in five regional strata of the United States. Sample data were statistically analyzed with the Pearson’s Chi Square Test of Independence at the .05 alpha level of significance.

The primary research questions that were develop for the current study are:
1) Is there a common set of measurable strategies for develop information literacy skills among matriculating undergraduate students?
2) To what extent is there buy in relative to curricula approach across the various faculty groups?
3) Is there a set of rigorous assessment methods to determine the level of information literacy skills developed among matriculating undergraduate students?

Major findings indicated that their differences in curricular structure remain. Disagreements regarding common definitions relative information literacy skills are widespread. Many institutions vehemently defend their “unique approach” to the development of information literacy skills for the undergraduate matriculating student. Although postgraduate outcome data present a different picture, many remain steadfast with think “unique approach” in attempts to develop information literacy skills among matriculating undergraduate students.

Keywords:

Education, information literacy, general education curricula.