An empirical analysis of search engines’ response to web search queries associated with the classroom setting

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine strengths and limitations that search engines (SEs) exhibit when responding to web search queries associated with the grade school curriculum Design/methodology/approach The authors employed a simulation-based experimental approach to conduct an in-depth empirical examination of SEs and used web search queries that capture information needs in different search scenarios. Findings Outcomes from this study highlight that child-oriented SEs are more effective than traditional ones when filtering inappropriate resources, but often fail to retrieve educational materials. All SEs examined offered resources at reading levels higher than that of the target audience and often prioritized resources with popular top-level domain (e.g. “.com”). Practical implications Findings have implications for human intervention, search literacy in schools, and the enhancement of existing SEs. Results shed light on the impact on children’s education that result from introducing misconception about SEs when these tools either retrieve no results or offer irrelevant resources, in response to web search queries pertinent to the grade school curriculum. Originality/value The authors examined child-oriented and popular SEs retrieval of resources aligning with task objectives and user capabilities–resources that match user reading skills, do not contain hate-speech and sexually-explicit content, are non-opinionated, and are curriculum-relevant. Findings identified limitations of existing SEs (both directly or indirectly supporting young users) and demonstrate the need to improve SE filtering and ranking algorithms.

Enhancing classroom instruction with online news

“…In this case, however, the focus is on simply distinguishing “adult” versus “non-adult” resources (Anuyah, 2018). When explicitly focused on filtering information deemed “safe” for children, existing filters have shown to cause problems in educational settings when looking for research on topics such as breast cancer (Anuyah et al , 2019).…”

ChatGPT in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration on the Feasibility of Adapting ChatGPT to Support Children’s Information Discovery

“…Web search engines, however, are the go-to portals to resources that can enable teaching and learning in formal and informal settings [9,18,29,31,44]. They are embedded in the educational context, even when their limitations to retrieve and prioritize educational resources are well documented [8,39]. As a generative model, Chat-GPT may not always produce reliable responses, in turn exposing children to information pollution.…”

To Infinity and Beyond! Accessibility is the Future for Kids' Search Engines

“…To address this limitation, researchers have produced query suggestion strategies that are more appealing to children and that best respond to their search intent [16,36,44]. When looking at results retrieved in response to children's queries, Anuyah et al [2] and Bilal and Huang [9] investigate the reading level of SERP and whether they align with a child's reading level. When considering the relevance of retrieved resources, children tend to explore search engine result pages (SERP) sequentially, i.e., from top to bottom [26,32], as opposed to deciding relevance through scanning SERP snippets and clicking on a given result.…”