Navigating Roadblocks: First-Year Writing Challenges through the Lens of the ACRL Framework

Abstract

Effectively integrating the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy into existing instructional models requires that librarians first understand the host of challenges that many first-year students encounter when conducting research for the first time. This study employs qualitative analysis of semi-structured student interviews to explore how students conceive of and pursue the research process, and how they try to mitigate-and in some cases surmount-the roadblocks they encounter. Although students reported several difficulties, three main roadblocks arose: challenges with understanding academic articles, challenges with the topic/theme of the course, and challenges with navigating the physical space of the library. The findings demonstrate how students employ a variety of strategies to overcome these obstacles. The authors engage with the scholarship on information literacy and the Framework, which elucidates how honoring the affective domain of learning in designing instruction could steer students towards more successful research strategies.

Confronting Failure: Building Confidence and Resilience in Undergraduate Researchers

“…Carol Kuhlthau's influential research on information-seeking behaviors (1991,2004,2013) describes the role of emotion and feeling in student research, a concept that has been echoed in the library and information science literature since her first work was published (Cahoy and Schroeder 2012;Insua, Lantz, and Armstrong 2018). Students often anticipate that the research process will be a linear, relatively neat process of searching for and gathering information, and when it isn't, they experience anxiety and feel stymied (Kuhlthau 2013).…”

Chapter 9. Resilience in Research: Confronting Failure in Information Literacy Instruction

“…Carol Kuhlthau's influential research on information-seeking behaviors (1991,2004,2013) describes the role of emotion and feeling in student research, a concept that has been echoed in the library and information science literature since her first work was published (Cahoy and Schroeder 2012;Insua, Lantz, and Armstrong 2018). Students often anticipate that the research process will be a linear, relatively neat process of searching for and gathering information, and when it isn't, they experience anxiety and feel stymied (Kuhlthau 2013).…”