Internet Searching by K-12 Students: A Research-Based Process Model.

Understanding K-12 students’ Web-based research practices and the challenges posed by this task, can help educators assist students with learning to manage this complex process. In this presentation, I propose a research-based process model of K-12 students’ Internet search practices. The model describes the ways in which students search for, evaluate, and use information on the Web and suggests strategies that students can develop to improve the effectiveness and quality of their Web-based research. For United States students, conducting research using “a variety of technological and information resources,” including the World Wide Web has become the norm (The National Council of Teachers of English, 2000). The 59% of students ages 5-17 who used the Internet in 2001 reported that their number one use of the Internet was for schoolwork (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). This widespread utilization of the Web for academic (and vocational) purposes necessitates understanding students’ Web-based search processes in order to assist them with learning this complex process. During the past decade, several research studies have been conducted to investigate K-12 students’ Internet research practices. This paper presents a process model summarizing this research. The model describes the ways in which students search for, evaluate, and use information on the Web and suggests strategies that students can develop to improve the effectiveness and quality of their Web-based research. The Internet as a K-12 Research Tool Elementary (Kafai & Bates, 1997), middle (Bilal, 2002; Wallace, Kupperman, Krajcik, & Soloway, 2003), and high school (Fidel, et al., 1999) students enjoy searching the Web and using it for school-related research projects (Eagleton, Guinee, & Langlais, 2003; Jackson, 1996). As students enter higher grades, their use of the Internet for schoolwork increases (Lien, 2000). Within various middle and high school curricula, Internet inquiry assignments are being incorporated into language arts (Eagleton, Guinee, & Langlais, 2003; Large, Beheshti, & Moukdad, 1999), science (Fidel, et al., 1999; Jacobson & Ignacio, 1997; Gordon, 2000; Wallace, et al., 2003), social studies (Jackson, 1996; Lorenzen, 2001), and library/media center (Gibson & Mazur, 2001; Hirsh, 1999) classes. When conducting research, today’s students use a combination of electronic and print resources (Fidel, et al., 1999; Gibson & Mazur, 2001; Large & Beheshti, 2000; Lorenzen, 2001). Some students strongly prefer using the Internet as their primary information source (Gibson & Mazur, 2001; Jackson, 1996; Jacobson & Ignacio, 1997; Large & Beheshti, 2000). One reason students give for preferring the Web over traditional print materials is that they feel they can locate information faster when using the Internet (Large & Beheshti, 2000; Vansickle, 2002). Other students decide whether to use electronic or print materials based upon the type of information they are seeking (Large & Beheshti, 2000). For example, students tend to favor the Web for locating up-to-date or relatively obscure (e.g., information about the sport of curling) information and they favor print sources for obtaining comprehensive, organized information on general topics (Large & Beheshti, 2000). Still other students prefer to reference only traditional print materials for their research, despite the increasing prevalence of electronic sources (Large & Beheshti, 2000). Process Model of K-12 Internet Research The following model (see Figure 1) outlines the activities students perform while conducting research using the Internet and discusses the ways in which students generally perform these tasks. Develop Research Question Research questions guide students through the process of conducting research (Bowler, Large, & Rejskind, 2001), helping them to stay organized and on task (Gibson & Mazur, 2001). Unfortunately, middle school students have difficulty developing research questions (Bilal, 2002; Wallace, et al., 2000). The research questions they generate range from too broad, general questions to too narrow, specific fact hunts, with only about a third being focused, researchable questions (Bilal, 2002; Eagleton & Guinee, 2003; Wallace, et al., 2000). Even high school students falter when constructing research questions because many feel that they don’t need to plan ahead while