A multicultural approach to digital information literacy skills evaluation in an Israeli college

Abstract

Information literacy is an essential proficiency for success in academic studies, yet many first-year students find it hard to use information sources efficiently and to develop academic information literacy. This study reports findings from first-year students' self-estimation of their information skills according to two information literacy models (Shapiro & Hughes, 1996; Ng, 2012) and presents interesting insights on the differences between the multicultural and multilingual student groups in the study’s population. The researchers found that Hebrew-native speaking students preferred digital sources while Hebrew as second language (Arabic-speaking) students preferred printed sources, and both groups ranked their technological and information literacy skills as above average. The study supports previous research on Arabic-speaking students’ need for more mediation in the dimensions of information literacy examined compared to Hebrew-speaking students, despite no significant difference in access to the internet at home and self-assessment of their general computing skills.