This is the first part of a report of an investigation on Information Literacy (IL) among final year students in six Malaysian universities in the Klang Valley. The study attempts to measure studentsâ IL competency in key areas, namely, the ability to identify, access, retrieve, evaluate, and organise needed information to achieve certain purposes. A self-administered questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection, conducted during August and September 2005. Respondents comprised students from 3 main fields, i.e. Science and Technology, Social Science and Humanities, Business and Accountancy. A total of 1,100 responses are used for data analysis. Scores are assigned for identifying levels of competency as: 0 = wrong answer, 1=beginner, 2=intermediate and 3=advanced. Results of the analysis reveal that half (50.1%) of the respondents are at the intermediate IL level while more than one-third (38.4%) are beginners, and slightly more than ten percent (11.5%) can be categorized as at the advanced competency level. Respondents with higher competency levels are those who frequently read materials in English, use the Internet to download programs / software, search databases for aca-demic materials, use the library to read academic journals and discuss academic matters, compared to those who go to the library for other reasons such as to borrow books, meet friends or study. Compulsory information skills courses are found to be related to competency levels, but this relationship is not statistically significant. There is no significant difference in the competency level between those who are currently writing a thesis and those who are not. However, there is a significant difference in IL competency between those who have written assignments in an essay format and those who have not.

Author Requests this citation be used when reproducing: Forest Woody Horton, "Public Access to Government Information and Information Literacy Training as Basic Human Rights," July 2002, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic / One of the key critical success factors for a stable democracy is an informed and empowered citizenry. A more formal way of saying this is to proclaim that public information is a strategic resource needed at all levels of society, by all people, and in all walks of life. This paper examines the philosophical concept of why public access to government information should be considered a basic human right, why minimal information literacy skills are necessary to exploit that strategic resource, and why the acquisition of those skills by all citizens should also be treated as a basic human right. The two ideas are essentially an ends and a means. In short, an end (public access to government information), however worthy, but without the means to realize it (information literacy skills) might as well be no end at all.

Information literacy (IL) has become a vital competency in the current knowledge society. For students, the key to becoming independent learners and future knowledge workers lies in being information literate. However, existing information literacy education approaches have not been very successful in equipping students with these crucial skills to ensure deep erudition and long-lasting retention. Hence, pedagogy becomes critical in information literacy education. This research hypothesises that (i) informa-tion literacy skills have a positive impact on the quality of studentsâ project work; (ii) students grasp in-formation literacy skills more effectively when their innate interests, such as that determined by their re-spective dominant intelligences, are stimulated and applied to their work; and (iii) students internalise what they learn when they are coached over an extended period of time, on how to apply their newly ac-quired information literacy skills, and thus exhibit greater retention of such knowledge and competen-cies. Consequently they would produce work of better quality. To verify these postulations, an informa-tion literacy course was designed for students undertaking project work to equip them with the necessary information literacy skills, by using two established pedagogical approaches â Gardnerâ s Theory of Mul-tiple Intelligences and Feuersteinâ s Mediated Learning Experience. Subsequently the quality of the pro-ject work between the experimental and control groups were compared. This on-going research seeks to identify a utilitarian and viable pedagogical methodology that makes the teaching and learning of infor-mation literacy skills more effective and long-lasting respectively.

Christine Bruce, " Information Literacy as a Catalyst for Educational Change: A Background Paper," July 2002, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. / no abstract given

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In early years classrooms in Canada, children are often assessed for specific discrete skills in reading and writing, using tools such as running records and word lists. Through research with children, other tools are emerging to more fully help a teacher understand a child’s literacy practices, but the use of these tools requires a shift in ideology regarding literacy and learning. This thesis documents this shift from a more modernist theory of education and autonomous philosophy of literacy to a postmodernist view of education and an ideological view of literacy. Alternative tools for assessment and teaching of children in the form of a pedagogy of listening and pedagogical documentation are presented. Also, pedagogical documentation is used as a methodology for this study. This research suggests a shift in the way educators view children and their literacy practices, and in how they engage in research in the classroom.

This qualitative research is a hermeneutic inquiry into learning about democracy through critical literacy in high school English language arts (ELA) education. The purpose of this study was to address the need for greater understanding of why critical literacy should be examined in high school ELA. The literature review connects historical theoretical and praxial implications for democratic practices. Critical literacy was explored through the hermeneutic method situated in one ELA teacher’s experience connected to a world view. Pivotal stages of critical literacy learning were explored in the classroom for transfer across education and democracy. Findings provide insight into the need for teachers to envision themselves as lifelong critical literacy practitioners and to engage in learning communities that explore the evolving needs of students. Essential philosophical underpinnings of the new philosophy of critical literacy education are explored; and suggestions for further professional development to increase subject knowledge are stressed. English language arts educators who wish to enact a critical literacy curriculum need to work together with students to engage in discourses around issues of power in literacy practices so classroom discourse may connect to the world.

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