Research On Information Literacy Evaluation For Primary School Students

Nowadays,with the rapid development and wide application of new technologies such as mobile Internet,cloud computing,and big data et al.,networking and digitalization are becoming prominent features of economic society.In the increasingly networked and digital living environment,Information literacy has been widely acknowledged as a necessary character and a key competency to support and promote individual self-development.As a key phase in the development of students’abilities and literacy,the period of compulsory education is also treated as a critical stage in the cultivation and development of students’ information literacy.The Chinese government has attached great importance to the cultivation and improvement of students’ information literacy,taken the monitoring and evaluation of students’ information literacy in the compulsory education stage as an important task in the era of education informatization 2.0,and proposed that information literacy attainment rate of students in each school section should be included in the evaluation index system of education monitoring and statistics.As the beginning of compulsory education,primary school is a critical period for the enlightenment and cultivation of students’ information literacy.Researching information literacy evaluation of primary school students is of great practical significance in promoting the cultivation and enhancement of primary school students’ information literacy.However,most of the existing studies on students’ information literacy have focused on college students,vocational school students,medical students,and other groups.Some of the studies are related to primary school students,but most of them appear as "primary and secondary school students" as a whole,while the evaluation studies specifically targeting primary school students’ information literacy are still in the exploratory stage.In terms of the evaluation index,it is urgent to construct an evaluation index system suitable for the information literacy of primary school students in China according to the training demand of talents in the new era.In addition,the scope of application of primary school students’ information literacy assessment tools is small,and its universality and versatility need to be verified.Given the difference in information literacy of students in urban and rural schools,how to conduct scientific analysis from the level of schools and teachers and determine the key factors of different types of schools still need to be explored and discussed in depth.As an important supplement to school education,whether parents’ information technology application ability has a significant impact on students’ information literacy or whether different types of parents have different influences on students’ information literacy needs to be evaluated scientifically from a new perspective.In conclusion,as an important task in the in-depth development of education informatization in China,there is still a large research space in the evaluation of information literacy of primary school students.This research is based on the actual needs of information literacy evaluation of primary school students in China.The relevant work and research achievements of this paper mainly are as follows:First,we proposed an evaluation index system of primary school students’ information literacy.A scientific and reasonable evaluation index system is the core and basis for conducting the assessment research of students’ information literacy.By defining the connotation of information literacy in the current era,analyzing the core elements of students’ information literacy evaluation indicators at home and abroad,revising from the experts,and calculating the weight of indicators,we proposed an evaluation indicator system for primary school students’ information literacy which comprising four primary indicators and nine secondary indicators,including information awareness and attitude,information knowledge and skills,information thinking and behavior,and information social responsibility.Among the four first-level evaluation indexes,the weight value of information awareness and attitude is the largest,while the weight value of information knowledge and skills is the least.The proposed evaluation index can provide the basis for measuring the information literacy of primary school students and carrying out relevant empirical research.Second,an information literacy assessment tool for primary school students was designed and developed.The assessment tool is an effective means for understanding the status of primary school students’ information literacy.Based on the development process of international large-scale student information literacy assessment tools,the assessment tool for primary school students was developed through the process of preliminary design,expert judgment and revision,and pre-testing.Then,the tool was optimized and revised based on the predictive test data by utilizing the Rasch model.In addition,a large-scale application of the information literacy assessment tool was conducted in selected research regions from the east,middle,and west of China to analyze the overall status and differences in the information literacy of primary school students.The results of primary school students’ information literacy are in line with existing research and actual situations in China,which providing empirical evidences for identifying the reliability,universality and versatility of information literacy assessment tool.The developed assessment tool can provide a basis for the subsequent research on the influence factors of primary school students.Third,the factors influencing primary school students’ information literacy at the school and teacher levels were investigated.Schools are the main venue for information literacy education,and schools and teachers play an important role in cultivating primary school students’ information literacy.Taking the CIPP evaluation model as a theoretical framework,we constructed a model of factors influencing primary school students’ information literacy from the perspective of input-process-output.Then,we explored the effects of school and teacher-level factors on primary school students’ information literacy and how these effects differed between urban and rural schools.The results indicated that ICT infrastructure,teacher ICT training,teacher ICT use for teaching,and teacher ICT use for collaboration have significant impacts on primary school students’ information literacy,and the effect of ICT infrastructure,digital education resources,teacher ICT training and teacher ICT use for teaching showed significant differences between urban and rural schools.These findings can provide a reference for developing primary school students’ information literacy in different types of schools,especially in rural schools.Fourth,the factors influencing primary school students’ information literacy at the family level were examined.Family education is the basic guarantee of school education,and parents play a critical role in fostering students’ information literacy.Given that most of the existing studies adopt a variable-centered research approach,which treats parents as a holistic unit and ignores their differences.The latent profile analysis method was used to explore the latent categories of parents on the basis of their ICT application skills.The results indicated that parents can be classified into three profiles:regular users,negative users,and active users.The number of the three profiles presented a normal distribution,in which the number of regular users was the largest.In addition,the results also indicated that the children of those parents who were grouped into the profiles of active users performed better in terms of overall information literacy scores,and other subdimensions such as information awareness and attitude,and information thinking and behavior.The findings of this study can provide a basis for understanding the latent heterogeneity of parents’ ICT application skills and also can lay the foundation for improving primary school students’ information literacy from a home-school perspective.Based on the findings of previous studies,we analyzed and discussed the research findings of this study.Then,we put forward some suggestions for fostering primary school students’ information literacy:(1)At the government level:attaching great importance to cultivation of primary school students’ information literacy;developing the hierarchical evaluation standard and training system of primary school students’ information literacy;paying special attention to those disadvantaged groups such as teachers and students in rural schools.(2)At the school and teacher level:promoting the integration of information technology and traditional subject teaching;encouraging teachers to develop diverse and comprehensive teaching practices;collaborating with parents to promote students’information literacy.(3)At the family education level:parents should attach importance to the cultivation of students’ information literacy in mind;parents should establish a correct concept of information technology usage;parents should provide ICT support for their children’s learning.