National survey finds college students lack basic research skills

The newest in a series of studies and reports from Project Information Literacy is summarized in today's (Nov. 10, 2010) Chronicle of Higher Ed. I wanted to highlight just a couple of their findings that I can attest to based on my own years of experience working with student researchers...

"Alison J. Head, a co-principal investigator for the project, said the results suggest that today’s students... [are]basically taking how they learned to research in high school with them to college, since it’s worked for them in the past... findings show that college students approach research as a hunt for the right answer instead of a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation.  'Not being aware of the diverse resources that exist or the different ways knowledge is created and shared is dangerous.' she said. 'College is a time to find information and learn about multiple arguments, and exploring gets sacrificed if you conduct research in this way.'”