Motivating secondary students in information evaluation : need for cognition and self-efficacy.

• Main Author: Lim, Poh Heng.
• Other Authors: Theng Yin Leng
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Education
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/36295
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This dissertation aims to study the perceptions of secondary students regarding the characteristics for information quality and the evaluation strategies they usually employ when working on school assignments and project work. A quantitative approach is adopted for the study. Students from three mainstream Government schools in Singapore participated in this self-report study on their preferences for information sources, the level of importance accorded to five main categories of characteristics or criteria for information quality, and the types of strategies most frequently used when they evaluate information to meet their needs for school assignments and project work. The Elaboration Likelihood Model by Petty & Cacioppo (1986) and Bandura‟s theory on self-efficacy were applied as the undergirding principles for the research framework and for investigating the relationships between motivational elements and the types of evaluation strategies preferred by the secondary students. Two motivational elements were investigated, namely, Need for Cognition, that is, the personal drive to engage in cognitive activities, and self-efficacy. As the study focuses on information evaluation by students, their self-efficacy in two relevant areas, academic performance and information processing, were measured.