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PurposeTo investigate information literacy (IL) skills of secondary students in Singapore after integration of these skills into school curriculum. The study also explored cyber wellness skills of the students.Design/methodology/approachA survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 14 secondary schools, located in different geographical zones of the country. A total of 3,306 secondary students participated in this survey. A scoring scheme was devised to assess IL skills of the students.FindingsThe students achieved an overall mean score of 52.6%, which is considered as a “middle” level of IL competency. The students obtained high mean scores for two IL skills: “defining information task and analysing information gaps” (60.5%) and cyber wellness (60.1%). Lowest scores were achieved for two IL skills: “selecting information sources” (47.4%) and “appraising the information process and product” (48.0%).Research limitations/implicationsThis study has not investigated IL knowledge of teachers, responsible for teaching IL components. Similarly, content analysis of school textbooks, integrating IL skills, could be useful.Practical implicationsIt appeared that integration of IL skills into school curriculum showed limited success in imparting these skills. This paper suggests measures for improving the integration of IL skills into school curriculum. Findings of this survey will be useful to curriculum planners, education administrators, instructors teaching IL skills and school librarians.Originality/valueThis study was unique as, in addition to standard IL skills, it also investigated cyber wellness skills. It was desirable as now social media have become a popular source for information seeking and sharing.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess knowledge of Singapore Grade 5 (11 years old) students’ understanding and proficiency in basic information literacy (IL) skills of defining information tasks, selecting information sources, seeking information from sources and synthesising and using information. Design/methodology/approach A 38-item multiple-choice question assessment instrument was used to assess the students’ IL skills based on the i-Competent IL model. The instrument first developed in 2010 was refined and expanded to increase the robustness and accuracy of assessment for the study. It was administered to 17 primary schools in Singapore in November 2015. The maximum possible score of 54 was scaled up to 100 to report the overall mean score for ease of reference and comparison. A total of 2,399 returns were obtained and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 22.0 to compute the mean scores, IL stage-level scores. The study also investigated for any significant differences in performance between male and female students, and students with or without access to the internet at home. Findings The students achieved an overall mean score of 53.39 which is below a recommended acceptable score of 60 or 70 advocated in a number of past studies. The two worst performing areas of IL skills were synthesising and using information and seeking information from sources with mean scores of 45.89 and 48.81, respectively. A review of the highest number of incorrect answers suggests that students had difficulty in identifying key information from an information task narrative, understanding the use of reference sources and role of librarians, distinguishing between a fact and opinion, and adopting the best strategy for searching. Girls outperformed boys with an overall mean score of 55.38 vs 51.50. Students with internet access at home fared better than those without access to it with a score of 53.67 vs 45.81. The overall poor results of the survey suggest an urgent need to review the IL education landscape in the Singapore school system, revisit polices, priorities and assess the relevance and effectiveness of the IL curriculum, practical hands-on classes, and interventions that are currently employed in schools. Practical implications The study helped identify areas of IL skills strengths and weakness among Grade 5 students in Singapore schools. It provides recommendations for follow up actions for education authority and schools to improve the situation. Originality/value This study was prompted to provide an assessment after a national IL initiative was launched in 2012 to inculcate IL skills among the school-going children as part of creating a value-driven education system. This is the first reported set of findings for a large-scale survey conducted to measure and ascertain the IL skills level among Grade 5 students.

In research as well as in clinical settings, health literacy is often measured using self-rated psychometric instruments. Research has, however, shown that although patients perform poorly on health literacy measures, over time, they tend to develop skills and strategies to empower themselves to manage their chronic disease conditions. In this study using focus group interviews as a methodology, and information landscapes and phronesis as conceptual building blocks, we tried to understand how patients acquire, evaluate, and use health information to deal with their chronic disease conditions. Phronesis refers to practical knowledge and wisdom that people develop through experience and is enacted by patients to make health-related decisions and engage in healthy behaviors. Results show that patients enact a number of strategies that reflect phronesis when managing their chronic conditions. Findings from this study are discussed to evaluate phronesis as an important concept for understanding successful chronic disease self-management. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed. Accepted version

Purpose – This study aimed to acquire knowledge about Singapore secondary school (ages 13 to 16 years old) students' skills in searching, evaluating and using information. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive instrument encompassing the basic information literacy (IL) skills, as well as a new dimension of ethical usage of information and collaborative information seeking was used for data collection. From August to November 2010, a total of eight schools comprising 3,164 students participated in this study. Findings – It was a matter of concern that various kinds of libraries, including school libraries, were found to be under-utilized. From the test that was administered to assess the IL skills of students, the results were found to be generally unsatisfactory as each of the major categories of IL skills recorded a score that is below 50 (out of a maximum of 100) except for “task definition”. For skills related to “information seeking strategies”, “location & access” and “information use”, the types of schools, academic streams of study, and students' family background seemed to have significant influences. Originality/value – This study is the first large-scale survey conducted in Singapore that sought to test the IL skills of secondary school students. The findings are useful in assessing the current effectiveness of IL integration, and the need for a more planned approach towards IL competency training within the school curriculum in Singapore.

Measuring and assessing information literacy (IL) competencies is essential to understand its educational impact as well as to explore pedagogies to improve it. This study is the first to acquire knowledge about Singapore tertiary students’ skills in searching, evaluating, and using information. A total of 534 students from the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore participated in this study through an online survey. Moderate IL skills scores of the respondents showed room for improvement especially in higher-level skills related to information use, synthesis, and evaluation. Students receiving pretertiary education in Singapore scored higher than those from overseas did, which, to some extent, showed that IL education in Singapore is still more effective than that in some other countries. The IL course offered in the university was found to be useful and to lead to higher IL assessment scores.

Several comprehensive information literacy (IL) standards have been developed worldwide for use in the education sector, specifically for students and teachers. Apart from the more generic International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) IL standards, such standards are more appropriate for their countries of origins. If these standards are to be applied to schools in Southeast Asia, then some form of contextualization and customization is necessary to cater for gaps that surface due to their different and unique education environments and cultures. In addition, as a result of the growth ofWeb 2.0, information seeking moves rapidly in the social dimension. It is therefore timely to review ongoing research in the areas of collaborative information seeking and behavior, as well as education values in order to derive a set of up-to-date, relevant and holistic IL standards for schools. This paper proposes a model to help to develop IL standards for schools in Singapore that was constructed using the aforementioned standards as a guide, based on the paradigm of a popular information and technology literacy process model known as the Big6, and steered by related educational initiatives and education values that have been recently implemented in Singapore. The proposed model expounds each of the Big6 categories in terms of Techniques and Tools, and supplements those categories with three important mindsets of Ethics and Social Responsibility, Collaborative Information Behavior, and Attitudes and Perceptions.

The main objective of this study was to explore scholarly communication trends in the field of information literacy. A total of 1989 records from Scopus bibliographic database, published from 2003 to 2012, were analyzed. The Scopus database was preferred over the Web of Science as it provided considerably more hits for the phrase ‘information literacy’. Other possible synonyms for the concept of information literacy were ignored to minimize the retrieval of irrelevant documents. MS Excel as well as specific Scopus analytical tools were used for data analysis. Some areas covered in the data analysis included: annual growth in information literacy publications, preferred journals for publishing information literacy articles, most prolific authors, top countries producing information literacy literature, and publication distribution by subject. It was found that the number of information literacy publications have increased steadily during the last ten years. It was also revealed that a majority of information literacy publication were written by authors from North America and the United Kingdom. Published version

The objective of this paper is to analyze the available literature on health information literacy of senior citizens from around the world and outline the major findings from this literature. A systematic review of literature from 2004 to 2014 was conducted using nine relevant databases, which yielded 42 quantitative studies, which were analyzed. The analysis revealed that information seeking behavior varied by age, gender, health status, education, socio-economic status and technology literacy. Over time, there has been a gradual increase in the use of the Internet by senior citizens seeking health information. Also, there has been a corresponding increase in a number of intervention studies in e-health literacy for senior citizens. Shortcomings in the literature include compromised methodological issues of inadequately powered sample size, absence of longitudinal and theory-based studies, and dearth of research on relevant outcomes. The article ends with a discussion of the relevance of the findings to IL researchers and practitioners, and suggestions for further research.

The aim of this study was to assess the information literacy (IL) and cyber-wellness skills of secondary 3 (grade 9) students, who are aged 14-15, in Singapore. The Ministry of Education in Singapore has introduced aspects of IL in schools through incorporating components into the syllabi of various subjects. A pilot-tested online survey, validated by IL experts from Canada, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Thailand, was used for data collection. The survey was taken by 2,458 students from 11 secondary schools in different geographical zones of Singapore. It was found that the use of school libraries and their resources was at a very low level. The majority of the students approached classmates and friends for help in solving their information-related problems. Only a small fraction consulted their school librarian. The overall IL assessment score showed that the students possessed a ‘middle’ level of IL skills which is better than previous (pre-curriculum integration) IL assessment studies in Singapore. As curriculum-embedded IL skills are taught by subject teachers, their level of preparedness could be a matter of concern. Similarly, fragmentation of IL concepts in different subject textbooks may cause co-ordination problems among teachers. This paper highlights the need for developing a roadmap for providing IL skills at different grade levels and in different subject areas. It is expected that the findings of this study will be useful to curriculum planners, teachers, schools librarians and others involved in IL education.

Increased demand for medical or healthcare services has meant that nurses are to take on a more proactive and independent role intending to patients, providing basic treatment and deciding relevant clinical practice. This, in turn, translates into the need for nurses to be able to translate research and evidence into their practice more efficiently and effectively. Hence, competencies in looking for, evaluating, synthesizing and applying documented information or evidence-based practice becomes crucial. This article presents a quantitative study that involved more than 300 nurses from a large government hospital in Singapore. A self-reporting questionnaire was developed to collect data pertaining to evidence-based practice and activities, including those that demonstrate information literacy competencies. Results seem to suggest that the nurses preferred to use print and human information sources compared to electronic information sources; were not proactive in looking up research or evidence-based information and, instead, preferred such information to be fed to them; and that they perceived they lacked the ability to evaluate research papers or effectively search electronic information related to nursing or evidence-based practice. It was also found that more than 80% of the nurses have not had any training related to evidence-based practice.

Appropriately measuring information literacy skills is essential to understand their educational impact as well as exploring pedagogies to improve teaching of these skills. This paper reports findings of a baseline study to understand the information literacy level of secondary school students in Singapore. A comprehensive instrument encompassing a new dimension of ethical usage of information as well as major IL principles and guidelines was developed for data collection. A total of 298 responses were gathered through the online survey. The findings indicate that overall there was a scope to improve students’ IL skills. That stated, higher order IL skills (such as information use, synthesis, and evaluation) demand more attention, as comparatively lower levels of proficiency were observed in this study.