Examining the practice of information literacy teaching and learning in Vietnamese upper secondary schools

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ngo, Huyen | Walton, Geoff

Affiliations: Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Pandon Building, Camden Street, Newcastle, NE2 1XE, UK. E-mail: huyen.ngo@northumbria.ac.uk, geoff.walton@northumbria.ac.uk

Abstract: Information literacy (IL) research has been hitherto dominated by the USA, Australia and the UK [22]. Vietnam, however, remains under-represented and there is no IL work in upper secondary schools in the country to date. This paper, which is part of an ongoing PhD research, presents preliminary findings of the study to understand IL level of students as well as explore the practice of teaching and learning IL. The research proposes a model to help develop IL for schools in Vietnam based on Standards for the 21st-Century Learner introduced by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and driven by study programme as well as current educational initiatives in the country. The research employs a mixed methods approach to assist the researcher in providing a rich picture of the practice of IL in the Vietnamese educational context. The preliminary findings indicate that there are some aspects of students' IL level that need to be improved. The findings also show that teaching IL is not the focus of the school although they acknowledge its importance to pupils. It is clear that more work needs to be done to strength students' capabilities.

Keywords: Information literacy, secondary schools, Vietnam, Standards for the 21^st-Century Learner

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-160978

Journal: Education for Information, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 291-303, 2016