“Computer what's your favourite colour?” children's information-seeking strategies in the classroom

Abstract

This research investigates children's information seeking in primary and intermediate school classrooms as seen by their teachers. We report the results of a series of semi-structured interviews with teachers of pre-teen children. The teachers discussed specific issues that children encounter during information search, including query construction and information triage difficulties. Further issues were identified during the interviews regarding motivation, frustration and poor strategies for overcoming barriers. We compare the results of our teacher interviews reported here with the results of an interview study with children. This paper concludes that even with significant advancements in technology, teachers and children still require further assistance in order to succeed in their inquiry practices.