Student perspectives:

redesigning a research assignment handout through the academic literacies model

Abstract

This study explores student responses to a research assignment handout that was redesigned in light of the recommendations from a 2010 Project Information Literacy report. Framed through Lea and Street’s Academic Literacies model, which positions information literacy as a social and situated practice rather than as a generic skill set or a process of socialisation, this study uses a descriptive survey method (annotations and a questionnaire) to demonstrate that the addition of disciplinary context helped to scaffold students’ critical engagement with scholarly conventions as well as with the broader information landscape. The study concludes by calling for renewed librarian engagement with alternative theoretical frameworks of literacy as well as the inclusion of student perspectives into studies of academic learning.