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In recent years, the “search as learning” community has argued that search systems should be designed to support learning. We report on a lab study in which we manipulated the learning objectives associated with search tasks assigned to participants. We manipulated learning objectives by leveraging Anderson and Krathwohl’s taxonomy of learning (A&K’s taxonomy) [2], which situates learning objectives at the intersection of two orthogonal dimensions: the cognitive process and the knowledge type dimension. Participants in our study completed tasks with learning objectives that varied across three cognitive processes (apply, evaluate, and create) and three knowledge types (factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge). We focus on the effects of the task’s cognitive process and knowledge type on participants’ pre-/post-task perceptions and search behaviors. Our results found that the three knowledge types considered in our study had a greater effect than the three cognitive processes. Specifically, conceptual knowledge tasks were perceived to be more difficult and required more search activity. We discuss implications for designing search systems that support learning.
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Understanding the “Pathway” Towards a Searcher’s Learning Objective
Search systems are often used to support learning-oriented goals. This trend has given rise to the “searchas- learning” movement, which proposes that search systems should be designed to support learning. To this end, an important research question is: How does a searcher’s type of learning objective (LO) influence their trajectory (or pathway) toward that objective? We report on a lab study (N = 36) in which participants gathered information to meet a specific type of LO. To characterize LOs and pathways, we leveraged Anderson and Krathwohl’s (A&K’s) taxonomy [3]. A&K’s taxonomy situates LOs at the intersection of two orthogonal dimensions: (1) cognitive process (CP) (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create) and (2) knowledge type (factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge). Participants completed learning-oriented search tasks that varied along three CPs (apply, evaluate, and create) and three knowledge types (factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge). A pathway is defined as a sequence of learning instances (e.g., subgoals) that were also each classified into cells from A&K’s taxonomy. Our study used a think-aloud protocol, and pathways were generated through a qualitative analysis of participants’ thinkaloud comments and recorded screen activities. We investigate three research questions. First, in RQ1, we study the impact of the LO on pathway characteristics (e.g., pathway length). Second, in RQ2, we study the impact of the LO on the types of A&K cells traversed along the pathway. Third, in RQ3, we study common and uncommon transitions between A&K cells along pathways conditioned on the knowledge type of the objective. We discuss implications of our results for designing search systems to support learning.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1718295
- PAR ID:
- 10326507
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACM transactions on information systems
- Volume:
- 40
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1046-8188
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1145/3495222
