IMPACT ON LEARNERS’ UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION WITH THE INFUSION OF INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS TRAINING IN PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Learners in Problem-based learning (PBL) environment are expected to learn from “real world” problems. PBL incorporates uncertainty naturally as a source of intrinsic motivation and a stimulus to learning which appears as the natural provocations for real learning. This is very much different from traditional approach where students and lecturers believe that the purpose of teaching and learning is the reduction of uncertainty and the main resources to uncertainty reduction are teachers and textbooks. Students in PBL environment must possess high level of communication skills, ability to identify and define problems, seeking and evaluating information and use it effectively. These skills are embraced under the broad term of information literacy skills (ILS) which aims to reduce uncertainty. Little research has been done on ILS training to reduce uncertainty of PBL Students. This paper aims to compare the difference in uncertainty reduction of science and engineering students in the two designs of PBL model. 78 students (Winter 2012 Semester) from American Degree Transfer Program of Taylor’s University in Malaysia participated in this study. Solomon Four-group quasi experimental design was utilized in this study. The independent variables were groups of students with and without ILS training infusion and pretesting while dependent variables were uncertainty level. Uncertainty construct was developed and designed to measure an individual’s real or anticipated uncertainty level with regards to the cognitive, affective and physical dimension in a 30-item self-reporting, numerically measurable questionnaire. Results from the analysis of T-tests, factorial ANOVA, One-way ANOVA and ANCOVA showed that students with ILS training infusion out performs those students with ILS training infusion in terms of uncertainty reduction. This paper contributes to the PBL research field that ILS training infusion in PBL can be viewed as tools of empowerment which transform university students into independent and lifelong learners. The results reported have implications for design of PBL curriculum by infusion of ILS training with collaboration from academic librarian and subject facilitator to empower PBL students in exploring and maximize their potential in deep learning approach and knowledge acquisition in PBL environment.