Information Behavior of University Applicants
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chang, Duan-Gui
Abstract
The main task for senior high school students in their current stage of life is to pursue higher education through various university entrance channels. The existing university admission system, or the Multiple-Entrance Program, is made up of two channels, including “admission via application or recommendation screening” and “admission via entrance examination”, of which, “admission via application or recommendation screening” is further divided into two types: personal application and Stars Program Recommendation. According to literatures, senior high school students often encounter the problem of insufficient information during the “admission via application or recommendation screening” process. However, as far as the existing literatures are concerned, studies on information behavior during the university “admission via application or recommendation screening” process are not yet available.
In view of this, with the 14 freshmen of National Taiwan University who applied for admission and were enrolled as the study subjects in this study, the in-depth interview was adopted in the exploratory research in order to determine the freshmen’s university admission information behaviors during their senior high school years. The purposes of this study are to explore the information needs and information sources and channels of the university applicants, the changes that took place after the information use, and the information related problems encountered in order to analyze the factors affecting the university applicants’ information behaviors. The research findings shall serve as a reference for senior high schools, university departments, and other units when offering university admission application related guidance and services.
The main findings can be summarized into four items, as follows:
1.The information needs of university applicants, preferred information sources and channels, and information behavior types, which were analyzed through three stages: the development of the direction of the pursuit of higher studies, the selection of departments to apply for, and the preparation of the stage-2 examination.
2.The university applicants’ cognitive and emotional states after the information use produced positive and negative changes. The cognitive changes include better understanding, cognitive changes, cognitive expansions, access to validation, access to orientation, and cognitive conflict; the emotional changes include triggered interest, strengthened motivation, relieved anxiety, confusion, etc.
3.The university applicants’ information-related problems encountered include the internal and external problems. The three internal problems include: cognitive bias, inability to understand the contents of the departments, and not knowing how to write materials to be reviewed; the external problems include insufficient information, excessive information, unclear information, inconsistent information, lack of information credibility, information inappropriateness, and obstacles encountered during information access. The obstacles encountered during information access also include obstacles in the physical environment, such as space, distance, and limited quantity of data, as well as obstacles in the network environment, such as lack of access authorization.
4.University applicants’ information behaviors are affected by psychological and environmental factors and risk and reward assessments. The psychological factors include the respondents’ limited experiences and knowledge, and their adherence to the idea of “enrollment” is the highest goal; the environmental factors on the other hand refer to the characteristics of the various admission application systems that affect the respondents’ information behaviors, including the General Scholastic Ability Test scores determine the selection of departments and the time constraint when preparing for the stage-2 screening test; in terms of risk and reward assessments, the respondents believed that compared to other channels for the pursuit of higher education, “admissions via application” involved relatively lower risks, while the enrollment rate was relatively higher.
Based on the study results, the researcher proposed three suggestions, as follows:
1.For senior high schools: (1) It is suggested that specific and long-term lesson plans be developed to guide senior high school students in exploring their personal aptitudes and the university department contents; (2) it is suggested that assistance be offered to senior high school students in establishing a cognitive framework of university discipline division and association with the industry; and (3) it is suggested that the stage-2 screening test related information be digitized and inter-school resources integration and sharing platforms be established.
2.For university departments: It is suggested that departmental website interfaces exclusively for the senior high school group be designed. The website information should be specific and clear, which should be presented in texts and forms that can be easily understood and absorbed by senior high school students.
3.For library practitioners: (1) Senior high school libraries can organize theme book fairs and provide relevant information in accordance with the curriculum lesson plans; and (2) public libraries can organize university application admission related theme book fairs and related lectures.
Subjects
information behavior
university applicants
SDGs
Type
thesis
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