Using context to promote learning from information‐seeking tasks

Children in schools frequently engage in information‐seeking tasks either for personal interest or as part of some instructional activity. In most instances, an assumed and implicit purpose of the information seeking is that some form of learning will occur. But this is not necessarily the case. Research into the use of electronic information sources has demonstrated that while students can demonstrate successful information retrieval skills and strategies, they can often fail to learn and retain the information and knowledge with which they have been engaged. The purpose of this study was planned to test the hypothesis that information‐seeking activities based on contextual and social purposes would lead to higher levels of knowledge acquisition and learning than those achieved through activities where the purpose and context was absent. The results from this study provide tacit support for this hypothesis. Our study found that when students participated in information‐seeking activities and tasks, the amount of knowledge gained and retained was influenced by the context and purpose of the activity. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.