Information literacy of students of the Central Luzon State University Science High School

(Castillo, 2009)

Ten years ago, Filipino high school students were under the Department of
Education’s (DepEd) implementation of the Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) that provided
the “overall framework for school empowerment” (DepEd, 2002) wielded towards its
mission, vision, and core values. Before the K-12 program, students were only required to
study for four years of high school to earn a diploma. Expected from a high school graduate,
standards in terms of skills, knowledge, and values must be met before pursuing higher
education. With all these standards come the importance of making students more
information literate as one of the ways to better prepare them to venture into a higher level.
Viewed from Castillo’s thesis about information literacy, competencies of third-year and
fourth-year high school students of Central Luzon State University were assessed in relation
to their varying personal backgrounds. To further understand the study, this paper focuses on
the information literacy skills being measured, framework used, and findings presented, and
evaluates some important aspects about the topic for further discussion.
The main question Castillo wanted to answer in their thesis was whether or not the
students of the Central Luzon State University Science High School (USHS) have the
information literacy (IL) skills needed to conduct college-level research. To answer this, she
created a questionnaire that evaluates the respondent’s IL skills based on the American
Library Association (ALA)’s IL Standards for student learning. These nine standards, each
classified into three categories, describe the expected attitudes and abilities of an information
literate person that mirror the ALA’s definition of IL: “able to recognize when information is
needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information”
(1989). Some examples of the skills being measured include recognizing information needs,
identifying potential sources of information to address these needs, distinguishing high-
quality information from inaccurate or misleading information, applying said information in
critical thinking and problem solving, and communicating said information. Aside from these
skills, the standards, and by extension the researcher, also evaluate a person’s ability to utilize
their information literacy skills in lifelong learning. This includes using IL skills in pursuing
personal goals and interests, evaluating one’s thought processes, and contributing to the
community by encouraging the generation of knowledge, the flow of information, and critical
analysis of said information. The questionnaire measures these skills through questions that
detail real life examples of situations where they may be employed. The specifics of these
standards are listed below:
Standard 1. Accesses information efficiently and effectively
Standard 2. Evaluates information critically and completely
Standard 3. Uses information accurately and creatively
Standard 4. Pursues information related to personal interests

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 Standard 5. Appreciates and enjoys literature and other creative expressions of
information
Standard 6. Strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generations
Standard 7. Recognizes the importance of information in a democratic society
Standard 8. Practices ethical behavior in regard to information and IT
Standard 9. Participates effectively in groups to pursue and generate information
The respondents were rated using a zero-based pass or fail (P/F) system, the passing
score placed at 60%. For each standard, the average scores were taken and compared against
the passing score. After checking the answers of the respondents, Castillo came up with the
following results; for standards 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9, the USHS students got a passing total mean
score, earning them rating of P for these standards. However, the USHS students got a failed
rating for standards 2, 6, and 7 because they got a failing total mean score in each of these
standards. Through these findings, Castillo concluded that the USHS students are good in
standards 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9, but have the need to improve in standards 2, 4, 6 and 7.
Based on these results, Castillo concluded that the students of USHS were barely
equipped with information literacy competency skills that are needed in higher education.
She was also able to conclude that there is no huge difference between the number of USHS
students who passed and failed, since the respondents are at the borderline of passing and
failing, with 62 respondents who passed and 47 who failed. She also added in her conclusion
that only the academic standing has a significant effect on the performance of the USHS
students in their performance in the information literacy competency assessment. She
concluded that there are no significant relationships between the students’ performance in the
information literacy competency assessment and their year level, age, gender, socio-
economic status, type of community, type of elementary school, access to the Internet and
reference materials, and frequency of library use.
The results of the study prompted Castillo’s recommendation that the USHS faculty
and the library should work together closely instead of working independently by making
collaborative efforts in promoting and encouraging the use of library resources, and the
teaching of the necessary information literacy skills. In addition, the enhancement of library
and information skills is a preparation for students for when they enter college as well as a
tool used in lifelong learning, so it is important for the school to acknowledge this idea and
act upon it. It was also included in the researcher’s recommendations that the use of a
standardized questionnaire or integrated test, like the one she specifically created and used for
the study, is more suitable to assess the information literacy competency and analyze the
information literacy level of students. Consecutively, it was indicated that a variety of tests
which include research works and online tests should also be done in order to evaluate
information literacy more accurately in high school students. She also suggests conducting
follow-up studies in the USHS and to conduct the same study in other schools.

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 As the questionnaires were distributed and answered during the respondent’s class
hours, Castillo was able to collect a near-complete set of data, with the few missing students
being absent on the day the questionnaires were being answered and having no follow-up to
collect their answers. While no more was mentioned about the respondents beyond their year
levels and school, in the interest of personal privacy, we also question the integrity to which
the respondents answered the questionnaire. It is possible that the respondents hastily
answered the questionnaires, did not take them seriously, or were not able to understand the
questions and as a result, answered randomly. This is mere speculation based on our previous
experiences as high school students and as researchers.
The questionnaires prepared by Castillo, though comprehensive, can be vague at some
points. Towards the end of the questionnaire for the IL competency test, most of the
questions become subjective, thus unintentionally encouraging bias on the side of the
evaluator as some answers given by the respondents could be considered correct by the
evaluator but not by some information professionals. Some questions are also obvious no-
brainers, which can skew the results of the study by raising the scores of students. The
existence of “all of the above” and “both ___ and ___” as options in the multiple-choice
questions also serve as a dead giveaway for the students, especially for those who preferred
not to take the questionnaire seriously. In the case of the questionnaire for the student profile,
the questions provided seemed appropriate for the purposes of the study.
Evaluating Castillo’s thesis in terms of scholarship and mechanics, it can be said that
the author adequately structured its content and formally provided sound and valid reasoning
grounded on the framework and other possible factors to consider. The author used statistics
frequently to strongly support or contrast her claims and findings. Also, Castillo managed to
effectively employ ethical considerations such as properly citing sources. On the other hand,
the author fairly articulated few of her claims and questions found in the instrument used.
There are also formatting issues in terms of spacing and numbering which the author might
have forgotten to fix beforehand. Despite some noticed errors, the thesis remained
understandable and useful in overall.
To summarize the content of this paper, Castillo’s thesis presented the evaluation of
the information literacy skills of third-year and fourth-year high school students of Central
Luzon State University Science High School in support of the general idea that information
literacy provides a set of skills which are necessary in pursuing tertiary education. While the
set of skills, which are to identify, find, evaluate, apply, and acknowledge information, are
universal in terms of use and definition regarding information literacy, the framework used as
the basis for the formulation of the questionnaire is not entirely applicable in the Philippine
context which may compromise the findings of the evaluation at the time.
Furthermore, regardless of how well the questionnaire was linguistically constructed,
high school students have the tendency to jest in times of seriousness, feel anxious, frustrated,
or irritated if they are not proficient in English, and half-heartedly skim through long
questions which led to the assumption of the possibilities that the findings are not as accurate
as it should. The findings of the study are rather objective and was deemed to be a matter that
cannot be critiqued for it only followed a systematic means of checking responses and

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statistically calculating them. The same goes for the conclusion which is based on the
findings and the recommendations of the study which is based on the conclusion. Lastly, the
ethics and mechanics of the thesis are exceptional, save for a few formatting issues such as
spacing and numbering.

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 Works cited

Castillo, P. B. (2009). Information literacy of students of the Central Luzon State University
Science High School (Undergraduate thesis). University of the Philippines Diliman,
Quezon City.
June 17, 2002 DO 25, s. 2002 – Implementation of the 2002 Basic Education Curriculum.
(n.d.). Retrieved from www.deped.gov.ph/2002/06/17/do-25-s-2002-implementation-
of-the-2002-basic-education-curriculum."Presidential Committee on Information
Literacy: Final Report", American Library Association, 2006. Web. Accessed
November 26, 2019. www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential.

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License. Using this work for profit and changing the work in any way without proper attribution are highly prohibited.