INFORMATION-SEEKING PROCESSES AMONG
PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN AUSTRALIA AND
MALAYSIA
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Shamila Mohamed Shuhidan
BHSc. in Accounting (Hons)
Master of Science in Information Management
School of Business Information Technology & Logistics
College of Business
RMIT University
August 2013
Declaration
I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that
of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in
part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result
of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the
approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a
third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been
followed.
SHAMILA MOHAMED SHUHIDAN
22 August 2013
Information-seeking processes among primary school children in Australia and Malaysia
Shamila Mohamed Shuhidan Page iii
Acknowledgements
Alhamdulilah (Praise be to God), to whom I pray and seek guidance, for giving
me the strength to complete this memorable expedition.
This thesis is dedicated to all my beloved: especially to my late father, Hj.
Mohamed Shuhidan Ariffin. His words of inspiration and encouragement in
finishing this thesis were never ending till now and still linger on. I thank my
mother, Hjh. Maimun, my parents in-law, Hj. Abd Hakim and Hjh. Khadijah,
siblings and family-in-law for all their support, attention, sacrifices, prayer and
unconditional love. My heartfelt thanks to my beloved husband, Azma
Asnawishah and my children, Aiman, Amree and Alisha for always being there
with me to encourage and care, and for understanding and giving me the strength
to endure this journey. My gratitude is also expressed to all my friends for their
continuous help and support along my PhD journey.
My greatest gratitude to Associate Professor Peter Macauley and Dr Sue
Reynolds, my two wonderful supervisors for their continuous encouragement,
guidance and support of my research. Thank you for your informative suggestions
and brilliant ideas, for being understanding mentors, giving me the flexibility to
work at my own pace, sharing the tears and helping me to make it through the ups
and downs. Your vast experience in this field offered me very valuable and
constructive advice to make this thesis come to fruition.
Thanks to my main sponsor, the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and my
employer, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for supporting me all the way in
finishing this thesis. I would also want to thank my faculty members and the Dean
of Faculty of Information Management, UiTM Shah Alam, RMIT School of
Business Information Technology & Logistics staff members, and RMIT School
Graduate Research Office (SGR) for their words of wisdom and encouragement. I
acknowledge the assistance of a proof-reader and statistician, and thank them also
Information-seeking processes among primary school children in Australia and Malaysia
Shamila Mohamed Shuhidan Page iv
for encouraging me to write and helping me with my English writing. I also
thankful to all the participants and respondents of this research, and many thanks
to schools involved, without their contributions, this thesis will not be completed
and success.
Information-seeking processes among primary school children in Australia and Malaysia
Shamila Mohamed Shuhidan Page v
Abstract
Interest in information behaviour and information seeking has encompassed the
school context. As the Internet has become one of the most important sources of
information in supporting primary children’s learning environments, information
behaviour and information-seeking by children has become a key issue which
requires more in-depth research. Research in the present study was carried out in
Australia and Malaysia. This research shows how children seek information
within a school context, particularly the processes taken for information-seeking.
The research also identifies the challenges faced by school children in seeking
information from the Internet. The research adapted Kuhlthau’s (1993) model of
the six stages of the information search process – initiation, selection, exploration,
formulation, collection and presentation – in order to address the research
objectives.
The research involved three phases of data collection. The first phase involved a
broad survey (quantitative data) in order to allow generalisation of results from a
primary school population to identify the usage, knowledge and challenges of
using the Internet in the school setting. The next phase was observation. As the
research focused on the information-seeking processes undertaken by primary
school children, observation was the best way to carry out the investigation. It
involved observation of children seeking information from the Internet as they
performed information-seeking tasks in 20-minute sessions. Three sets of tasks
were set. The observations were aided by the use of a checklist and note taking.
The checklist was based on the Kuhlthau (1993) model of information search
process (ISP), and the note taking served as a memory aid that contained
extensive detail from the observations. The final phase of the research involved
interviews (qualitative data) with the teachers, directed at determining the primary
school children’s information behaviour and how they undertook information-
seeking in the school settings.