Enseñanza universitaria

Objectives: This paper examines how student interest in the scientific field of information and documentation can be identified and motivated, using the results of a study in the Spanish autonomous community of Extremadura.

Methodology: A 15-item questionnaire was administered to identify the value students assigned to creative, volitional and intellectual skills and a 25-item questionnaire was administered to identify the value they assigned to specific skills in information and documentation. Student interest was motivated by group discussions and specialized seminars. The respondents were first- and second-year university students at the University of Extremadura studying the bachelor’s degree Information and Documentation in its face-to-face mode during the academic year 2011-2012, and sixth-form students in centres of secondary education in the city of Badajoz, especially students of social sciences.

Results: In their assessment of creative, volitional and intellectual skills and of specific skills in information and documentation, the first- and second-year university students’ average score was higher than 83%. The interest shown in skills in information and documentation by the sixth-form students was also high, and the average score given was 66%. However, both groups assigned greater value to general skills than to specific skills. We argue that this is indicative of students’ customary lack knowledge of the subjects which the degree is supposed to make them specialists of, and that educators must therefore find more effective ways of promoting the importance of these subjects.