Introduction: This study concerns students' criteria in the evaluation of Internet sources for a school assignment requiring reflections on a controversial issue. The findings are elaborated by analysing students' discursive accounts in justifying the use or non-use of sources. Method: The interview data was collected in a Finnish upper secondary…

In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills is growing substantially. The "Survey of Adult Skills," a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult…

Introduction: Few studies have addressed teacher trainees' information acquisition in the context of a task. The paper reports findings from an empirical study on teacher trainees' use of information (seeking) channels and sources, and their modes of information acquisition in lesson planning. Method: Semi-structured (retrospectively held)…

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the link between age and proficiency in information-processing skills, based on information drawn from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The data reveal significant age-related differences in proficiencies, strongly suggesting that proficiency tends to "naturally" decline with age. Age…

This first "OECD Skills Outlook" presents the initial results of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), which evaluates the skills of adults in 22 OECD member countries and two partner countries. The PIAAC survey was designed to provide insights into the availability of some key skills and how they are used at work and at home through the…

Discussion of the role of Finnish school libraries in supporting learning focuses on the development work and further education provided by the Further Education Centre for Vocational Institutes and Administration in Finland. Highlights include school libraries in comprehensive schools and vocational institutes, resource-based learning, and…

Examines the ways in which the collaborative use of a multimedia-based CD-ROM encyclopedia in a sixth-grade Finnish classroom fosters science learning. Results show that students' activities during task-processing were highly procedural and product-oriented. Students had inefficient skills in accessing and retrieving information from the…