The light's coming on for my research topic!

Capturing ideas!

I love this paragraph from Todd's 2006 study as he states the phenomena of his research: "The research reported here is about information use: the transformation and integration of found information into existing knowledge, and the creation of new knowledge. Wilson defines information use as the physical and mental acts employed by humans to incorporate found information into their knowledge base or knowledge structure (Wilson 2000). Vakkair (1997) and Spink & Cole (2005) acknowledge that information use research is the least developed in information behavior research."

This speaks to what I want to study. I want to:

• Develop a methodology to measure knowledge change OR
• Analyze the role of concept mapping as a tool to discover and measure how knowledge changes through using found information (from found information to transformed or new knowledge) OR 
• Analyze the role of C.M. to depict how knowledge changes through Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) which is articulated in 6 steps
• Is concept mapping an effective tool to measure the impact of new information (knowledge change)?

I propose that C.M. offer a way to depict knowledge change that is easily interpreted and meaningful. By knowledge change, I mean:

• how knowledge is transformed or created through using found information
• how we use our prior knowledge and experiences to make sense of new information and thereby transform/expand our knowledge
• the impact of new information on our knowledge structures.

The significance of this study is to add to our knowledge about information behavior, particularly in the area of information use which is one of the least developed (Wilson 2000).

I will potentially link my research efforts to these theories/conceptual frameworks. Assumptions/theories/frameworks that guide my research: verify the years/theory names/spellings 

• Kuhlthau's ISP (2004) - learning (knowledge construction) from new information is a process 
• Dewey's Phases of Reflexive Thinking (1933)
• Kelly's Personal Construct Theory and 5 Phases of Construction (1963)
• "Past experience and prior knowledge form the basis for constructing new knowledge (Todd 2006)" --> According to Todd, this assumption comes from Dewey 1933 and Kelly 1963
• Bruner's Interpretive Tasks 
• Sternberg's Componential Theory of Knowledge Acquisition (1984)
• Ausubel's Assimilation Theory (meaningful learning theory) (1963)
• Brooke's Fundamental Equation of Information Science (1975)
• Novak's Concept Mapping (early 1970s) - verify the year
• Ault's step's in concept mapping (1985)
• ACRL IL standards..students apply new and prior information to....create....  (ACRL 2000)
• Kuhn's Paradigm Shift (1962)

In another entry, I free-write what I know about these topics: concept mapping, knowledge change, depicting information to knowledge, ...