The Information Quest: A look at children as information seekers

In an effort to get students to think for themselves, to be involved in their learning and to use information sources, teachers often set project assignments. Sometimes this independent work is supported with lots of information and guidance from the teacher. Sometimes the children are really on their own. In the classroom, the children are enthusiastic about projects and they can easily tell you how to go about finding information in the library. Yet often the teachers are disappointed with the end product. Looking at some projects one researcher commented that children seem to treat information sources as 'treasure troves of sentences that can be stolen and marketed again in another setting'. Are we expecting too much from the children or are there some difficulties in the task that we just have not seen?