Kuhlthau's ISP model

WHOA! Having come towards the end of the course (well when I finish my 2nd 401 assignment) I have had a sudden epiphany. In attempting to understand Kuhlthau's ISP model, which emphasise the holistic nature of the learner, I have a great appreciation for what the students at my secondary boys school experience and FEEL when they complete assignments. I have such a greater appreciation of the learning process. The ISP model considers the affective domain and purports to describe information seeking/searching behaviour. The ISP identifies information-seeking behaviour from 3 dimensions: feelings (affective), thoughts (cognitive), and actions (physical) where students are attempting to construct their own understands from research. The six process stages are initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection, presentation." (Kuhlthau, 2007: p. 18) The ISP approach is more of an intellectual activity - a complex interplay of thoughts, feelings and actions.

See Henri's article in La Marcha and Manning (2004)


Kuhlthau argues that affective dimensions such as uncertainty (anxiety, confusion, frustration and lack of confidence which are associated with vague, unclear thoughts about a topic or question) have not been adequately addressed in other ISP models designed for information seeking. Students' uncertainty has been considered a negative that needs to be reduced as quickly as possible. (Todd, 2004: 12)

The feelings of students while they are engaged in an inquiry project reveals much about the learning process they are experiencing and the inventions by teachers and the TL that students need. In the early stage stages initiating and selecting is facilitated by making connections with what they already know and forming questions about what they don't know. This lays the groundwork for exploring and formulating in the critical middle stages of the learning process.
With an emphasis on the affective domain Kuhlthau believes that students are more willing to approach a task if it has meaning for them or affects them in some way.

Going through this very process of complex inquiry for assignment 2, I can fully understand why students have and still do have that confused look of uncertainty on their faces when undertaking research. I can look back and see the feelings of uncertainty in their eyes as they struggled to sift through the mountain of information before them as they moved backwards and forwards in trying to work out what was relevant to their assignments and what's wasn't. All this uncertainty when they were struggling to make personal meaning (seeking meaning) and making connections to the information. The model highlights that it's OK to be feeling overwhelmed and bogged down early in the research process.

Prior to reading Kuhlthau's material I had no idea there was any research base and emphasis on the affective side of the research process. I can relate to the feelings that Kuhlthau's lists for the different stages of the process. I have experienced during this semester the doubts and confusion when going through the early stages of the research processes for 401 and 503 assignments. It's true! As Kuhlthau says the negative feelings associated with the early stages of the research process do become more positive, such as clarity, a sense of direction and satisfaction emerges, as progress is made on the assignments.

I hope I haven't misinterpreted Kuhlthau's model, but it does seem to not cover information skills - the skills to get the information (maybe it's implied)! Maybe this is why I don't think this model is suitable for my current school situation. I will just have to move on and read about another ISP model.

While I do like this Kuhlthau's ISP model, I find it quite complex. I think that if I were to attempt to introduce this model into my school (which from Semester 2 I and my colleague will be able to as there is no information literacy instruction) I think it is too complex for many teachers to grasp and understand clearly. Even the diagram illustrating this model is quite complex. I am sure the teachers at my school would like an ISP model that is simple and easy to understand.

The cognitive and physical domains have much less significance than the affective. I am not too sure if I'd be willing to give students free reign research tasks that require them to select their own focus from a broad, wide-ranging topic. I really think this is would be quite time consuming particularly given that the curriculum is so content focused. I feel that students need a more confined focus and guidelines. Students need to be given the processes to unpack the information. Maybe this is an area of weakness of Kuhlthau's model.