Research anxiety and students' perceptions of research: an experiment. Part I: Effect of teaching Kuhlthau's ISP model

This two-part study investigates the effect of a 30-minute presentation of Carol Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) model on students' perceptions of research and research paper anxiety. An experiment was designed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data during a semester. An upper division undergraduate course, Technical and Professional Writing, with four sections participated in the experiment in fall 1999. A survey instrument, the Research Process Survey (RPS), was developed to collect data about students' feelings and thoughts at the onset of their course research project (pretest) and at the completion of the project (posttest). A standard anxiety test (STAI Y-1) was adopted to measure anxiety levels during pretest and posttest sessions and at two additional points between. Two of the four sections heard a guest presentation of the ISP model as treatment after the pretest; the other two sections heard a different guest speak about career experiences as a technical writer (a placebo talk). The results of this experiment are reported in two articles according to the nature of the collected data. This article reports on results of the quantitative analysis. Four hypotheses were proposed to examine the effects on awareness of cognitive aspects, awareness of affective aspects, level of anxiety, and satisfaction with research. One hypothesis was supported. A significant change in anxiety levels was measured (p = 0.5). Although statistical tests did not reject three null hypotheses, positive trends in change as a result of the ISP model were identified. A second article reports on results of qualitative analysis of the texts that participants wrote about a memorable past research experience and about the current research experience.