Much has been made of the "knowledge shortcomings" of the general population. One only needs to think about some of the shocking (and funny) interviews that Jay Leno does on the segment he calls Jaywalking.
E.D. Hirsch caused quite a storm when he proposed that people can't learn unless they have a certain minimum amount of factual knowledge, which he called cultural literacy.
Did you know that there is also something called information literacy? It too has been the subject of much discussion.
In August 2008, 225 Richland high school juniors took a needs assessment developed by the Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges.
The assessment was an opportunity for librarians to take a look at the understandings and misunderstandings of our own student population.
The assessment showed that there is much that students do not understand.
This little slideshow -- What Students Think -- demonstrate some of those gaps in understanding.
These may not be quite as shocking as Jay Leno's discoveries, but they definitely play a role in keeping students from producing the quality work we know they are capable of.
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