• Research Tools
  • Research Tools
  • Library Database Research Guide
  • Resources for Researchers

Why is Research Literacy - the Fourth "R" the slogan for Research Literacy?

Our slogan, Research Literacy - the Fourth "R," highlights the changing meaning of research. Research is no longer something that happens only in academic contexts - in the kinesiologist's lab experiment, the ethnographer's fieldwork, or the literary theorist's critical analysis. We can now think of research as an everyday practice that we use to make sense of the world. Research, in face, has become a ubiquitous part of our personal and professional organizing vocabularies.

In a multimedia educational environment, technological advances result in different ways of thinking about research, and, in turn, teaching about research. Many young people are learning to develop research questions, keep research logs, and do PowerPoint presentations before they enter high school. Research Literacy Tools for evaluating, organizing, and synthesizing information are key to a life-long learning model of informed citizenship that uses what might be seen as just for academic thinking for "real life" problem solving.

Research -
The Fourth "R"

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