Metacognitive Awareness for IL Learning and Growth - The Development and Validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT)

Oct 15, 2026

The article details the development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a metacognitive self-assessment designed for undergraduate researchers. The authors establish the tool as a teaching and learning instrument to help students engage metacognitive processes, strengthening personal agency and self-regulation. Across multiple studies, expert reviewers and community college students support content and face validity, culminating in a 57-item scale best modeled using a bifactor structure.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages33

Reading Time1 h 23 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Scale development and validation

Metacognition and metaliterate learning

Assessment and transfer of learning

Communications in Information Literacy | Volume 16 Issue 2 | Article 1 | | --- | --- | | 12-15-2022
Metacognitive awareness for IL learning and growth: The development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT)
Sara Robertson
Portland Community College, [sara.robertson@pcc.edu](sara.robertson@pcc.edu)
Michele Burke
Chemeketa Community College, [michele.burke@chemeketa.edu](michele.burke@chemeketa.edu)
Kimberly Olson-Charles
University of Western States, [kolsonch@gmail.com](kolsonch@gmail.com)
Reed Mueller
Bushnell University, [rmueller@bushnell.edu](rmueller@bushnell.edu)
Follow this and additional works at: [https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit](https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit)
Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Information Literacy Commons
Let us know how access to this document benefits you. | | Recommended Citation Robertson, S., Burke, M., Olson-Charles, K., & Mueller, R. (2022) . Metacognitive awareness for IL learning and growth: The development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT) . Communications in Information Literacy, 16 (2), 58–89 . [https://doi.org/10.15760/](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[comminfolit.2022.16.2.1](comminfolit.2022.16.2.1) This open access Research Article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4 .0) . All documents in PDXScholar should meet accessibility standards. If we can make this document more accessible to you, contact our team. Metacognitive Awareness for IL Learning and Growth: The Development and Validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT) Sara Robertson, Portland Community College Michele Burke, Chemeketa Community College Kimberly Olson-Charles, University of Western States Reed Mueller, Bushnell University Abstract This article describes the development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a metacognitive self-assessment for use with undergraduate researchers. It was developed as a teaching and learning tool with the intent to help students recognize and engage the metacognitive domain as a step toward developing personal agency and selfregulation as lifelong, metaliterate learners. Throughout the scale development, three studies were conducted with nine expert reviewers and 44 community college students to consider content and face validity and 542 community college students as part ofan itemreduction and construct validation effort. The resulting scale is most appropriately construed through a bifactor model and is made up of 57 items comprising a strong information literacy general factor and six specific factors modestly aligning with each of the threshold concepts outlined in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. As a part of the ongoing development of this instrument, work is needed to more fully assess reliability and validity. Keywords: assessment, information literacy, self-reflection, scale development, threshold concepts, metacognition, undergraduates, metaliteracy, self-regulated learning, Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Robertson, S., Burke, M., Olson-Charles, K., & Mueller, R. (2022) . Metacognitive awareness for IL learning and growth: The development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT) . Communications in Information Literacy, 16(2), 58–89. Metacognitive Awareness for IL Learning and Growth: Development and Validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT) This paper describes the development of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a flexible and transparent self-assessment instrument which represents the six threshold concepts and the range of knowledge practices and dispositions laid out in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL,

FAQs

What is the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT)?

The ILRT is a metacognitive self-assessment tool developed to support undergraduate researchers in recognizing and engaging metacognitive processes tied to information literacy learning.

How was the ILRT validated in the studies?

The authors conducted multiple studies with expert reviewers and community college students to evaluate content and face validity, then perform item reduction and construct validation.

What is the structure of the final ILRT scale?

The resulting 57-item scale is most appropriately interpreted through a bifactor model, including one strong general factor and six specific factors aligned with threshold concepts.

Oct 15, 2026

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