Getting there is half the journey: An exploration of high schoolers' individual differences and navigation strategies during internet-based digital reading

We examined how individual differences in epistemic beliefs, metacognition, and academic aptitude predicted successful navigation behaviors during internet-based digital reading. To do this, we first quantified internet navigation behaviors of 257 adolescents and used a random forest to identify which behaviors best explained variance in learning of an ill-structured topic. We found that search term generation, even controlling for sites accessed, was the dominant predictor of learning (i.e., knowledge gain and critical questioning). We argue these navigation behaviors reflect cognitive flexibility and task-centered navigation. Mediation analysis revealed that metacognitive awareness was a driving predictor behind students' successful implementation of these behaviors. Further, cognitive flexibility in navigation was particularly useful for students with less academic proficiency. We conclude that the metacognitive processes that lead adolescent readers to a website may be critical for success in unconstrained, internet-based environments.

Educational relevance statement

Digital reading is crucial for 21st century students to acquire, but it is unclear what specific skills or behaviors are most important to teach. In an analysis of high school students' digital reading, we found that the navigation behavior that best predicted learning and comprehension–even more than finding topic-specific sites–was creating topic-specific search queries that go beyond broad relevance to include a tight alignment to the topic. Students' engagement in this type of querying activity was predicted by individual differences in metacognition, suggesting that monitoring comprehension of the topic plays a role in the behavior. Individual differences in students' beliefs in the importance of digital literacy as a skill also predicted learning gains.

These results suggest that educators may be able to improve digital reading by encouraging students to reflect on their search queries, specifically advising students to consider the scope of the context for learning and how the information they are looking up serves the purpose of the task. Finally, educators may be able to improve student performance in this domain by focusing not just on what is important for digital literacy, but also on why it is important and needs to be honed as its own skill.