“I need to learn how to cite without the website”: using think alouds to understand students’ struggles with academic referencing

Many students struggle with the mechanical process of academic referencing when they transition into higher education. Previous research has typically utilised questionnaires and/or interviews to gain retrospective insight into students' cognitions while referencing. The think-aloud method, which asks participants to verbalise their thoughts while performing a task, was utilised while 30 undergraduate participants completed a referencing exercise, followed by semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of transcripts identified that students could articulate why referencing was important, although they struggled with the mechanical process of referencing, often experiencing nervousness and a dislike of referencing. As a generation of information consumers, participants held little regard for the nuance of academic referencing, instead placing importance on finding sources via search engines using minimal information such as first author and article title. The referencing exercise used in this study received positive feedback and could be incorporated into taught sessions to better support students' development of this core academic skill.