In the previous tile, you considered the many active roles of the metaliterate learner. You may feel comfortable in some of these roles, and less so in others. Don’t worry if you don’t see yourself in all of them yet. Becoming a metaliterate learner is a continual process of self-reflection, personal growth, and lifelong learning; you will have opportunities to develop these roles throughout this module and beyond.

In this tile we will focus on your role as a researcher. While you will certainly conduct research as a college student, you also practice this role in your everyday life, whether you are planning a trip, making a new purchase, or investigating a potential career path.

As you inquire, investigate, explore and discover new information, you have the opportunity to take control of your learning and enrich your ways of understanding, engaging with, and contributing to the world around you.

To begin this tile, let’s consider the characteristics of the metaliterate learner and how they apply to your role as a researcher. Metaliterate researchers are reflective learners who embody an open mindset. They set personal learning goals and continually ask good questions while reflecting on their learning. They are adaptable and willing to challenge their assumptions while becoming more informed by considering diverse viewpoints and ideas.

Metaliterate researchers are also participatory, collaborative, and civic minded, meaning they take responsibility for the information they create and share in various communities and social spaces. Finally, they are productive in their creation and contribution of new knowledge, as you will explore further in the next tile.

The following glimpse into a decision-making process, guided by the metaliteracy learning objectives, models how a metaliterate researcher might approach meeting an information need. Learning from it will help you to save time and increase the effectiveness of your own research, while also enhancing the quality of the information you create and share.