How Would You Learn It? Children's Choices Between Platforms and Humans as Knowledge Sources

As independent learning becomes increasingly important in digital contexts, understanding how children choose and evaluate information sources has become a key aspect of learning research. This study evaluated children’s information seeking behaviors, and their associated self-regulated learning strategies. We interviewed 4th and 5th-graders, inquiring how they would approach learning a novel versus a partially-known concept, and the reasons guiding their choices. Children also described what they would do if they felt stuck during the learning process. We found that considerably more children (73.62%) chose to learn from platforms rather than human-sources, yet perceived humans as more trustworthy and anticipated greater enjoyment when learning from them. Learning expectations were similar across sources, regardless of the novelty of the concept. Interestingly, when feeling stuck, children who initially chose platforms were more likely to switch strategies than those who initially chose humans. These findings deepen our understanding of children’s preferences regarding learning, offering insights for educators to better support students’ information-seeking and self-regulated learning, skills that are relevant beyond the classroom in lifelong personal and professional contexts.