Today’s students search, evaluate and actively use Web information in their school assignments, that is, they conduct an online inquiry. This current survey study addresses sixth-grade students’ self-efficacy beliefs in and attitudes towards online inquiry, and to what extent free-time and school-related Internet activity, gender and learning beliefs explain these. The questionnaire was administered in 10 schools to 340 sixth-graders in Finland. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed three elements of self-efficacy beliefs: self-efficacy in Web searching, the evaluation of sources and synthesising information. Furthermore, attitudes towards online inquiry loaded into two factors: a positive and a negative attitude towards online inquiry. A structural equation model was used to analyse the effects of the explanatory variables on the factors. The results of this work suggest that gender and free-time Internet use predict most sixth-graders’ self-efficacy beliefs in and attitudes towards online inquiry.

今天的学生在他们的学校作业中搜索、评估和积极使用网络信息，即他们进行在线查询。这项当前的调查研究解决了六年级学生对在线查询的自我效能信念和态度，以及空闲时间和与学校相关的互联网活动、性别和学习信念在多大程度上解释了这些。该问卷在芬兰 10 所学校对 340 名六年级学生进行了调查。探索性和验证性因素分析揭示了自我效能信念的三个要素：网络搜索中的自我效能、来源评估和综合信息。此外，对在线查询的态度包含两个因素：对在线查询的积极态度和消极态度。结构方程模型用于分析解释变量对因素的影响。这项工作的结果表明，性别和空闲时间使用互联网可以预测大多数六年级学生对在线查询的自我效能信念和态度。