1. Learning by teaching
Christina Johansson, Chalmers University of Technology,
christina.johansson@chalmers.se
Mona Wernbro, Chalmers University of Technology, mona.wernbro@chalmers.se
Chalmers library began teaching information literacy in the 1970s. Since then we
have tried different course structures, first face-to face, then online in a VLE (Virtual
Learning Environment) and for the last three years blended courses. A survey among
the students after a year with blended learning showed that they preferred classroom
instructions and that the online module was too difficult and lacked the possibility of
interaction and discussions with a teacher. After these results we decided to
transform the course and it is now divided into three parts:
Part one consists of a face-to-face lecture in information literacy skills and a
workshop where the students search material for their own project.
Part two is a group assignment that the students prepare before attending Part three.
The course materials they need for the assignment are available in a VLE. The
assignment is divided into three parts. The students are asked to A) … describe how
they planned their information retrieval, chose search tools, conducted their searches
and evaluated the result. B) … show how to cite different sources. C) … choose one
document and describe what kind of document this is (journal article, book chapter,
conference article etc.) and define if it is scholarly or not.
Part three is a face-to-face workshop based on the pedagogical theory “Learning by
teaching”. The different groups present a short lecture to the class about their
findings based on their projects. The teacher also gives a lecture on how to evaluate
and how to cite. The objective of this part is to let the students’ questions and needs
form the class.
This TeachMeet will present the outcome of this new way of teaching. It will consider
the feedback given by students attending the course as well as the experiences from
the teachers’ point of view.