Lilac 2009 Information Literacy as a habit of learning

Integrating information literacy as a habit of learning Assessing the impact of a golden thread of IL in the curriculum Moira Bent and Elizabeth Stockdale Faculty Liaison Librarian/National Teaching Fellow Lecturer – Environmental Science

Information Literacy – yet another definition
Information literacy can be thought of as individuals building an awareness of how they “ use, manage, synthesise and create information, in a wise and ethical manner, to the benefit of society”, as part of their learning life. Information literacy is central to learning and essentially involves changing learning attitudes and habits so that people understand how information fits into their learning”.

Information Literacy at Newcastle
Patchy approach
Information Skills or Information Literacy?
Individual champions
CASAP course
Module Outline Forms
IL Project
IL Toolkit
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/staff/infolit/toolkit/

Pockets of good practice
Postgraduate programmes in all Faculties
Chemistry
Masters programme
Computing Science
First year curriculum
Medical School
Environmental Science
And more….

Integrated or stand-alone approach
Stand alone advantages
Easier for library staff to offer discrete workshops
Online IL packages mean students can learn at their own pace
Academic staff can pass responsibility ( and contact time) to library staff
Library staff can develop programmes independently of academic staff
Library profile – can be seen to be contributing

Stand alone disadvantages
Often concentrate on specific skills, rather than broader IL issues
Students don’t perceive the session to be essential/ relevant
Students may not carry knowledge across to other areas of learning
Academic staff are less aware of content

Integrated approach advantages
Immediately relevant for students
Learned as part of subject content (thinking about intertwining threads)
Possible to address more abstract IL issues
Academic staff ownership of IL content
Easy to plan development/ incremental learning

Integrated approach disadvantages
Library staff lose control of IL
Talking ourselves out of a job?
Will the academic staff do it right?
It can be difficult to work with someone else in this way
Library staff need to know more about pedagogy
It can be time consuming to develop
Convincing academic/library staff it’s worth it

Environmental Science The programme context - 2004
Even in Stage 2 assignments you still mostly find websites quoted as references
I think that we have probably failed to encourage the students to find and make sense of scientific rather than popular literature
I do think that most are woefully trained in dealing with writing reports and undertaking original work … The students are not given time to learn really useful skills for the outside world (like thinking, for one).

Students tend to search in unsophisticated ways, often not really understanding what to look for, nor how to go about a search (Peters et al 2003).
In most subjects students are expect to become independent learners and critical thinkers, but the way this is to be achieved is expressed only in very general terms
Most academics “assume that students are somehow, albeit haphazardly developing information skills” (McGuiness, 2003)
Osmosis – not fostered, supported encouraged

Environmental Science Programme specification
Cognitive skills (C3) – critically appraise data, information and viewpoints and produce a reasoned argument
Key skills (D1, D2) – summarise and communicate in writing and orally in a manner appropriate to the target audience ; use information sources effectively
Library workshops develop information searching skills

The golden thread
Environmental Science Issues (Stage 1, study skills in context)
Environmental Practice (Stage 2, what do environmental professional do?)
Environmental Science Project (Stage 3, all our own work)
IL is developed in collaboration with library staff.
Golden thread gives the opportunity to practice IL skills in a range of contexts

Introduced, practiced, assessed
Learning logs and search strategies submitted as part of credit bearing assessments provided relevant information on both the use of the skills introduced and students’ perceptions of the processes.
Additional questions were included in end of Module questionnaires.
Informal review of the approaches was also made through conversations with staff and students.

Does it work?
Difficult to wean off a “Google habit”.
If it’s not electronic, it doesn’t exist
One size doesn’t fit all. Highly individual and situated practice

Learning log - end of Stage 1
“ I felt that I have achieved quite a lot. I actively used journals in my research for the first time in a project, and indeed used a range of journals. I also reduced my dependence on books quite a lot. Many of the statistics in the presentation were taken from websites – government departments and agencies. The use of these websites means that my information and figures were reliable and more current. I also used portals and gateways on the Internet following the library exercise and a very good book on sources of information in environmental science in the library reference section”.

Learning log – mid Stage 2
“ There is a large amount of information available on this subject, but a lot of it is very subjective to the views of the campaign groups and not all is based on actual fact. For example the facts I found on the Environment Agency’s website were quite different to the information that I found on the website for the local campaign groups. … Although there is a lot of information available on the negative impacts of incinerators I have tried not to get carried away with them because they are very subjective. I started by looking on the internet but found that the vast amount of information was too much to look through, so I started using books and journals for relevant information. I also feel better about using them as they are more reliable.”

Reflecting on the whole thing - Stage 3
“ It was good having the sessions integrated into Modules throughout the year, we paid much more attention and they seemed much more relevant. The sessions this year really set us on the right track. After them we were better equipped to search for the most appropriate journals, to identify other sources of information and to reference the range of sources of material we have found. Without those sessions I would have really struggled with my research project.”

For study – not for life?
“ I think everyone’s initial approach is Google, but there are obviously other places to find information (chuckle) for like essays and stuff”
“ It depends if you want academic information or just general information like about how much it would cost to buy something”

What have I learned as a lectuuer?
Direct and credit-bearing assessment
Contextualisation and practice
Show they are valued
Students need encouragement to reflect on skills development
Continual loop of learning, reflection for those who lead
Let other module leaders know so they can challenge/ develop

What have I learned as a librarian?
Students benefit from reflecting about their information literacy abilities
IL should be an integral part of all subject teaching
IL isn’t just for librarians
Students ask me different kinds of questions
It’s very satisfying when it works
It’s easier to do the second time around

Collecting more evidence of impact
Current research to assess impact
Information Literacy criteria
Mirrored assessments
Seminar discussions
Reflective learning logs

ANY QUESTIONS?
Thanks to the students whose brains we have picked…

Lilac 2009 Information Literacy as a habit of learning

by nmjb on Apr 02, 2009

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Lilac 2009 Information Literacy as a habit of learning — Presentation Transcript