Teaching Information Literacy in 50 Minutes a Week: The CSUH Experience

Teaching Information Literacy in 50 Minutes a Week: The CSUH Experience. This nice article is by Judith Faust. It appeared in the Journal of Southern Academic and Special Librarianship, v.2 no.3 (Spring 2001).

From the abstract:

The development of information literacy is central to the academic success of undergraduates, yet few universities require formal, credit-bearing courses taught by librarians to ensure that students develop these lifelong learning skills and abilities. Where such courses do exist, they are often isolated in the curriculum and rarely linked to the General Education experience. This article describes a General Education program begun in 1998-1999 at California State University, Hayward (CSUH), in which a cohort of students and faculty spend the year exploring a common theme in a series of linked courses, which include an information literacy class. Librarians teach a credit-bearing information literacy course to most incoming first-year students as part of this campus learning community. This article will share experiences related to curricular planning and development, course implementation, and assessment and evaluation of the course, in order to offer librarians suggestions and strategies for mounting a similar experience on their campuses.

Teaching about Canada

Teaching about Canada. Today is Federal elections in Canada. I have been following the news and I am interested to see who wins.

However, not one of my student workers in the library was aware of this! Mind you, we live in Michigan and Canada is real close by. For example, the CBC is on the basic cable package. The level of ignorance about this just shocked me. My students seem to know very little about Canada.

With this thought, I found this nice ERIC Digest which has tips and suggestions for teaching American students about Canada. I hope some teachers use this and get the students educated about Canada before they arrive on campus.

From the site:

The United States and Canada share the world's longest undefended border. The United States also trades more with Canada (exports and imports) than with any other country. Yet, the American public is largely uninformed about Canada, Canadians, and their unique culture. This digest considers (1) why United States students should study about Canada, (2) where content on Canada belongs in the curriculum, and (3) what useful strategies and resources can be used to improve the teaching of Canadian Studies.

Curriculum and Instruction To Reduce Racial Conflict

Curriculum and Instruction To Reduce Racial Conflict. I read this ERIC Digest yesterday. And as I did so, I got to wondering...

Might not the concepts in this essay help in France? After 15 days of rioting in Paris and other cities in the country, it is clear that France has done a poor job of incorporating minority groups in society and that they need to make some changes to their multicultural education. This might include more awareness of minority needs as well as more emphasis on how everyone (regardless of ethnic origin or religious belief) is a French citizen first and foremost. A healthy dose of conflict resolution training is in order as well.

At least the French can not blame this on Anti-Americanism or the Iraq War.

From the site:

The potential for racial conflict always exists in our multicultural society, and periodically there are widespread and serious racial incidents. Although various social institutions have attempted to respond to racial prejudice, effective interventions have not been devised to eliminate outbreaks of racial conflict totally or to obliterate the causes of racism. Public support for overt racism such as segregation and claims of racial inferiority have declined, but more subtle forms have emerged. Retrenchment in areas such as affirmative action and government programs to help decrease the economic and social power differentials among the races could be a cause (Kinder, 1986; Survey Research Center, 1986).

Educational institutions have always attempted to redress racial conflict and its underlying themes of bias, prejudice, and injustice. Measures have included efforts to change the structural aspects of schools and school districts with plans such as busing or redrawing district lines. As these reforms became controversial, other areas of the education system were targeted for change. Many school systems sought to hire more members of minority groups. Another area of effort has been use of curriculum to develop a climate for racial equality. Three such approaches to curriculum, discussed below, are multicultural education, anti-racist education, and conflict resolution. Although some effective programs use only one of these approaches, the most comprehensive programs include components of all three.

Listening: Are We Teaching It, and If So, How?

Listening: Are We Teaching It, and If So, How? It took a class in the spring on listening. My wife said that it helped me some for a while but I have backslidden since then! I don't agree as I think I listen rather well. This essay looks at listening and gives some ideas for how to teach students to do it better.

From the site:

Listening is the first language mode that children acquire. It provides a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and it plays a life-long role in the processes of learning and communication essential to productive participation in life. A study by Wilt (1950), which found that people listen 45 percent of the time they spend communicating, is still widely cited (e.g., Martin, 1987; Strother, 1987). Wilt found that 30 percent of communication time was spent speaking, 16 percent reading, and 9 percent writing. That finding confirmed what Rankin had found in 1928, that people spent 70 percent of their waking time communicating and that three-fourths of this time was spent listening and speaking.

One might assume, then, that the development of listening skills gets considerable attention in our schools; but that does not appear to be the case. Burley-Allen (1982) found the classroom emphasis on language modes to be inversely related to the time people use them: students get 12 years of formal training in writing, 6-8 years in reading, 1-2 years in speaking, and from 0-1/2 year in listening. Swanson (1984b) calls this the "inverted curriculum."

Curriculum guides usually call for more extensive instruction in listening than children get; for as Swanson (1984a) found, there is a tendency for teachers not to emphasize the listening objectives. Many studies in the ERIC database suggest that educators have assumed that listening develops naturally (e.g., Abelleira, 1987).

Librarian/Faculty Partnerships and Library Technology Resources Integrated into the Ethnic Studies Curriculum

Librarian/Faculty Partnerships and Library Technology Resources Integrated into the Ethnic Studies Curriculum. This article is by Mary Wrighten and Laurie A. Rodgers. It appeared in LIBRES, Volume 14, Issue 1.

From the article:

“Course-related instruction is the most effective approach to meeting the objectives of library instruction, thereby making faculty-librarian collaboration all the more significant.” (Farber, 1999, p. 231). This observation has been demonstrated by the collaborative efforts of an Ethnic Studies librarian and instructor through the development and integration of library technology--class web pages—into course curriculum. In the process of creating this technology, there are certain things for which one may and may not expect class web pages to do. Class web pages can be an efficient and effective tool in the assignment completion process, provide learning opportunities through several formats and media, present extended learning opportunities that are initiated by the teacher. Class web pages cannot be a substitute for the teacher or librarian be effective or efficient unless they are integrated into the curriculum, be effective or efficient if their utility does not complement the course’s learning objectives.

Bibliographic Instruction: Two Models Converging in a Common Goal

Bibliographic Instruction: Two Models Converging in a Common Goal. This article is by Stephen J. Shaw. It appeared in the Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship, v.4 no.2-3 (Fall 2003).

From the site:

This essay will explore research in the undergraduate curriculum by examining the divergent ways research is understood. The debate centers around the ways that the typical student perceives the role of the library in her education at the university. To limit the discussion to the relation between the student and the librarian misses the larger issue at stake. What needs does the average undergraduate have after completion of the B.A., if they have no plans to continue education further? Are research skills necessary only for the graduate student, or is there some truth to the humanistic notion of 'knowledge for knowledge's sake?"

There are three key sections to this essay; the first examines the perceived role of the academic library, in an overview fashion, from both the undergraduate and the casual reader of library literature. The second examines what I am calling the 'BI' (Bibliographic Instruction) model of research; what is usually taught in the one-shot 50 minute sessions about how to hunt down citations and navigate the OPAC and relevant databases. The last examines the 'humanistic' tradition which posits research as a democratizing tool needed for an effective citizenry.

It is argued that the BI model is a tool necessary to have in our cognitive toolbox and the humanistic model is the mindset necessary to see the value in the tool. As an imperfect analogy, consider the frustrated high school freshman forced to learn algebra. "Why do I have to learn this," he cries, "I'll never have to use the quadratic equation after I leave here!" The role of the successful teacher is to show him why he will need the overall mathematical philosophy learned, even if the specific formula will never again surface. So it is with research--although the average student will never have to track citations down with ISI Web of Science, the skillset she learns will be tested and used even without her knowing it.

Teaching Critical Thinking through Environmental Education

Teaching Critical Thinking through Environmental Education. This is a well done ERIC Digest which looks at how the environment can be used to teach critical thinking skills. This is a few years old (1989) but I found a few useful tips I will be using in my library instruction sessions in the future.

From the site:

The ability to think critically is essential if individuals are to live, work, and function effectively in our current and changing society.

Students must make choices, evaluations, and judgments every day regarding (1) information to obtain, use and believe, (2) plans to make, and (3) actions to take. As adults they will be living in a complex world and in a democracy where both individual and collective actions will require effective selection, processing, and use of information.

State and local curriculum guides contain goal and objective statements regarding the importance of critical thinking skills. National, state association, business and industry reports on education produced since 1983 have called for increased emphasis on higher-order learning skills, including critical thinking skills.

Information Literacy Across the Curriculum: Using the Information Literacy Standards as a Blueprint for Strategic Curriculum Planning. You may have seen this announcement already. I have had it pop into my e-mail four times now (three from lists and one from a friend). It looks like a good topic. In particular, I like how they are going to tie information literacy in with strategic planning.

From the site:

After successfully implementing a localized information literacy program, many librarians and faculty face the more daunting task of integrating IL skills across an entire curriculum. Undertaking this task is time consuming and demands the patience and support of a number of campus constituents. But when complete, it offers more vision and greater curricular integration than most realize. The process is actually easier than it appears because the Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education provide a highly flexible blueprint for strategic planning.

This workshop offers a guided introduction and first hand accounts about how to integrate IL competencies systematically throughout a general education or major curriculum. Programs highlighted will range from example of a system wide approach coordinated across a state university system to a well articulated college-wide program that encompasses both majors and general education, to programs targeting a single discipline that act as "portable" models with hooks to other disciplines.

A study of undergraduate information literacy and skills: the inclusion of information literacy and skills in the undergraduate curriculum

A study of undergraduate information literacy and skills: the inclusion of information literacy and skills in the undergraduate curriculum. This paper is by Mark Hepworth. It was presented at the 65th IFLA Council and General Conference in Bangkok, Thailand in 1999.

From the site:

This paper concerns the inclusion of information literacy and skills training in the undergraduate curriculum. Students were studied to determine their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their information literacy and skills. The methods used to study the students included a number of qualitative techniques and were applied while students conducted a research project. In general it was found that students had limited skills in the area of information literacy. Based on these findings recommendations were proposed to help develop information literacy and skills and incorporate their delivery in the university curriculum. The paper argues that incorporation in the curriculum is a necessity for their successful delivery. This is in contrast to treating these areas as a separate subject. In addition the implications of these changes for faculty staff and librarians were defined. The initiative took place at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and involved the NTU Library and the Division of Information Studies.

Critical Thinking in the Social Studies. ERIC Digest. This is an older ERIC Digest that looks at how critical thinking skills can be cultivated in students studying the social sciences. Although libraries are not mentioned directly, there are some good ideas that teaching librarians could use.

From the site:

Critical thinking has been a long-standing major goal of education in the social studies. It was the theme of the 1942 Yearbook of the National Council for the Social Studies. It is highlighted today in various statements and publications of state education departments, local school districts, and professional associations. Research and commentary on critical thinking have increased greatly during the last ten years. But it has not been taught extensively or satisfactorily in most social studies classrooms. Goodlad's nationwide study of schooling found little evidence of critical thinking and concluded that "preoccupation with the lower intellectual processes pervades social studies and science as well" (1984, 236).

Current efforts to promote critical thinking in the social studies will fail unless teachers know what it is, why it is important, and how to use it in the classroom. This ERIC digest treats the (1) meaning of critical thinking, (2) primacy of critical thinking as a social studies goal, (3) inclusion of critical thinking in the social studies curriculum, and (4) means of teaching critical thinking to social studies students.

Teaching Information Problem Solving in Primary Schools: An Information Literacy Survey. This paper is by Penny Moore. It was presented at the 63rd IFLA General Conference in 1997.

From the site:

Advances in information technology have resulted in pressure to examine the way educators approach the task of developing children's information literacy. The following reports on work in progress to identify challenges faced in integrating information skills across the primary school curriculum. The stated information literacy intentions of schools, gathered from policy documents and through semi-structured interviews with key people, are compared with teachers' responses to a questionnaire. The questionnaire focused on their understanding of information skills, resource-based learning, the role of the library and the teacher with library responsibility.

Differences emerged in the clarity and coherence of the vision held for information literacy within the participating schools and in staff understanding of the nature of information skills, the role of the library and resource-based learning. Teachers' expectations for children's ability to find and use information are also explored.

Integration of Information Skills In Problem Based Curricula. This paper is by Teodora Oker-Blom. It was presented at the 64th IFLA General Conference, Amsterdam, August 16 - August 21, 1998.

From the site:

To librarians teaching of information skills or information management skills or as it also is called library user education, bibliographic education, bibliographic instruction, library instruction, library orientation, library skills instruction etc, has been one of the important library services for decades.

Proof of this is that the literature in information skills teaching in central professional and scholarly journals of librarianship and information management is substantial, at least in UK and USA. According to an investigation 4% of the research literature and 6% of the professional literature in librarianship and information science from an eight year period ,1986-1993, discussed and described this topic (1). In the pedagogical literature on academic education it is, however, dealt with very sparsely according to a recent Finnish study (2).

Teaching faculty in higher education consider library use an academically desirable activity. When they formulate overall goals in university handbooks or student´s guides, information skills are implicitly included in them or sometimes even explicitly mentioned. Some examples of formulations are: " of the graduate is required ability to participate in the development of one´s profession and ability to continuously gather information in one´s professional field, ability to develop one´s tasks and continuously search for scientific literature in order to fulfill these tasks"(2). The attitudes of the teaching faculty to information skills and the education of them are crucial for its´ success.

The Election of 1800: Teaching about a Critical Moment in the History of American Constitutional Democracy. There were a lot of sore losers after the 2000 Presidential Election in the United States. I can only hope that whoever wins the Presidential Election this year (Bush or Kerry) that the losing side takes it with grace and works with the President to make life better for everyone. The essay I am blogging today is about the first time in American history that a sitting President lost power to the opposition party. What followed was a peaceful transfer of power that set a precedent for the future. This is a timely article (even if it is four years old) and partisans of both sides should read it.

From the essay:

As America approaches its 54th presidential election in 2000, we take it for granted that the candidate who wins that election -- no matter how partisan or contested it might be -- will become the 43rd President of the United States following a peaceful transfer of power in a familiar ceremony. Indeed, this sense of inevitability is clear evidence of the strength of constitutional democracy in the United States. Aside from the election of 1860, which led to the Civil War, for two centuries America has met the test that a country is an established democracy when it consistently makes peaceful changes of government via free elections (Huntington 1991, 7-9).

But this democratic tradition had to be earned. In 1800 American democracy faced one of its most serious challenges when Republican Thomas Jefferson defeated Federalist President John Adams. World history reveals that in all too many cases, political leaders defeated at the ballot have not honored the voice of the people. But America followed a different course. The Federalists handed over the reins of power to their hated rivals, setting a precedent that has guided American politics ever since.

Do students recognize the peaceable outcome of the election of 1800 as one of the most critical moments in the establishment of constitutional democracy in America? The approaching bicentennial of Thomas Jefferson's election is an appropriate time to reflect upon the central place this momentous event should have in the school curriculum. This Digest connects the election of 1800 to the social studies curriculum, summarizes core content on this key event in American history, proposes the use of historic documents by teachers and students, and recommends World Wide Web sites as sources of documents and related information.

Reflections on What Happens When Librarians Become Teachers This is by Kimberley Donnelly. It was published in Computers in Libraries, vol. 20 no. 3, March 2000.

From the site:

Instruction librarians and teaching libraries are getting a lot of attention these days. Are you thinking you should pursue these activities in your library? Would you like to become a teacher? Do you think you should? Most librarians agree that someone has to teach our library users how to use our resources effectively, and that somebody should be teaching students effective ways to use the Internet for research. However, few agree on who should teach and just how the instruction should be carried out.

On some college campuses, the logical solution to teaching research is to create a course. While this may be an objective worthy of librarians’ advocacy and involvement, a delicate balance exists between the rewards and the costs of becoming a teaching library.

Here at York College of Pennsylvania (YCP), librarians were thrust into the classroom in 1997 when a two-credit, core-curriculum information literacy course was introduced. Generated by a faculty task force as part of a new core, Information Literacy 101 (IFL) is dramatically changing the jobs and roles of our librarians and focusing attention on the library, since it’s designed and taught by faculty librarians. Schmidt Library, formerly viewed as an academic support service, is now an integral part of the educational mission of the college. Hundreds of students pass through the turnstile every day on their way to the IFL classroom.

The changes we’ve seen are both philosophical and practical. For this article I’ve gathered some personal reflections—my own and those of our other faculty librarians. So I am offering some firsthand insight into what happens when a group of librarians becomes teachers. All the changes are connected to the way our relationships are changing, the amount of time and energy that IFL requires, and the kinds of shifts that IFL is causing in our priorities.

Educating the Consumer about Advertising: Some Issues. Advertising is everywhere. It even dominates the vast majority of search engine results online. Our students are not always the best at identifying commercial messages in the world. This site has some good suggestions which could be incorporated into an information literacy curriculum.

From the site:

Advertising can be defined as communication which promotes the purchase of products and services, and advertisements are pervasive in the American culture. Ads are sandwiched between programs on television, interspersed with popular songs on the radio, and scattered among news features in the daily paper. While advertisements may distract from a TV program or a newspaper's other messages, might they also serve a more positive purpose? Can advertising advance consumer knowledge? At the same time, can consumer education help people become more knowledgeable and critical about the goals of advertising? This digest provides a basic overview of issues related to advertising and the consumer.

ADS ARE EVERYWHERE

People sometimes complain about the perceived overabundance of advertising in daily life. While consumers are accustomed to ads on television and in magazines, commercial promotion appears to be cropping up in more and more places. A proposed cable TV channel (Channel One) for use in schools faltered when it was learned that the channel would carry commercials aimed at the students, but it now appears to be heading for success, even though school administrators are divided on its merits (Rist, 1989). A profile of Channel One founder, Chris Whittle, in "The New York Times" reported that, while many teachers and administrators extol the value of the newscast which Channel One presents, others will never accept the infusion of commercialism in the schools. Whittle, however, has already signed up the 8600 schools he needed to cover his capital costs and achieve the audience size he felt would interest advertisers (Kleinfield, 1991).

Advertising is also found in some of the free curriculum materials which businesses supply to schools. A content analysis of materials within the areas of nutrition, energy, and economics education revealed that business-sponsored materials were found to contain significantly more advertising statements than did non-business-sponsored materials. Additionally, sponsored materials contained significantly more references to brand names/models and more company/brand logos and names than did non-sponsored materials. Many educators believe that the value of these materials is suspect, because of the preponderance of the commercial message over the informational content (Rudd 1986).

Each time a new communications technology is developed, merchants are quick to devise ways of exploiting the medium for advertising purposes. Advertisers move rapidly to exploit the commercial possibilities of radio, television and cable. Facsimile machines are now used to transmit ads. Sports arenas' and stadiums' electronic scoreboards carry product names in yards-high lettering. The developing technologies of teletext, electronic mail, and interactive cable television are now being used to sell products as well. Research suggests that as a result of these developments, advertising is now less likely to contain meaningful product information, and more likely to be intermingled with other kinds of messages (Sepstrup 1986). Consumers, as the targets of these increasingly complex promotional strategies, must become much more aware of the persuasive nature of advertising.

Information Literacy as a Liberal Art This is by Jeremy J. Shapiro and Shelley K. Hughes. The subtitle is "Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum."

From the site:

What does a person need to know today to be a full-fledged, competent and literate member of the information society? As we witness not only the saturation of our daily lives with information organized and transmitted via information technology, but the way in which public issues and social life increasingly are affected by information-technology issues - from intellectual property to privacy and the structure of work to entertainment, art and fantasy life - the issue of what it means to be information-literate becomes more acute for our whole society. Should everyone take a course in creating a Web page, computer programming, TCP/IP protocols or multimedia authoring? Or are we looking at a broader and deeper challenge - to rethink our entire educational curriculum in terms of information?

In responding to these questions, it is useful to return to the 18th-century Enlightenment, when thinkers began to confront the relationship between scientific progress and the emergence of a free society. It is exactly 200 years since the publication of Condorcet's Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, the Enlightenment's greatest philosophy of history manifesto, written while Condorcet - mathematician, scientist, philosopher, educational reformer, journalist - was in hiding from the Jacobin terror of the French Revolution. In his Sketch, Condorcet told the story of humanity as a story of progress, in which "nature has joined together indissolubly the progress of knowledge and that of liberty, virtue, and respect for the natural rights of man," leading inevitably to humanity's "perfection" and "happiness." Condorcet is relevant to us today because he was attempting to project and plan for the future at a historical turning point.

The Information/Media Specialist in the Academic Learning Community: Integrating Kuhlthau into the undergraduate curriculum This is student paper at Drexel from 2002. Again, I hesitate to link to it as student pages are rudely taken down after they graduate (why not leave good content up I ask?) but I'll take my chances.

From the site:

A new staff member of the undergraduate library at a large urban research university has been hired as the coordinator of information literacy instruction. The coordinator will present her vision of a new, integrated instructional program to the library committee, which is comprised of teaching faculty from the university, and to the library department heads and Dean of Libraries. The new program the coordinator proposes is one that strives to transform the undergraduate student body into a populace of college graduates who are information literate citizens and workers, as well as independent and lifelong learners.

Proposal for an Instructional Program

The following components are crucial to an effective instructional program that will help to achieve the objective of producing information literate graduates:

· Constructivist, inquiry-based program infused with critical thinking skills

· Integration with the teaching curriculum and collaboration with faculty

· Authentic assessment which is outcomes-based and incorporates “backwards design”

· A holistic program that employs a diversity of teaching methods and activities

· Mentoring relationships between students and educators (faculty and librarians)

Carol Kuhlthau (1993), the creator of the model to be introduced later, discusses the nature of learning as constructivist, citing Dewey, psychologist George Kelly, and Jerome Bruner. As such, her model reflects the idea of learning as a process of construction and of seeking meaning. In Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998), the authors also cite Bruner, and talk of “narrative building” (p. 50) as the true meaning of constructivism.

Magical Library Lessons This is a delightful book by Lynne Farrell Stover which contains a variety of lesson plans for 4th to 8th graders. These are very well done.

One reviewer at Amazon.com wrote:

"Magical Library Lessons by Lynne Farrell Stover (Library Media Specialist at Wilbur S. Pence Middle School, Dayton, Virginia) is a consumable workbook of 15 "stand-alone" lessons -- each of which can be taught within a 30-45 minute time frame, and are specifically designed to introduce children to the wealth of resources their school and community libraries have to offer. Sprightly language and engagingly varied themes distinguish this fun and informative instructional planner for teaching elementary through junior high students how to make effective use of a thesaurus, how to write using foreshadowing and flashbacks, how to distinguish between primary and secondary sources, and more. Magical Library Lessons is a thoroughly "kid friendly" addition to any Library Science curriculum for grades 4 to 8."

Using Outcome-Based Education in the Planning and Teaching of New Information Technologies

Using Outcome-Based Education in the Planning and Teaching of New Information Technologies. Regardless of the lesson plan you use, if students can't conduct library research when you are done teaching them, you wasted your time. The same goes for information literacy. An informationally literate student who can't actually use a library resource is going to have problems. That is why library instruction needs to address the need at hand. What does the student need to know to do this assignment? All the glitz and information literacy instruction can be heaped on after your done with that important task.

One method of teaching which uses a successful outcome as a baseline for instruction is outcome-based education. Today's linked site related OBE to library instruction. It starts, "A considerable amount of work needs to be done when selecting new information technologies. From deciding which technology to use to dealing with the vendor's license agreement, a great deal of effort is expanded by library administrators. However, two important and crucial areas that are often overlooked are considering what outcomes a library wants from a new information technology and planning to introduce and teach library patrons how to use the new information resource. It is pointless to purchase an information technology unless it is used effectively by the patrons of a library. A variety of approaches can be taken when designing the curriculum of a library instruction program. Most of these approaches can be traced back to current pedagogical practices that are being advocated by the education profession. One current educational approach which has not received a lot of attention by librarians is outcome-based education (OBE). This approach is highly relevant to libraries planning on introducing new information technologies to patrons as it ties in closely to the goals of library instruction, and to a lesser degree, reference services." Full article at http://www.libraryinstruction.com/obe.html.