What do we teach when we teach information literacy in higher education? This paper describes a pedagogical approach to information literacy that helps instructors focus content around transformative learning thresholds. The threshold concept framework holds promise for librarians because it grounds the instructor in the big ideas and underlying concepts that make information literacy exciting and worth learning about. This paper looks at how this new idea relates to existing standards and posits several threshold concepts for information literacy.
Threshold concepts are a theory of teaching and learning proposed by two British
educators, Jan Meyer and Ray Land. Threshold concepts can be used for teaching information literacy and could inform the Standards revision as well. There are five definitional criteria that make a concept a threshold concept
The curriculum outlines what we believe to be a continuum of skills, competencies, behaviours and attitudes ranging
from functional skills to intellectual operations that together comprise the spectrum of information literacy.
The overarching aim of the curriculum is to help undergraduate learners to develop a high‐level, reflective understanding of information contexts and issues which will empower them with a robust framework for handling new information situations, and to generate strategies for evaluating, analysing and and assimilating that information as needed and at the time it is required.
The emphasis throughout is on the student’s development as a discerning scholar and, beyond the academic arena, as an informed citizen and an autonomous and lifelong learner.
The aim of this article is to discuss some of the challenges and possibilities that librarians may face when engaging in faculty-library collaboration. The main objective is to present findings from two case studies of embedded librarianship at Gjøvik University College (GUC) and to compare these findings with results from a literature review. The literature review is concentrated around collaboration challenges, a possible role-expansion for librarians, team-teaching and assessment of information skills courses. Another objective is to present two pedagogical approaches that are in use at GUC; the tutor approach and the team-teaching approach. Findings from the case studies suggest that faculty staff were impressed with the librarian’s knowledge and they quickly became comfortable with team-teaching and/or leaving the librarian in charge of the students. However there were concerns from both the teacher and librarian about the time-consuming nature of collaborative work. This paper contributes to the literature through a literature review, two case studies and teaching approaches that highlight factors leading to success when collaborating with faculty.
This article provides an overview of the design, implementation, revision and informal assessment of an information literacy curriculum embedded in a new University Foundations (UF) program at a mid-sized public university. The library information literacy sessions incorporated team-based learning and Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) elements using iPads. Each session provided students an opportunity to develop and apply information literacy skills, and included critical thinking questions which led students to think about underlying concepts. A focus group with the librarians assessed the UF library curriculum, its impact on student engagement, and the training activities for librarian teaching preparation.
As information literacy instruction outcomes assessment in academic libraries continues to increase as a key indicator of pedagogical value both within libraries and throughout their parent institutions, the call for the design and implementation of such assessment continues to rise as well. Ideally, this process is supported with adequate time, funding, and personnel. The reality, however, is not always so accommodating. This case study relates the Brooklyn Campus Library of Long Island University's experience with developing a start-from-scratch outcomes assessment of information literacy instruction in its undergraduate core curriculum.
Few issues in higher education are as fundamental as the ability to search for, evaluate, and synthesize information. The need to develop information literacy, the process of finding, retrieving, organizing, and evaluating the ever-expanding collection of online information, has precipitated the need for training in skill-based competencies in higher education, as well as medical and dental education.
Alison Pope, Keith Puttick and Geoff Walton have been involved in the information literacy aspects of a project to help students improve their research skills and they report on this and the wider current debates on information literacy with an emphasis throughout on legal research skills.
Excellent opportunities for promoting information literacy are available when librarians become collaborators in integrative learning initiatives, such as Writing Across the Curriculum, the Freshman Year Experience, and Learning Communities. Examples of successful collaborations are given. It is noted that the most significant challenge that remains involves assessment of information literacy in these programs.
In the technological world of the Twenty-first Century, students must be information literate. They must have the skills to access, evaluate, and utilize information needed in their undergraduate experience and in their future endeavors. It is important for Geography majors to acquire these skills as part of their undergraduate education. At one institution of higher learning, information literacy learning is embedded in the Geography curriculum. An online instrument to assess information literacy skills is used to evaluate seniors. In this article, goals for information literacy, the creation of the information literacy assessment instrument and the results of assessment testing are discussed.
The aim of this paper is to present the Information Literacy Instruction Assessment Cycle (ILIAC), to describe the seven stages of the ILIAC, and to offer an extended example that demonstrates how the ILIAC increases librarian instructional abilities and improves student information literacy skills.
R. Hobbs. A White Paper on the Digital and Media Literacy Recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, (2010)
P. Zurkowski. Washington D.C., (1974)National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS), National Program for Library and Information Services.