Media and Information Literacy in Higher Education

Educating the Educators

Dianne Oberg, Siri Ingvaldsen

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780081006306
• eBook ISBN: 9780081006313
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Gestión de la información

Media and Information Literacy in Higher Education: Educating the Educators is written for librarians and educators working in universities and university colleges, providing them with the information they need to teach media and information literacy to students at levels ranging from bachelor to doctoral studies. In order to do so, they need to be familiar with students' strengths and weaknesses regarding MIL. This book investigates what university and college students need to know about searching for, and evaluating, information, and how teaching and learning can be planned and carried out to improve MIL skills. The discussions focus on the use of process-based inquiry approaches for developing media and information literacy competence, involving students in active learning and open-ended investigations and emphasizing their personal learning process. It embraces face-to-face teaching, and newer forms of online education. - Examines the intersecting roles of academic librarians, teacher educators, and library educators in preparing library students and teacher education students to use the library - Brings new perspectives from both teacher educator and library educator, and draws connections between higher and secondary education (K12) - Draws on a number of competences, skills, knowledge, experiences, and reflections from a variety of perspectives, and focuses on libraries as efficient tools in all kinds of education and learning activities - Written by an international group of authors with firsthand experience of teaching MIL - Looks at how libraries can contribute to the promotion of civic literacy within higher education institutions and in society more widely

Chapter 1

Convergences of and for Media and Information Literacy Instruction in Higher Education

D. Oberg, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Abstract

School librarians and academic librarians share a commitment to media and information literacy (MIL) instruction but in the past, to a large extent, approached their work from different theoretical foundations and with different practical strategies. The process approach to MIL instruction, exemplified in Kuhlthau’s Guided Inquiry in the school library sector and in Bruce’s Informed Learning and American College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education in the academic library sector, is based on research and theory from both education and library and information science. Other convergences include: constructivist learning principles; attention to the learner’s experience; integration of information use with discipline content; collaboration between librarians and teachers; and emphasis on metacognition and reflection.

Keywords

Guided learning; informed learning; framework for information literacy in higher education; focus on inquiry; media and information literacy instruction

1.1 Introduction

The filing on February 2, 2015 of the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education by the Board of Directors of the American College and Research Libraries (ACRL) section of the American Library Association signaled some convergences in conceptions of media and information literacy (MIL). Two groups within the library sector traditionally have been committed to MIL instruction—school librarians and academic librarians—but in the past their theoretical and practical approaches to this work to a large extent have been quite different, and the developments in each field have been largely invisible to the other sector.

This chapter presents several approaches to MIL instruction: from school libraries, the process approach exemplified by Guided Inquiry (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Casperi, 2007, 2012) and from academic libraries, Informed Learning (Bruce, 2008) and the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (ACRL, 2015). Several convergences between these approaches offer opportunities for “educators of educators”—school librarians, academic librarians, K-12 teachers, college and university teachers, and educators of teachers and of librarians—to draw upon and perhaps align their practices with the best in the theories and practices of both sectors.

Practitioners in both sectors of education have much to learn from each other, and the work of practitioners in each sector affects the work in the other sector. My special concern over a long career has been the education of teachers and school librarians, preparing them for their work with children and youth in K-12 schools. Academic librarians have been my partners in this endeavor, and my research on how teachers use libraries in their teaching has shown that they were influenced by their experiences with university librarians during their preservice teacher education (Oberg, 1993).

The concept of “educators of educators” in the title and content of this book reflects the awareness that MIL instruction can be initiated in many different ways, by individuals and by groups, carrying out many different roles in teaching and learning. Most often, the phrase “educators of educators” brings to mind university faculty members responsible for preparing university students for professional practice as teachers and librarians, but in the area of MIL education, this is not always the case. For example, students in a college class experiencing difficulty with the library searches necessary for completing an assignment might ask for help from their instructor who then accesses help for the class from the library staff. School librarians often provide informal professional development in MIL for their school leadership staff as part of initiating a whole-school approach to curriculum-integrated MIL instruction (Oberg, 2009). University faculty may reach out to academic librarians to discuss making improvements to a course assignment (Shorten, Wallace, & Crookes, 2001). College accrediting bodies may require that colleges give evidence of student achievement of information literacy outcomes in the college curriculum, which brings academic librarians and teaching faculty together to revise, implement, and evaluate information literacy-based curricula (Thompson, 2002).

1.2 MIL Instruction in School Libraries

What is regarded as exemplary MIL instruction in school libraries has changed over the years: a source approach, during the 1960s and 1970s; a pathfinder approach, through the 1980s; and a process approach, beginning in the 1990s. The process approach has been implemented over the past 25 years under many different “labels” in the school libraries field; information literacy, MIL, inquiry-based instruction, and Guided Inquiry are just a few.

The process approach to teaching MIL emphasizes thinking about information and using information within a problem-solving perspective. It does not discard the knowledge from earlier approaches, such as the knowledge of tools, sources, and search strategies, but it does emphasize that this knowledge is to be developed within the teaching of thinking and problem-solving (Oberg, 1999, 2004).

The process approach is theory-based and grounded in research from the fields of education and of library and information studies (LIS). From education comes learning theory, and from LIS, information seeking behavior theory. For example, from education comes the knowledge that learners vary in the level of abstraction that they can handle, depending on their cognitive development and their prior knowledge and experience. Also from education come the constructivist concepts of learners actively building or constructing their knowledge and of learners experiencing changes in feelings as well as changes of thoughts as they use information. From LIS comes the knowledge that users of information progress through levels of question specificity, from vague notions of information need, to clearly defined needs or questions, and that users are more successful in the search process if they have a realistic understanding of the information system and of the information problem. From both education and LIS comes the understanding that students learn more about MIL when MIL instruction is connected to and integrated with disciplinary content and assignments.

The work on MIL instruction in the school libraries sector has been strongly influenced by the seminal research of Carol C. Kuhlthau whose doctoral work investigated the experiences of high school seniors completing library-based research assignments. Kuhlthau brought to her research a deep understanding of student learning, beginning from her early career as a kindergarten teacher and a school librarian. Kuhlthau’s Model of the Information Search Process showed the affective, cognitive, and physical changes that learners experience as they complete a research project from task initiation to presentation. The process approach to inquiry goes beyond the location of information to the use of information, beyond the answering of a specific question to the seeking of evidence to shape a topic. It considers the process of a search for information as well as the product of the search. It calls for an awareness of the complexity of learning from information: learning from information is not a routine or standardized task, and it involves the affective as well as the cognitive domains. Throughout the process, learners benefit from support in dealing with the feelings, thoughts, and actions that are part of their information search process.

The goal of instruction is “to instill in students a sense of the process of learning from a variety of sources of information” (Kuhlthau, 1995, p. 1). This is true for college and university students as well as K-12 students; it is also true for professionals who engage in information use for solving problems—see, e.g., research into the use of information by financial analysts and judges (Kuhlthau, 2003). By providing opportunities for information users, whatever their age and stage of life, for reflecting on their feelings, thoughts, and actions throughout the process of learning through the use of information, information users develop an awareness and understanding of their own personal learning experience as well as an awareness and understanding of their new content knowledge. This metacognitive aspect of the process approach to MIL is critical to developing abilities related to self-directed learning, lifelong and life-wide.

1.2.1 Instructional Models in the K-12 School Library Sector

Kuhlthau’s Model of the Information Search Process is the basis of the Guided Inquiry Model (Kuhlthau et al., 2007). Guided Inquiry is a model to guide MIL instruction in K-12 schools; the model is based on six principles:

• Children learn by being actively engaged in and reflecting on experience.

• Children learn by building on what they already know.

• Children develop higher-order thinking skills through guidan...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• About the Authors
• Preface
• Chapter 1. Convergences of and for Media and Information Literacy Instruction in Higher Education
• Chapter 2. Teaching the Ethical Use of Information as an MIL Skill
• Chapter 3. Promoting Civic Literacy in Teacher Education: A Framework for Personal and Professional Development
• Chapter 4. The School Library in Media and Information Literacy Education
• Chapter 5. Teaching Faculty Collaborating With Academic Librarians: Developing Partnerships to Embed Information Literacy
• Chapter 6. Teaching Source Criticism to Students in Higher Education: A Practical Approach
• Chapter 7. Staff Development Programs on Teaching Skills and Curriculum Integration of Academic and Information Literacy at the University of Auckland
• Chapter 8. IMPACT Lessons: Strategically Embedding Media and Information Literacy Through Teacher Development in Higher Education
• Chapter 9. Action Research and Informed Learning for Transformative Professional Development About Information Literacy
• Afterword
• Index