Case study research into information literacy

Welcome to Ms Koppen's Librarian Probe

The following postings are on the topic of information literacy and the research that I undertook as part of my Masters of Education in Teacher Librarianship in 2010 with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The aim of this site is to add to the growing bank of information seeking for librarians around the globe and to assist educators in enhancing students' understanding of the infinite information on the World Wide Web.

The topic of information literacy has produced multiple models of guided inquiry, relational approaches, research cycles and phenomenological considerations for information seekers.

RESEARCH ON INFORMATION LITERACY

I embarked on information literacy search strategies with a trial class in Brisbane, Australia. I found that students could offer their own strategies, which was shared with the rest of the group.

An research task based on the Australian curriculum was given to the students with the question "What was life like in Brisbane last century?" The students explained what they already knew on the topic and then posed their own questions to begin their research.

Once the students had researched their historical topic on the World Wide Web and had interviewed past generations to confirm their findings, the students went on an excursion to a historical village. They immersed themselves in activities of the past such as weaving, blacksmithing, fossicking and going on horse and cart rides with some elderly volunteers from a historical association. From this real life interaction, the students create role plays to synthesise this information and will perform their new knowledge of the topic to a school community.

I found that my classroom practice was reinforced by the literature. Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari (2007, pp.62-74) recognize that Howard Gardener’s (1983) multiple intelligences explain, “that each person has some combination of eight different kinds of ability.” They see that school libraries, the World Wide Web, museums and community resources enhance guided inquiry learning. They see that school library as an “inquiry laboratory” where a “powerful learning synergy” is created. (Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari (2007,p.74).

This “powerful learning synergy” was evident during the Information Search Process (ISP) and subsequent activities with the trial class as the students became a "community of designers" that experimented with searching and gave feedback with a series of questionaires. The Student Learning Through Inquiry Measure (SLIM) Toolkit (Todd, Kuhlthau, & Heinstrom, 2005) was used.

My research report entitled "Building A Community of Designers in Primary Schools" aims to provide educators with ideas to design learning activities that require students to locate, interpret, organise and share global information on the World Wide Web.

FINDINGS

The "Building a Community of Designers in Primary Schools " Report found that inquiry based learning principles appear effective in facilitating transformational learning outcomes for middle childhood students.

Scaffolded learning appears effective in providing middle childhood students with both the structure and emotional support they need to maximise their learning.

It appears that the rate of learning achievement is effected by factors not directly addressed by the ISP model. If these factors are linked to linguistic competence, cognitive power, cultural influences then inclusive class structures may result in performance at variance to that predicted by the model.

SUMMATION

There needs to be recognition of the special needs of learners and thoughtful graduated evaluation throughout the learning cycle.

By working together, as a "community of designers" guided, motivated and supported by their teacher, the architect of their learning plan, students will build their own path to attaining information literacy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Large, Bowler, Beheshti & Nesset (2007) coined the term "community of designers"

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2008) "Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices" Peter Lang Publishers New York,NY.

Koppen, I., (2010) "Building a Community of Designers in Primary Schools" report (unpublished Masters Degree report, QUT)

Kuhlthau C., Maniotes, L & Caspari, A (2007) "Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century" Libraries Unlimited Westport, CT.

NOTE: To view more posts continue to scroll down.

Information Literacy Resources

Literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all Key Learning Areas (KLAs) of curricula and learning environments.

Information literacy strategies enable learners to become self-directed and assume greater control over their own information seeking.

The following resources are useful for educators to use with their students to utilise information literacy strategies as an active process in their life long learning.

1. The Big 6 site for teaching information and technology skills in the 'Big 6' model

http://www.big6.com/what-is-the-big6.com/What-is-the-big6/

2. Internet and Technology Lesson Plans for primary/elementary school students

http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/techplans.html

3. Information literacy - DISCOVER model

http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DJWzigkpR7yg&sa=X&ei=5ZCFTKXHDY3-vQPS9-TGBA&ved=0CBoQuAIwAA&usg=AFQjCNHFF82VKRRuMYTKyKZjwH3tpGrPrA

What about critical literacy?

Shapiro, J. & Huges, S (1996,p.31) see that the term "information literacy" is "but a dangerously ambiguous concept" and they suggest that consumers of the digital world will need to think critically about the "entire information enterprise and information society." They propose information literacy as a "new liberal art" that would extending from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the social, cultural and philosophical context and impact.

With this notion of critical thinking in mind I embarked on a search on the QUT Database to use the Boolean terms of "information literacy" AND "critical literacy." I used EBSCO host/ERIC and with my first search results came 8 entries:

1. McLeod J & Vasinda, S (2008) "Critical Literacy & Web 2.0: Exercising and Negotiating Power" where the authors describe Web 2.0 as tools that have increased the urgency for students and teachers critical literacy skills.

I noted on the abstract of hit 1 that upon my first reading the details of the listing recorded that ERIC did not have full access to the text so I "googled" and the article appeared through http://www.informaworld.com with a pay option to access the article. I went back to re-read the entry at the EBSCO host/ERIC page and saw on the left hand side (previously missed) a QUT Fulltext option and was able to access the article freely.

This got me thinking about a) the importance of re-reading and scanning for all the information on the page and b) times when I have searched on academic databases and could not access the full text of the article that I was interested in. The general Google option and Google Scholar will usually locate the article but at a cost.

The other entries were interesting and informative articles such as:

2. Morrisette, R. on "What Do They Know?: A Strategy for Assessing Critical Literacy"

3. Elmberg, J. "Critical Information Literacy: Instructions"

4. Kapitzke, C " Information Literacy: Changing Libraries"

All of these are relevant, recent and topical for educators who are searching for practical strategies on how to activate critical thinking for themselves and their students.

During my search process with Year 4 students, I was struck at the varying levels of critical knowledge with regards to the World Wide Web. When I discussed different search engines available, a student came forth with information on using punctuation marks to narrow down using terms and using plus and minus symbols to add or delete information. The student demonstrated this to the class and we all tried his method which on this occasion yielded the same results without punctuation because the topic which was the name of the local suburb plus history turned out to be only suburb name in the world!! Another teaching point! When you are searching with students with certain terms, the students will find that the term will have global implications! We then continued searching for information using different phrases for the local suburb that the students had formulated. Many real estate records came up and we then discussed the information results which may have been fact but were used for advertising real estate in the area. Another great teaching point for honing in on critical literacy!!

Currently, world wide the digitisation of library records is undergoing change in order to keep up with the "cherry picker" (Bates, J. see Obiwankenexus blog) http://obiwankenexus.wordpress.com/ nature of trying to contain Web 2.0 metadata records. The RDA Toolkit is being released world wide and it will be interesting to see how this takes shape.

All of these innovations require critical thinking and knowledge to understand the workings of an information loaded society so that we can filter what information is important to us.