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Six tips for transforming your teaching

Page history last edited by Emma Coonan 12 years, 9 months ago

Many staff - particularly librarians - may feel that the Cambridge Curriculum is unattainable due to the practical realities and resourcing of their day-to-day jobs. The following tips are designed for a ‘worst-case scenario’ in which information literacy is perceived as a set of bolt-on low-level skills, separate from and subordinate to academic practice; where sessions are delivered on a non-mandatory basis within the physical library, and confused or conflated with library orientation or catalogue usage; and where training is limited to sessions in the first few weeks of the academic year. In such a scenario, what can librarians do to transform their practice to align with the broader view of information literacy and help students move towards becoming independent learners?

 

1. FOCUS ON THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Even one-off library classes can be made practical, engaging and transferable by switching the focus away from a specific tool or interface and onto the information needs that underlie it. Rather than ‘teaching Scopus’ or ‘offering EndNote training’, embed the interface training into classes that cover the whys and how of carrying out a literature search and good reference management practice.

 

2. USE TITLES THAT REFLECT THE LEARNING OUTCOME

This means having clear, user-focused learning outcomes and matching your content and title to the learners’ need rather than to what the library wishes to push. (Remember that “only librarians like to search .... Everyone else likes to find”.)

 

3. INCORPORATE ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE COMPONENTS

Talk less. We learn by doing, not listening. Rather than delivering a full class as instruction and demonstration, give participants practical exercises that reflect their own research needs and the chance to discuss and reflect on how the newly-acquired knowledge will enhance, simplify, speed up or otherwise change their working practices.

 

4. AUDIT YOUR LEARNERS’ NEEDS

This can be as simple as asking participants to fill in a survey at the start of the class on where they currently look for information, together with their degree of familiarity with an authoritative resource in their area. Even a brief questionnaire yields valuable information about how to pitch each class to address those learners’ needs.

 

5. CARRY OUT POST-SESSIONAL ASSESSMENT

Executing a task and receiving feedback on performance is crucial to retaining and embedding new skills and behaviours in individual practice. Set students a task that reflects the learning outcomes and ask them to assess one anothers’ performance - peer assessment allows participants to engage more deeply in the reflective process.

 

6. THINK ABOUT  TIMING

Wherever possible, time classes to coincide with the information needs generated at different stages of the student career. Instructional sessions given at the start of the academic year are unlikely to make much impact, but addressing information needs as they emerge will  support not only the study process but the development of the student as an autonomous learner.

 

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