In a major US project, more than 10,000 pupils have been revealing how their school librarians have taught them how to get the most out of information
sources. Ross Todd gives us the background.
'My school's librarian taught me and the whole class how to look for and find the right information. I did all of my research in my school library, and got an “A” on the project.’
The rapid growth of information in multiple formats and text types poses some significant challenges to schools. How do we provide instruction that enables students to find their way through this diverse information landscape and develop deep understanding of their curriculum topics, of the world around them, and of themselves as human beings? The dynamics of effective learning in an information-age school are complex. How do children learn in diverse and increasingly technological information environments? How do they build new knowledge from information, going beyond the superficial gathering of facts and copying ideas, to transforming ideas into new understanding?
Essential competencies
It is very clear that students do not learn simply by being put in front of a range of websites or library sources. An extensive body of research about how students learn from information sources shows that students face high levels of information overload; are unable to manage and reduce large volumes of information; fail to create effective search queries and navigation paths; have poor research strategies; have a high expectation that technology will make up for poor searching techniques; don’t question accuracy or authority of information; and have a tendency to plagiarise.1
These problems highlight the importance of providing learners with a range of information and critical skills to help them in searching for and locating information; selecting information on the basis of relevance and quality; structuring and organising information to represent their understanding of their topic; and presenting their new understanding in appropriate ways.
Information literacy (IL) refers to the range of intellectual scaffolds that enable students to effectively connect with, interact with and use information in all its forms (electronic, print, and popular culture) to construct sense, new knowledge and deep understanding. Information literacy provides students with the intellectual keys to open the world of ideas in diverse and often conflicting resources, to read in a way which builds deep knowledge of their topics, to present their new knowledge, and to share it with confidence. Information literacy is the connection between learning to read and reading to learn.
Essentially, IL revolves around three types of intellectual scaffolds:
Reception scaffolds: skills that help learners in garnering information from the diverse sources, identifying important information and organising and recording what they gather; that enable students to define their information needs, frame questions, explore ideas and formulate a focus to their research.
Transformation scaffolds: skills that help learners in transforming the information they have received into some other form appropriate to the task; that enable them to analyse and synthesise ideas to create their own evidence-based perspectives and understanding; and that enable them to evaluate solutions and reflect on new understanding. This involves the ability to impose a coherent structure on information, e.g. laying out an argument with claims, evidence and rebuttals, and grouping ideas in meaningful sequences.
Production scaffolds: skills that help learners in using technology and information tools and processes to create information products that accurately represent their newly developed understanding – whether a research paper, a presentation, a poster, or multimedia product; and that enable students to communicate ideas using oral, written, visual and technological modes of expression – individually or in teams.2
Role of school libraries and school librarians
Research evidence3, 4, 5, 6 shows that school libraries and school librarians can play a central role in developing information literacy across the school. Specifically it shows that when the school librarian works as an instructional partner with classroom teachers in the development of information literacy that is integrated into curriculum content, this improves scores in standardised tests, exams and research assignments. The model of the ‘School Library as a Dynamic Agent of Learning’ (Figure 1) illustrates the importance of information literacy in enabling students to transform information from many sources into personal knowledge. This model emerged out of a large research project undertaken by Todd and Kuhlthau7 – ‘Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries’ – which involved 13,123 students and 880 teachers and school administrators from 39 schools across Ohio.
The model identifies six key elements that contribute to learning in information-age schools. They are briefly described here.
Informational
Information resources: current, multi-perspective, multi-format resources carefully aligned to academic content standards.
Technology infrastructure: state-of-the-art information technology to acquire, organise, create and disseminate information.
Reading resources: reading materials targeted to personal pursuits, pleasure/leisure reading.
However, a strong information infrastructure does not of itself foster true learning. The most striking dimension that emerged from the Ohio study was the importance of instructional interventions that were carefully planned and implemented by school librarians and classroom teachers working together to develop both mastery of curriculum content and the intellectual scaffolds needed to access and process information. These instructional interventions, centering on the development of information literacy, technological literacies and reading engagement, are crucial in enabling students to transform the myriad of information inputs into personal knowledge.
Transformational: instructional interventions
Information literacy: these skills go beyond accessing and locating information: the central focus should be the skills of constructing knowledge.
Technological literacies: critically evaluating as well as finding the information, and using technology to build representations of knowledge gained.
Reading engagement: promoting and encouraging reading for academic achievement and life-long learning, and fostering a sustained love of reading.
Information literacy is a transformational process, not an outcome. The outcome is students creating new knowledge, using new knowledge, producing knowledge products, and communicating their ideas effectively.
Formational: students
Knowledge creation: students achieve through being able to define problems, frame questions, explore ideas, formulate focus, investigate, analyse and synthesise ideas to create their own views, evaluate solutions and reflect on new understanding.
Knowledge use: students develop transferable skills for sustaining knowledge creation beyond the classroom.
Knowledge production: students can use technology and information tools to produce new knowledge and demonstrate achievement. They create information products that accurately represent their newly developed understanding.
Knowledge dissemination: students can communicate ideas using oral, written, visual and technological modes of expression – individually or in teams.
Knowledge values: students are ethical, responsible users of information who accept responsibility for personal decisions and information actions.
The voice of the students
The ‘Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries’ study also asked the students to write about an example of when the school library really helped them, and what they were enabled to do. Some 10,300 stories were collected, showing how information literacy interventions (mainly in the form of systematic, explicit and contextualised instruction at class, group and individual levels) were highly valued in the learning process.
Students very clearly and specifically identified that the information literacy interventions helped them understand what good research was about, how to undertake good research, how to evaluate, analyse and synthesise information, how to engage constructively with information technology, and how to construct their own understanding out of the myriad of information sources accessed and information gathered.
The librarian was real fun as she taught us all the steps in doing a good research paper.
The time that the library helped me the most is when we were doing research projects, they helped me learn how to gather and organise the best information.
I had to write about Spain for Spanish class and the class came to the library to do research. We’ve been taught how to do good research, very useful when you are at school with loads of research papers for every class.
I needed help doing a project for government … they gave me ways of sorting through all the ideas to extract the key points so I could get my head around it all.
I was working on a History project … the librarians instructed the students on how to go about finding the information we needed and compiling it into something worthwhile. I was able to combine everything together and earn a good grade.
The students placed particular value on the importance of developing a range of technology-related competencies. This went beyond teaching students how to use technology tools to access and evaluate information, and included how to use these tools reflectively and critically in the creation of their knowledge products.
The school library helped to teach me about the internet. I learned how to surf faster and more proficiently than I had ever accomplished before. I learned about citing pages and what to look for when surfing to make the most of what little time I have to spare.
When I had a paper for US History on the 1950s, the different search engines that we were able to access through the school library computers were very helpful. We were taught how to use them, and I was able to get lots of information to help make my paper the best that it could have been and do the paper more quickly.
The school library helped me to get a good grade on the project because they taught us how to write up a good project and find good info on the www instead of bad stuff.
The students also indicated that developing information literacy skills gave them the ability to complete learning tasks working independently outside the library environment:
Whenever I have a research paper, the librarians direct me to exactly where I can find information about my topic and still let me find it. They help me but don’t do it for me so that next time I can do it all by myself by remembering what they showed me and thinking it out.
The stuff we learned about doing research is useful for the next projects – doesn’t freak you out when you get it as you know you can do it.
Students saw little value in information literacy instruction that was repetitive, not building on existing knowledge and skills, not contextualised by specific curriculum content and required learning tasks, and not clearly and explicitly linked to their goal of completing the research efficiently and successfully. They indicated that things like the annual library tour, the repetitive spiels on Dewey, the dos-and-don’ts of the internet, or the rules related to using computers, are meaningless unless they can see how it helps them complete their research and get a good grade.
These stories represent just a tiny snapshot of the voices of the students. The integration of the informational, transformational and formational elements does not happen by chance. Students unequivocally recognise that when school librarians have a clearly defined role as an information literacy specialist, their opportunities for learning are enhanced. This role is a very active, learning-centered role where the school librarian actively contributes their expertise to that of the classroom teachers to enable students to transform information into personal knowledge.
This informational-transformational-formational role is the true gift of a school library to a student.
References
1 R. Todd. ‘Accessing Networked Information: research, issues and implications.’ The New Review of Information Networking, 6, 2000, pp. 61-79.
2 B. Dodge. A Scaffolding Strategy (http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/presentation
/scaffolding.htm). 3 K. Lance. ‘Proof of the Power: recent research on the impact of school library media programs on the academic achievement of US public school students’. Eric Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, 2001.
4 D. Loertscher and B. Woolls. Information Literacy Research: a review of the research. A guide for practitioners and researchers. 2nd edn. Hi Willow Research and Publishing, 2002.
5 R. Todd and C. Kuhlthau. ‘Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries. Part 1: How effective school libraries help students.’ School Libraries Worldwide, 11(1), 2005, pp. 63-88.
6 R. Todd and C. Kuhlthau. ‘Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries. Part 2: Faculty perceptions of effective school libraries.’ School Libraries Worldwide, 11(1), 2005, pp. 89-110.
Dr Ross J. Todd is Director of Research, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (rtodd@scils.rutgers.edu).
Updated: 26 January 2006