Monday, 27 May 2013

ETL401- Critical Reflection



Over the course of this unit I have experienced many different emotions. I have felt anxious, perplexed, overwhelmed and most of all stressed. I can almost compare it to Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (2004), as the initiation stage brought with it anxiety and uncertainty which ensued throughout selection and exploration until I finally began to formulate my own ideas and opinions to collect and present. Although I still experience those bouts of anxiety now and again, I feel much more confident in my ability as a teacher librarian.

My personal view of the teacher librarian (L) prior to this course was quite naïve. I thought I had a good understanding of what the role entailed and believed that completing this course would simply ‘fill in the gaps’. Little did I know that I would be changing my whole perception of the TL. Although overwhelming and anxiety-ridden at times, this course has assisted me immensely in my role as the TL in my school. 

Since keeping an online learning journal (OLJ) and completing three compulsory blog tasks, I can see where my thinking has changed. Looking back on my very first compulsory blog task, constructivist learning and the Australian Curriculum, I can see how I missed the point completely. I was in no way confident in my own ability to construct a piece of writing that was critical of what I had read. I had no voice in my writing and relied on the words of others to get my point across. I feel this is one area I have definitely improved upon. As I begun to reflect upon what I had read, I learnt to become much more critical and form my own opinions and ideas which I feel is evident in the next two blog posts and assignment 1.

Through reading other personal reflections posted on my blog I can see that I have focused on how I was feeling in that moment and have tried to make sense of the experience as a whole. This is interesting to reflect upon now as I can see how my journey begun and can compare it to where I am now. Although I still have a lot to learn, I feel like I’m well on my way to becoming the type of TL my school deserves.

Although posting my responses on the CSU forums was at times inconsistent, I feel like it was reflective of where I was at that particular time. Sometimes I felt strongly about a particular topic and felt the need to share that with my peers while at other times I was much more comfortable with observing the ideas of other people and reflecting on these to shape my own ideas and opinions. Either way, the forums have been extremely helpful and an integral part of this whole process. As a distance education student it became the main form of communication between peers and lecturers. 

A particular module of this course that I found interesting was the importance of principal and administration support to the role of the TL. This is quite an ironic topic as not only did I begin to see how vital the support of the principal is, I began to see the many sides of the role of TL and the lengths a TL must go to make this known within their learning community. They must promote their role to staff, including the principal, and keep them informed of library events and programs to enforce the library as ‘the hub’ of the school (Oberg, 2006). Not only did it convey how important it is for the principal to understand what the TL does, it also put into perspective for me what the TL actually does. This became a massive turning point for me personally as my opinion of the role shifted from a somewhat vague understanding of what the TL does into a much more clear and defined role. Once again, very similar to the experiences felt by learners using Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (2004).

This assignment particularly has helped me to better understand the benefits of implementing an information literacy process into my own teaching programs and feel a lot more confident in doing so. Prior to this course I was aware of such processes and had both witnessed and been involved in the implementation of the NSW ISP (2007) but once again had a different perception of the overall experience. Although I still have a long way to go in this area, I feel confident that success will come with practice and lots of it!



References

Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004). Information Search Process. Retrieved from

NSW Department of Education and Training (2007). The Information Process: Information
                skills in the school. Curriculum Support. Retrieved from
                www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au

Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of school administrators. Teacher Librarian,
                33
(3), 13-18.

Monday, 13 May 2013

Information literacy is more than a set of skills



Information literacy is more than a set of skills. It is process whereby students learn to become independent, lifelong learners. It enables learners to think deeply and critically and to take ownership over their own learning. It should be safe to assume that these skills are embedded into the classroom and adopted by teachers, yet it seems to be understood that it is the focus of the teacher librarian (TL) to teach students to adopt these essential skills (Langford, 1998). 

With so many information literacy policies and processes now prevalent, it would be easy for a teacher or TL to become confused by the literature and to question what it is they are teaching (Langford, 1998). However by knowing that the teaching of these skills encourage student-centred learning and in turn enhance student outcomes, excellent TLs will take the time to understand these processes and implement them. The benefits of these processes far outweigh the time and work required of the TL to implement such a process. 

Kulthau’s Information Search Process (ISP), originally developed in the 1980’s and 1990’s, is one process that focuses more on the feelings associated with learning rather than the skills themselves. It focuses on the experience of the student, and the aspects that the student is presented with throughout the process. These include the feelings, thoughts and actions of the student ranging from feelings of anxiousness and uncertainty to confidence and clarity as the process is undertaken (Kulthau, 2004). Through my own personal experience of implementing the ISP it was obvious how important it was for students to undertake a learning task at their own pace and level and to become actively involved in the learning process. By implementing this, along with an inquiry based approach such as guided inquiry, students decide what it is they want to learn and how they are to do this with assistance from the teacher where necessary. Though for the most part, the students are in charge of what they are learning.

With the abundance of information and technologies that students are faced with every day it is necessary to provide students with the skills and abilities to sort through this information independently and decide for themselves what is necessary and important to their learning. Beyond this, it is not enough for them to just be aware of the skills set they need to be encouraged to apply these to ensure they are adequately prepared for lifelong learning. Without these skills and this preparation students will find themselves lost amongst the emergence of new technologies and the overload of information and will not understand how to effectively sift through this to find what it is they are looking for.


Kuhlthau, C.C. (2004). Learning as a process, in Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and
                information services, Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, pp.13-27.

Langford, L. (1998). Information literacy: a clarification. Retrieved from
                http://www.fno.org/sept98/clarify.html