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

Principal support of the role of the TL

Principal support is crucial to the role of the teacher librarian. All specialist teachers need support from their school and their administrators and without this will face many challenges in their role. According to Harvey (2009), a principal expects that their teacher librarian will take on many different roles within the school, all of which of course relate to the idea of an excellent teacher librarian. They are for the most part expected to be a teacher, a resource locator, a media specialist and a collaborator, amongst other roles. Yet in order for this to happen the principal must be pro-active in their support of this. They must understand the complexity of the role and promote this across the school. They must also provide opportunities for collaboration across staff to occur in order for this multi-faceted role to be successful. 

Many studies have found that the role of the teacher librarian is crucial to student achievement (Haycock, 2007, p. 25). The teacher librarian provides opportunities in their library programs to extend students across curriculum areas and to encourage student-centred learning whereby they take ownership over their own learning. In order for students to achieve this, teacher librarians must be collaborating with classroom teachers to ensure they are supporting the work in the classroom and providing appropriate learning experiences relevant to the needs of the students. The principal therefore needs to provide time and the opportunity for the teacher librarian and classroom teachers to collaborate effectively. 

It is often common for the role of the teacher librarian to be misunderstood. If a teacher librarian is not active in the promotion of their role then what they teach and contribute to student learning can often go unnoticed. Therefore the teacher librarian must also involve the principal in their planning and programming and encourage them to promote collaboration across the school. 

A principal can also support the teacher librarian in a variety of other ways including working as a supervisor to other teachers, as a manager to the library program or as a mentor to the teacher librarian (Oberg, 2006, p.14). Through these varied roles the principal is demonstrating their commitment to the students and teachers of the school as well as their own personal commitment towards the teacher librarian. They ensure that the teacher librarian is provided with ongoing professional development and that the school is provided with a teacher librarian with the expertise and skills needed to improve student learning outcomes.

Without the complete support of the principal a teacher librarian would have difficulty incorporating the many roles expected of them into one that is achievable. They would encounter all sorts of challenges in their teaching and programming and may not feel as though their role is valued. It is therefore vital the teacher librarian actively promotes their role in the school and seeks the support of the principal to make their place known. This is crucial to the future role of the teacher librarian to ensure they are not replaced by someone without the skills and expertise necessary to guide their school into 21^st century learning.

References

    Harvey, C. II (2009). Hands on Handout: What should an administrator expect a school library specialist to be? Library Media Connection. Retrieved from http://hoorayforbooks.pbworks.com/f/lms+evaluation+ideas.pdf

    Haycock, K. (2007). Collaboration: Critical success factors for student learning. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), 25-35.

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

Guided inquiry

My own experience of implementing a guided inquiry approach has seen a mix of advantages, disadvantages and challenges. An advantage for applying such an approach is obviously the student experience. The process promotes independent learning, encourages a deeper level of thinking and puts the student at the front of their own learning as the teacher guides them through. Students therefore engage with the curriculum content and are challenged to extend themselves in their own research and interactions with others.

A disadvantage I have experienced is the amount of work required by the TL and other teachers involved. The approach obviously requires collaboration between teachers for it to be successful and therefore can become quite time consuming. I've also found that some students find it difficult to work in groups and therefore become distracted during set tasks.

These disadvantages definitely prove to be a challenge. However if a TL is serious about promoting lifelong learning and being that 'thriving hub' that has been mentioned a few times in this course, then these challenges must be accepted and push the TL to work that bit harder to ensure their students are being provided with such opportunities.

Blog post #1- Constructivist learning and the Australian curriculum

“Constructivist learning transforms the student from being a passive recipient to an active participant of the learning process” (O’Connell, 2013). This statement suggests that students are guided by the teacher yet they are responsible for their own learning process. Two examples of constructivist learning are inquiry learning and project-based learning.

My personal understanding of the role of the teacher librarian is that we need to provide opportunities that put students at the forefront of their learning. Inquiry learning is a learning process, often described as a cycle that allows students to formulate questions, investigate and create a solution or an appropriate response to a particular topic (Edutech wiki, 2012). The purpose is to ensure that students are actively engaged, that they examine more complex problems and in turn discover possible answers themselves (Wilson & Murdoch, 2004, p. 1).

Inquiry learning, within the Australian curriculum, is moving towards the use of digital technologies to enhance student learning outcomes. A teacher librarian should be focusing on such resources to accompany their programs to effectively engage students. A great deal of my own teaching incorporates such technologies including iPads, internet-based research, e-books and e-resources on a daily basis whereby students are in control of their learning and I in turn guide them through this process. Inquiry learning must be central to the student and allow them to be a part of the decision making process. This will give them ownership over their work and will impact overall on enjoyment and on-task behaviour (Wilson & Murdoch, 2004, p. 1).

While inquiry learning has many benefits it is also said to have its challenges. Murdoch & Wilson (2004, p. 1) believe that it requires a high level of organisation, flexibility and collaboration. Unless you are at a school where this type of learning is supported, it would be quite difficult, but definitely not impossible, to administer such programs.

Another constructivist learning approach is project-based learning (PBL). This type of learning focuses on the creation of a product or project aimed to develop student learning skills, as well as their knowledge, using digital devices to do so (Boss & Krauss, 2008, p.12). Using such digital technologies allows for learning to be new and exciting and to achieve learning outcomes in a different way that is relevant to the world of the student.

Personally, I have seen programs implemented that would relate to the PBL approach and the way in which students respond is tremendous. Students are actively engaged in the learning process because the learning is relevant to them. “From a student’s perspective, there’s no substitute for the real world when it comes to generating interest in learning” (Boss & Krauss, 2008, p. 6). I find this statement to be entirely relevant to my own teaching as I would much rather see my students engaged in a hands on task in the library than listening to me speak about something they could instead be doing themselves. 

As we begin to integrate the new curriculum into our teaching, we will soon see how important using such digital technologies is in achieving student learning outcomes and wish that they had been around much longer. Using constructivist approaches such as inquiry learning and project-based learning will definitely be worth integrating into our programs as teacher librarians to achieve such success.

Boss, S.  & Krauss, J. (2008). Excerpted from Reinventing Project-Based Learning. Your field guide to real world projects in the digital age. International Society for Technology in Education. 1-24. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/images/excerpts/REINVT-excerpt.pdf

Edutechwiki (2010). Inquiry based learning. A very useful introduction to inquiry based learning. Retrieved from http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Inquiry-based_learning

O’Connell, J.  (2013). Teacher Librarian and the Curriculum [ETL401 Module 3.1] Retrieved March, 2013 from Charles Sturt University website: http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/ETL401_201330_W_D

Wilson, J. & Murdoch, K. (2004). What is Inquiry Learning? Adapted from Wilson, J. & Wing Jan, L. (2003). Focus on Inquiry. A practical approach to curriculum planning. 2^ND ed. 1-9. Retrieved from http://resourcebank.sitc.co.uk/Resources/Priority2/2Noumea/NoPr_T006inquiryLearning.pdf

The role of the teacher librarian

 When thinking about the role I see myself fulfilling as a TL, I really start to reflect on myself as a person and as a teacher and what I could honestly bring to the role. There are so many ideas and theories behind what makes a great teacher librarian and what a great teacher librarian should say and do but how many of us have actually stopped and thought ‘Am I really capable of doing this?’ If I’m being completely honest I will say that I have definitely thought this, many times. Yet this thought soon is replaced with a more positive ‘of course I can!’, because this is what I want to do.

Lamb (2011) sees that the media specialist in any given forum should “have a palette to mix elements and create meaningful learning experiences”. This PALETTE refers to many different roles of the teacher librarian and doing these roles well.  Whether it is collaborating and co-operating with other people within the school system, promoting lifelong learning or facilitating information use. Herring (2007) also comments on the multi-faceted role of the TL and how to prioritise many of these different roles according to what suits at any given time.

Although it will be an ongoing process and at times highly stressful I am aim to have that PALETTE that Lamb talks about and to ensure that I am constantly promoting this throughout my leadership within the school environment. I want to be the person who other teachers come to for professional advice, whether it be about resourcing or collaborating on particular programs or units, providing informational advice or just asking for my own professional opinion about a related topic.

In regards to the way principals perceive the TL, I really think that depends on what the principal truly knows about the role of the TL. Teacher Librarians need to develop a strong relationship with their principals and involve them in their ideas and planning. Oberg (2006) states that research in this field has shown that although teacher librarians view their principal’s support as critical, very few engage their principals in what they are doing. Furthermore, there are principals who do not respect or support school library programs at all and “believe that libraries are basically warehouses” and “that teacher librarians are not leaders or proactive educators but service providers who merely respond to teacher or student requests” (Oberg, 2006). I believe this has a lot to do with a lack of information about the role of the teacher librarian and therefore a disjointed view of this.

In my own experience, I have and continue to have the full support of my principal and I believe he trusts and believes in the decisions that I make. I do however think that I fall victim slightly to the lack of understanding of my role but I aim to change this perception step by step. By keeping my principal up to date with the programs I am administering and the school wide promotion of events in the library, I aim to show just how huge my role is and the impact it has on the school environment and student learning.

Lamb, A. (2011). Bursting with potential: Mixing a media specialist's palette. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 55(4), 27-36.

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century : charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

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

Are school librarians an endangered species?

Whilst viewing each of the podcast videos of 5 library leaders and their thoughts on teacher librarians  as endangered species, I realised that each of the speakers were doing exactly the same thing... Defending their profession. Although they strongly believe that teacher librarians are definitely not an endangered species in which they proceeded to educate us on why, they know (or more so, WE know) that we must constantly prove the worth of our work and our expertise if we want to continue to exist in a world where almost anything can be replaced.

For me the take home message is that we should never feel complacent in our role. We should always be fighting for our (soon-to-be) profession and consistently working to improve upon our development as an information specialist and adapt to the ever changing times.

American Association of School Libraries (2012). 30 Second Thought Leadership. Insights from leaders in the school library community. Retrieved on Thursday 21st March, 2013 from http://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/knowledgequest/aboutkq/30second_JanFeb12

Library databases

So navigating through the library databases has been a extremely helpful process. I've never felt entirely confident researching journal articles and I'm so glad I took the time to watch those tutorials and wish I had a better understanding of it years ago.

I spent most of my undergrad degree struggling to find recent, quality journal articles and instead resorted to books most of the time. What a waste of time that was!

Because of this whole process, I now feel a little better prepared and my anxiety levels are decreasing by the day.