On April 1, I attended a presentation by Louise Limberg at the University of Technology, Sydney. She spoke about meaningful learning through information literacy.
As a Teacher Librarian, I need to foster a culture of meaningful learning within my school but ensure that students have the information literacy skills needed for effective engagement.
One key finding of interest to me was that those who analyse and scrutinise information. Learning outcomes were likely to be more sophisticated with well grounded and independent conclusions of a research topic. If we focus on fact finding, learning outcomes are less likely to be met. Knowledge is fragmented.
I think my qualifications as a history teacher helps me because we need to scrutinise and analyse sources in order to draw a finding or conclusion. I'm currently on a Ten Week block at the Hurstville Boys' High Campus of the Georges River College in Sydney and already I'm telling my students to look at the sources that they use when undertaking research. Even though at the moment its a bibliography, we need to draw some conclusions about sources, particularly if the source is missing information e.g. author. Does it make the source credible or not? Does the information appear accurate compared to other resources.
Another element I need to consider is ensuring the research questions are researchable. Instead of picking topics for research, we as educators need to set research questions that will foster inquiry.
We have also been reminded to provide feedback on student learning and progress in the research process. This can be overlooked when marking an assessment. I feel we need to foster the process of inquiry questions with our students in order to form knowledge and provide the conclusions that we seek from learning.
There are challenges that lie ahead which were identified by Limberg. Technology is ever changing. Obviously we must adapt to those changes especially the easy access to the ever burgeoning amounts of information in a digital world. Information is presented in a wide variety of formats. We need to ensure that students can draw on that variety (not a few) to add their reading, interpretation, assessment and construction of meaning. There is also the challenge associated with politics and society e.g. free access to education or the content to be included in new national curriculum.
As a teacher librarian, I must keep alert to the new and emerging formats and encourage students to utilise it, but at the same time also draw on traditional resources. If a student can draw on a variety of resources, it will become easier to construct meaning. I have found that any student that uses a variety of resources is bound to achieve better results in learning tasks, than one who may for instance rely on two or three websites.
