Browsed by
Tag: ETL401

Photo by J. Kelly Brito on Unsplash
Using the Australian School Library Association’s Evidence Guides for Teacher Librarians as a Reflective Practitioner

Using the Australian School Library Association’s Evidence Guides for Teacher Librarians as a Reflective Practitioner

Comments 2 comments

Reflection is a major element in teacher growth and development, thus it is common to hear teachers referred to as ‘reflective practitioners’ (Ghaye, 2011, p.22). Tony Ghaye (2011) emphasises the importance of reflection for growth within the teaching profession by stating that “with structure, challenge and support, the reflective process enables thinking and practice to move forward” (Ghaye, 2011, p.23). The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011) acknowledges the role it plays in reflection for growth by stating that the Teaching Standards “inform the development of professional learning goals, provide a framework by which teachers can judge the success of their learning and assist self-reflection and self-assessment” (p.3). Using Ghaye’s (2011) statement on reflective process above, I am going to shape my discussion of how I intend to use the Evidence Guide for Teacher Librarians in The Proficient Career Stage (Australian School Library Association, 2014) around the three concepts of ‘structure’, ‘challenge’ and ‘support’.

 

Structure

One structural element to consider in demonstrating my practice against ALSA’s Evidence Guide for Teacher Librarians in The Proficient Career Stage (Australian School Library Association, 2014) is how I will physically document my evidence of proficiency. With many digital platforms available, it is essential to choose a platform that will allow me to easily exhibit my artefacts, associated annotations, and reflections. Being involved in the curation of a portfolio via a digital communication platform will give me, as a teacher librarian, the opportunity to demonstrate and enhance my skills in the ICT area. It also provides an opportunity as the information specialist of the school to lead by example. With technology evolving so quickly, the platform that I may end up using in my practice may not even be invented yet. Or it may very well end up being through this blog – who knows! Changes within this digital realm are something that I will need to keep abreast of over the coming years to ensure that I can choose a platform that will exhibit my knowledge and abilities well.

 

Challenge

The very first place to begin when using the evidence guides is to identify areas of strength and highlight areas of further development. I will then select 2-3 standards for which I wish to improve and formulate challenging but achievable goals. Barbra Braxton (2016) encourages teacher librarians to create S.M.A.R.T goals; using the standards contained within ALSA’s evidence guides to formulate specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely goals (para. 9). A plan will then be formulated that clearly articulates ways in which I can achieve these goals. This could be through professional learning, personal research or reaching out to other information professionals, which leads us to…

 

Support

Teaching is a collaborative profession where we are constantly working in partnership with other teachers, students, executive, parents and many external stakeholders. Therefore, collaborative skills are essential, particularly in relation to professional growth. With this understanding I recognise that there is an importance in reaching out and connecting with other teacher librarians in my area and through online communities. Identifying other teacher librarians who may have expertise in particular fields and drawing upon their knowledge will help support me to address deficits within my own professional knowledge. Seeking feedback from within my own school, from teachers, executive and even students themselves, will also help me better serve their teaching and learning needs.

 

Using the Evidence Guide for Teacher Librarians in The Proficient Career Stage Stage (Australian School Library Association, 2014) within a constant cycle of reflection, I will be able to address the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011) in my future role as a teacher librarian. Considering some key points around structure, challenge and support will put me in a good position to continue with my personal learning and growth well after I have completed this degree. I recognise that by improving my own professional knowledge, practice, and engagement in the teacher librarian field, I will have a positive impact on the teaching and learning outcomes within my school.

 

References:

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. AITSL.  https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards

 

Australian School Library Association. (2014). Evidence Guide for Teacher Librarians in The Proficient Career Stage. ASLA. https://asla.org.au/evidence-guides-tls

 

Braxton, B. (2016, Term 2). The professional learning hat. Schools Catalogue Information Service. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-97/the-professional-learning-hat

 

Ghaye, T. (2011). Teaching and Learning Through Reflective Practice: A Practical Guide for Positive Action. Taylor & Francis Group.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
School libraries and The Information Hierarchy

School libraries and The Information Hierarchy

Comments 0 Comment

If someone had asked me prior to studying ETL401 to define ‘information’, I would have described it as: facts pertaining to a particular topic. This initial understanding of ‘information’ aligns with a semantic way of thinking; that information must contain meaning and be of a factual or instructional nature (Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015). Seeing information through the lens of the classic definition, that focuses more on the transmission of information separate from meaning, gave me another perspective that I had never considered before. In the context of the work of a teacher librarian, both the semantic and classic ways of defining information coexist. The Information Hierarchy (Wideman, 2008) perfectly represents this union of both definitions. Below I have shown my current knowledge of how the library environment facilitates progression through The Information Hierarchy:

Data: Data, being the language we use to communicate (letters, numbers, symbols, etc.), is contained within the resources a library holds. Examples of resources include books, websites, videos, audio, etc.

Information: A student uses their knowledge of language (letter-sounds, grammar, syntax, punctuation, etc.) to decode the data through reading, viewing, listening, etc.

Understanding: The student then interprets the information they have just decoded and forms meaning.

Knowledge: What the student has read/viewed/listened to is retained for future recall.

Wisdom: The student applies higher-order thinking skills, such as analysing, evaluating and creating, in combination with the knowledge they have retained to apply and share their knowledge.

Of course, learning and acquiring new information is not always this linear. Joseph Z. Nitecki (1985) points out that “personal knowledge is subjective, always directly related to an individual’s own previous knowledge and unique way of absorbing new perceptions into an existing system of relations already known” (p.401). The teachers and students who utilise school libraries bring with them a vast range of personal knowledge and life experiences which will ultimately affect the ways in which they relate with the information and resources that are contained within the library. This emphasises the need for a teacher librarian to not only know their resources, but to know the teachers and students in which they are connecting the resources to.

 

References:

Nitecki, J. D. (1985). The Concept of Information-Knowledge Continuum: Implications for Librarianship. The Journal of Library History (1974-1987), 20(4), 387-407.

 

Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2015, January). Semantic Conceptions of Information. Retrieved March 11, 2021 from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/information-semantic/

 

Wideman, R. M. (2008).  The information hierarchy. [Powerpoint slides].  http://www.maxwideman.com/issacons/iac1013d/sld004.htm

Photo by Daniel on Unsplash
My initial understanding of the role of a teacher librarian

My initial understanding of the role of a teacher librarian

Comments 1 comment

My initial understanding of the role a teacher librarian plays within a school was shaped by the experiences and the system for which I worked in. From 2014 to 2019 I was working in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) public school system as a classroom teacher. In the ACT, school budget constrains mean that “only four out of 10 public schools had a library that was staffed by a qualified teacher librarian” in 2020 (Lansdown, 2020, para. 6). This means that I have had limited experience in working alongside a teacher librarian and subsequently developed many misconceptions regarding what the role entailed. The first school I worked for shared a teacher librarian with a nearby school. I only saw them during my allocated 40-minute library time where I only observed them assisting students to borrow and return books. At the second school I worked for there was no teacher librarian. The library was staffed by a part-time administrative assistant whose role was to ensure that the library was in an orderly condition. We as teachers were encouraged to facilitate library time with our class ourselves.

 

Because of my limited experience working alongside teacher librarians, I viewed the position as more of an administrative role that was a luxury reserved only for schools who could afford one. I held the assumption that all those who worked in the position came from an information sciences background, not an education background. They were to ensure that the library was orderly by placing books carefully back on the shelf using an understanding of the Dewey Decimal System. A teacher librarian would get students excited about reading by sharing new stories or helping them find books on a topic of interest. They had one week every year, Book Week, which was their time to shine. During Book Week they would organise a dress up day, facilitate the book fair and announce the winners of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s book of the year. I only ever saw the surface-level tasks that teacher librarians performed and believed that was the whole role, not understanding the deep pedagogical support that they provide to teachers and students behind the scenes.

 

Today I am much more aware of the important role a teacher librarian plays. It is promising to see the ACT government has also recognised the importance this role has “in enriching the learning environment of all of our students and the wider school community” (Australian Capital Territory, 2019, p. 1) and followed through pledging to fund scholarships for 10 teachers to up-skill each year the next five years (Lewis, 2021, para. 2). A renewed focus on employing more teacher librarians makes me hopeful that more people will gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the positions impact within a school and in doing so, eliminating many of the misconceptions that exist.

 

I am excited to be commencing a degree in a field that I can now see has far-reaching impact on the teaching and learning within a school. I am now much more informed about the role but I am also aware that I have so much more to learn on this learning journey… let’s begin!

 

References:

Australian Capital Territory. (2019). School Libraries: The Heart of 21st Century Learning. https://www.education.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1435435/School-Libraries-The-Heart-of-21st-Century-Learning.pdf

 

Lansdown, S. (2020, September 9). ACT election 2020: Liberals promise to recruit teacher librarians as parents call for school libraries to be protected. The Canberra Times. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6916017/teacher-librarians-lost-in-public-school-squeeze/

 

Lewis, Kathryn. (2021, February 1). ACT government to provide 10 teachers a year scholarship to complete librarian qualifications. The Canberra Times. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7106701/scholarships-to-address-shortage-of-canberra-teacher-librarians/

Step 1 of 2
Please sign in first
You are on your way to create a site.

Log in

Skip to toolbar