ETL 401 – Part C – Reflective Practice
This unit, Introduction to Teacher Librarianship has been an interesting and engaging learning experience. I have not studied for over 15 years. To now be studying online, through a virtual classroom and engaging with other students in this manner, has been an adjustment. I made a conscious decision not to engage in the discussion forums early on unless I required clarification on an issue because I was worried they would be overwhelming and impact my confidence. The engagement I have had to have with the forums, however, has been constructive and supportive so I will try to engage in them more in future because I am aware that it has been limited. It was also difficult to maintain a reflective blog amidst full time work, family and other commitments. That doesn’t mean I didn’t reflect. I often would have professional conversations at work with my colleagues about what I was learning and that helped me to further my understanding. Overall, through the studying of this unit I have a much clearer understanding of the role of the Teacher Librarian. It is because of this that I now have a greater appreciation for the importance of this job within a school, the potential they can offer a school and the desire to make this role a more significant one within my own school context. In relation to the key areas of focus in this unit, this is how my understanding of each has expanded:
What is information literacy?
I have learnt that information literacy has become more complex now that there is the virtual landscape to consider. There are now multiple types and modes of information literacies however what is key in all literacies is the outcome of understanding. How we, as Teacher Librarians lead our students to navigate to this point across both the physical and digital landscape is vitally important. It is our responsibility to prepare our students with the necessary skills to do this. It also necessary for us to support other staff who may have difficulty with this. Much of the discussion in Forum 5.1 reiterated the complexity of having to try to define information literacy. Within the school context, the effectiveness of this will be impacted by the types of information used by both the classroom teacher and Teacher Librarian as well as the collective efficacy across the whole school in working to achieve this literacy. It will also be impacted by how the skills taught by the Teacher Librarian are transferred by students across those subject areas (Prentice, 2018). Further to this, some discussion posts raised issues about how to effectively assess these skills (Simon, 2018). These are all considerations that we as Teacher Librarians must make in our day to day role.
What are the IL models? Which one did you choose? Why?
In Module 5, we learnt about different inquiry learning models. These are scaffolds designed to help teachers and Teacher Librarians to structure and approach learning. The skills developed through inquiry learning are designed to focus on information literacy and how students use those skills to reach a level of understanding. Since the development and implementation of the Australian Curriculum there is now a significant emphasise on Critical and Creative Thinking in the General Capabilities and Teacher Librarians now see this as part of their core business. One way to develop this is through project style learning that has a focus question that must be answered. It is a move away from traditional teacher directed learning and sees the teacher in the role of facilitator. We looked at Herring’s (2004) PLUS model, NSW Information Search Process (ISP), Neuman’s (2014) iLearn Model, The Big 6 and the Guided Inquiry Design Process.
I chose the NSW Information Search Process because I work in a DET school and this is what they use. In my school context inquiry learning is relatively new. The use of an explicit model to work from initially would be of benefit. I also liked this model for several other reasons:
- The structured questions that are part of the scaffolding at each stage of the process
- The link to the specific information literacy skills to be taught
I felt that the benefit of this for me as a Teacher Librarian in training was that I could then guide teachers to explicitly map these skills in their program and then I would know when I would be needed to come in and teach them.
I have learnt that the Teacher Librarian’s role in Inquiry Learning is very valuable within a school. I have learnt that they have a responsibility to explicitly teach the information skills students need to be successful, independent learners. They have a responsibility to support the teaching staff who should try to include research as part of assessment tasks or as a class work activity if their syllabus requires it.
Thus, Teacher Librarians must be up to date with their information literacy skills, they must have a competence with the digital landscape to ensure they are providing the skills that will future proof students as changes to information and learning evolve.
References
Prentice, M. (2018, April 23). RE: Forum 5.1 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2Io4H4X
Simon, M. (2018, May 2). Going beyond a skills based view of information literacy – possibilities and problems [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2wYPWRP
