Lupton (2014) discusses the lack of reference to information literacy in the Australian Curriculum and compares the areas of History, Geography and Science inquiry skills across year levels. Her findings include the inquiry skills mentioned in the strands don’t necessarily all match up and that there is an even greater discrepancy amongst the year level that certain skills are introduced in.

Lupton (2014) stipulates that the way in which content areas are explored is just as important as the content itself. This is where having a common inquiry model in a school comes in. Inquiry learning allows teachers and students to be partners in learning and the creation of knowledge. The teacher librarian, with a more broad view of the curriculum is in an ideal place to work with classroom teacher on making information literacy skills more obvious within the curriculum and linking these to the school’s chosen inquiry learning model. Schools need both a common inquiry learning model and a clear information literacy model that will enhance student learning.

References

Lupton, M. (2014) Inquiry skills in the Australian Curriculum v6: A bird’s eye view. Access 28(4), 8-29.