Reflective Practice- The Teacher Librarian role in Inquiry Based Learning

 

The Teacher Librarian role in Inquiry Based Learning

Introduction

Before embarking on this task there were two factors that drove me to delve into developing the chosen Design Technology work unit. One factor is a lack of a graphic drawing programs for the upper middle school years which has resulted in students embarking on design subjects in senior years, being seriously lacking in necessary skills to undertake the courses. The task requirement to design a technology unit was a great opportunity for the art and design faculty. The idea was met with much enthusiasm from colleagues and students alike at our school.

At this early stage, my knowledge and grasp of Information Literacy models were fairly rudimentary and the full understanding of the benefit they have for students and teachers was yet to be realised. One other fact was apparent, with our school lacking a dedicated teacher-librarian at the senior college, most staff had not had the opportunity to work with an Information Literacy model. The Senior College of the Essington International School, Darwin is in a unique situation, located at Charles Darwin University. The students have access to many of the same facilities as the tertiary students, including the use of a University library. Though this is a wonderful resource for any secondary student, it is underutilised. Though many students enjoy the tranquillity of working in the library space, few would know how to navigate this great resource or ask for assistance from the library staff. On many occasions, I have taken my year 11 and year 12 art and design classes upstairs and placed them in the 750 section where the arts and design books are located and have expected my students to know where to look. I often lament the limited research my students undertake and how many student’s folios contain the same artists found in basic internet searches and in past student’s folios.

Information Literacy and the arts/design

After much deliberation and perusal through a variety of Information Literacy models, I decided to use the Guided Enquiry model. This decision was made, not so much for the wide scope of information available and the available ready-to-use templates, my choice came about due to this model having the initial steps of Open, Immerse and Explore. These steps seemed conducive to the research needs of visual arts students what has been lacking for so long in my student’s research. Many models of Information Literacy seemed so much less suitable to the needs of art and design technology students. The Guided Enquiry model seemed to be the most adaptable to the unit of work that I planned to write. In their research paper, Creative Approaches to Information Literacy for Creative Arts Students, Appleton, Montero and Jones (2017)  states,

“The information literacy requirements of art and design students, and how traditional approaches to information literacy education are not always appropriate for these particular students. The paper argues that different, creative, and innovative approaches to information literacy training need to be developed with the specific learning styles of this group of students in mind and that using a radical information literacy approach, incorporating the specific nature of the art and design information landscape, enables this” (p. 147).

A perennial challenge for teachers of middle and senior school Design Technology and Visual Arts is the individual nature of student topics. Visual arts teachers spend a large proportion of their time consulting with individual students to assist them in choosing original and personally relevant topics. Presenting the design of this work unit within the Guided Enquiry framework would provide students with the skills needed for an effective independent inquiry into their own topics.

Appleton, Montero and Jones (2017), address the needs of the individualised nature of Arts learning. Arts education lends itself to specific learning styles and this means that differentiation is a key consideration when planning teaching and learning activities. For the librarians at UAL, this means embracing the ‘differences in approaches to teaching information literacy, as identified above and collaborating with academic colleagues to be creative and innovative in their approaches to designing and delivering information literacy programs (Appleton et al., 2017, p. 147).

 

The Guided Enquiry Model as a choice for the Design Technology unit.

Traditionally, Visual Art and Design students in the higher middle school years spend very little time in class on research methodology. Usually, this is included as an unstructured addition to the lesson when the topic is introduced. Students conduct most of their research for homework with a mere list of suggested topics and a few resources. Most resources are covered in the content during the first lessons on the topic. The Guided Enquiry module also reassures students that it is perfectly acceptable to start from the beginning, through ‘opening, immersing and exploring’. The opening and immersing stages, encourage the students to delve deeper into their topic. The identifying and gathering stages work well with the folio stages of creating mind maps and mood boards. The previous three steps will assist in making the first steps of embarking on a design folio so much clearer. The ‘create’ stage will still be where the majority of time is spent however, the student will have a stronger foundation to build their work. The final stages of sharing and evaluation take place in this work unit in the form of a student exhibition, a critique, and a reflection statement. This is a frequently used component in the final stages of design folios and it is reinforced in the context of the Guided Enquiry model.

 

If an Information Literacy model was introduced to students at the Essington International Senior College, students will realise the potential of having access to a tertiary level library. The combination of both of these factors could result in greater levels of academic excellence for our students, not only for Visual Arts and Design but for all subject areas.

 

 

References

 

Appleton, L., Grandal Montero, G., & Jones, A. (2017) Creative approaches to information literacy for creative arts students. Communications in Information Literacy, 11(1), 147-167.

Greer, K. (2015). Connecting Inspiration with Information: Studio Art Students and Information Literacy Instruction. Communications in Information Literacy, 9 (1), 83-94.

Kuhlthau, C.C., Maniotes, L.K., & Caspari, A.K. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. 2nd (ed.). Santa Barbara, California: Libraries Unlimited.

Schaub, G., McClure, H. A., & Bravender, P. (2015). Teaching Information Literacy Threshold Concepts: Lesson Plans for Librarians. Chicago, Illinois: Association of College and Research Libraries.