As a classroom teacher, I have had limited experience working with a teacher librarian in the past. As I mentioned in my own post (Sha, 2023, July 11), I typically plan lessons and spend most of my teaching hours in my classroom. However, this course has broadened my perspective and highlighted the role of a teacher librarian. In this reflective journal, I will focus on three key areas: Information Literacy, Inquiry Learning and Role of Teacher Librarian to briefly discuss my understanding in this course.
Information Literacy
Information literacy is the key learning areas in 21st century education. Gleeson (2023) commented in the online forums that ‘the information society is both exciting and daunting’ (para.1). I fully agree with her perspective. Students use a variety of digital devices every day to send texts, watch videos or play games, which makes them somewhat technology savvy. However, in school, we often find students have difficulties to search information online or don’t know where to begin their quest for the necessary information. Wang and her fellow scholars (Wang etal., 2013) pointed out that students are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between reliable information, misinformation, and disinformation. My classmate, Kristin, also expressed a similar opinion in her post that the digital information is persistence and replicable. They will build up over time. Students will need to go through enormous amount of content in search of the information they really need (Upton, 2023). For the challenges we face, we must understand, new technologies will continually influence our life in the future. As teacher librarians, it is our responsibility to show students how to choose and use new technology to enhance their learning. Additionally, we should support and collaborate with our fellow teachers and other non-teaching staff in school to cultivate a positive attitude towards information literacy.
The Inquiry Learning Model
The Inquiry learning connects learning with real-world and personal experiences, enhances critical thinking skills, encourages creativity, and improves social and communication skills. It needs to be well planned and follow each step to achieve learning outcomes. I am in particularly interested in the structure of Guided Inquiry Learning model in this course. I feel it provides flexibility for teacher and teacher librarian to provide guided supports to students who have different learning needs. As Schultz-Jones and Oberg (2022) pointed out it provides a roadmap to success.
The Role of Teacher Librarian
Teacher librarian has multiple roles. It is not just to provides support but also work with teaching staff to create a holistic learning environment to meet the demands of 21st century education. It is essential for the teacher librarian to collaborate with teachers throughout the planning and teaching cycle using one of the inquiry learning models. Whittle (2023) mentioned in her post, ‘I believe collaborative planning is always beneficial as it brings two or more peoples’ perspectives, expertise and experiences’ (para. 2). Dawkins (2023) gave a different view in her post, commenting that some teachers are not enthusiastic about working in collaboration as they do not see the benefits or too busy and time-poor (para. 1). However, I share the same view as Whittle on this topic. The teacher is the content expert, and the teacher librarian is the information expert. Through collaboration, students will not only enhance their content knowledge but also improve their skills in using digital tools, searching for information, and critical thinking.
Looking forward, I believe teacher librarians should continually embrace all the changes in modern society with the development of new technologies. Engage with local communities to promote the value and importance of teacher librarian and school libraries. Collaboratively work with all school staff to create an ongoing positive teaching and learning environment to improve students’ learning attitudes and outcomes.
References
Branch-Mueller, J. L., Donham, J., Edwards, B., FitzGerald, L., Garrison, K. L., Glass, V., Guillet, M., Harada, V. H., Hoggatt, L., Ito, S., Iwasaki, R., Jones, C., Kasai, Y., Lang Froggatt, D., Limberg, L., Manck, K., Maybee, C., Nemec-Loise, J., Noborimoto, Y., … Schultz-Jones, B. (2022). Global action for school libraries : models of inquiry (D. Oberg & B. Schultz-Jones, Eds.). De Gruyter Saur. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772586
Dawkins, B (2023, August 25). Genuine, enriching collaboration is often a challenge in my teaching context – for many different reasons. [Comment on ‘Forum 4.2 Advocating for collaboration]. Forum; Module 4: The Teacher Librarian and Curriculum. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_68461_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_140362_1&forum_id=_316474_1&message_id=_4454054_1
Gleeson, L. (2023, July 23). The information society is both exciting and daunting. [Comment on ‘Forum 2.2 Information Society]. Forum: Module 2: The information environment. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_68461_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_140362_1&forum_id=_316470_1&message_id=_4453965_1
Upton, K. (2023, July 18). Influence of digital information on the role of the TL. A Teacher Librarian is more than just an avid reader of books. https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/booklover/
Wang, Q. (Emily), Sundaram, D., & Myers, M. D. (2013, November 8). Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants: Towards a model of digital fluency. Business & Information Systems Engineering, Vol. 5 (6) https://aisel.aisnet.org/bise/vol5/iss6/5/
Whittle, R (2023, August 27). I find these questions both interesting and challenging to address. [Comment on ‘Forum 4.3 The TL and curriculum]. Forum; Module 4: The Teacher Librarian and Curriculum. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_68461_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_140362_1&forum_id=_316474_1&message_id=_4454055_1