Evidence based practice. I have been hearing this term for many years now around schools and I thought I understood what it meant. I believed that it meant choosing elements and characteristics to add to your teaching practice from the available research and literature in the educational information landscape. That the reference to evidence referred to a study that had shown this technique or that resource type to be effective. This week, upon reading reading the work of Todd (2015), I have come to see that it is actually about collecting evidence about the effectiveness of one’s practice – ultimately evidence of impact on student learning. So many more things make sense now.
The Evidence Guides for Teacher Librarians (ASLA 2014, 2015) reveal themselves in this new light to be illustrations of how a teacher librarian might have an impact on student learning. This is, of course, the ultimate goal of all educators. They show the types of evidence the TL should be looking for in order to determine whether they are having the desired impact. They also serve as a guide to how a TL might modify their practice if they are not seeing the impact on student learning that they would like to have; they provide a description of quality practice that one might measure oneself against; a guide to evaluating ones practice and to demonstrate to oneself and also to the leadership of the school that the TL and the school library is a beneficial entity that should enjoy the support of management.
References
Australian School Library Association (ASLA) (2014). Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the highly accomplished career stage. Retrieved from: http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/evidence-guide_ha.pdf
Australian School Library Association (2015). Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the proficient career stage. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/evidence_guide_prof.pdf
Todd, R. J. (2015). Evidence-Based Practice and School Libraries: Interconnections of Evidence, Advocacy, and Actions. Knowledge Quest, 43(3), 8-15.
