I must confess that my Tuesdays class was quite mind boggling to me. Ever had an encounter with a learning concept that you grapple to fully understand, it could be physics law of gravity or it could be the accounting appreciation and depreciation concepts. If you, like me have ever had to think and rethink out of your own box of knowledge to understand something, then you my friend would have met a Threshold concept.
Threshold concept are theories of teaching designed by two British educators, Jan Meyer and Ray land. Hofer (2013,109) The two educators came up with 5 defining criteria that best explains a threshold concept.
1. Trans-formative- If the concepts is trans formative it has the power to open ones mind to previously inaccessible ways of thinking, mostly when you get to that level it changes your whole perspective, if a student studying to be a nurse, it will give meaning to how a nurse looks, thinks, behaves and can position ones outlook on a profession forever.
2. Troublesome- A new concept becomes troublesome, if it challenges or counter that is already known by one, it could feel or sound alien to one, it can even be difficult to comprehend as it can be different towards ones cultural beliefs, i.e The world is round, whilst to many it looks and feels flat.
3. Irreversible- Threshold concept are so powerful that once learned, they become difficult to unlearn, as they permanently remain on ones psyche.
4. Integrative- Threshold concept can be applicable or linked to other study disciplines, that which might not appear to a learner at first can become clear when spoken in relation to other fields, i.e for nurses in their quest to care and nurse their patients, they must also dapple and learn more about their patients religious and cultural beliefs.
5. Bounded- If a threshold concept is bounded, it is known or uniquely linked to a particular discipline. i.e the acts of persons.
Tonight I will conclude in saying as teachers librarians when presenting or teaching new concept to our students, one must be careful of the liminal state, that which students may find themselves in when being introduced to new knowledge, when you may seem to have grasped the concept in class, but may be a different story when doing homework. Educators must not move too fast with a subject and leave others behind, as explained in my previous blog, people are unique and learn differently.
See and learn more about threshold concepts....
Friday 18 August 2017
Learning Theories
My learning style is different to yours, by virtue of me being a unique individual. I am designed to think and internalized things differently and so my style of learning is uniquely mine and teachers in class rooms should not only stick to conventional teaching methods but advocate for variety to reach all styles of learning.
Humans are wired differently and learn differently, in class set ups you get visual, auditory, tactile,
and read/write type of learners. I am one of those learners who learn by reading and writing and also fall within the visual type of learner. Today I will be reflecting on learning theories and how as teaching librarians should be cognisance of the varied learning styles of our learners, and hence should consider all learning theories before choosing ones that will best fit our learners and when designing Information Literacy curriculum.
The traditional learning theories we have been using prior the internet age have been behaviorism, cognitivism, social learning and constructivism. I personally find cognitivism, social learning and constuctivsm to be best and still have a place in the classroom as they all encourage participation of learners, learners are seen as capable problem solvers, with abilities to peer learn from one another, they also acknowledge that learners have previous experiences, knowledge's prior coming to class and can use previous and current new information to support and build arguments. It is therefore imperative for IL practitioners to use engaging teaching styles with more of open ended questions to entice dialogue, to use challenging scenario plannings that will allow learners to critically think outside of the obvious for answers, whilst encouraging new knowledge's to be created. The above mentioned theories have been the traditional way of teaching and learning, the 21st century have brought forth another interesting theory by George Simmons & Steven Downs called connectivism. Connectivism is a learning theory that explains how internet technologies have created new opportunities for people to learn and share information on the world wide web and among themselves. (learning-theories.com)
We currently exploring and using the connectivism learning theory in classrooms we are now seeing more works being created by students, researchers all using different platforms to create and share with the rest of the world. Platforms like social media, Mendeley, You tubes, are many of such and in the process new learning patterns are being created.
See the video below on connectivism to see where the world is and is going.
Tuesday 8 August 2017
Information Literacy Space
Welcome to my Information Literacy blog space. I am pleased and delighted to have you walk with me on this journey of learning. Each week I will be sharing my weekly reflections on lessons learned on my Information Literacy class. Background of Information Literacy and teaching of library instructions
The librarians of the 1970's started the first program that teaches library/ bibliographic instructions to users, the teaching methods back then were in a class format where users were shown how to find library items using a manual card catalog, the computerized system took over from then and allows users to be taught using online catalog. The current library as we know it now is what many call a Smart library, advances of technology that allows users to no longer be seen as receivers of information but creators of information. Librarians in offering library instruction must consider teaching programs that will incorporate online learning tools, to meet the needs of users in vast geographical areas and digital skills of users.
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
In the year 2000 the Association of College and Research Libraries came up with a framework on information Literacy in higher education (ACRL). These standards get reviewed periodically by a task team which consist of stakeholders who are practitioners of the Information Literacy teachings. The framework stipulates that Information Literacy is life-long learning, it should be self reflective to educator and student, it should encourage conceptual and lateral thinking to students. It encourages librarians to consider pedagogical approaches that evolve with the times, i.e blended teaching methods. The framework aims to encourage dialogue and collaboration among educators, librarians are given platforms to create knowledge by designing IL curriculum, assignments and summatives.
More information on the ACRL framework can be accessed on http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework Differences between Bibliographic instruction and Information Literacy
During my training years as a librarian, which was in the early year 2000. I was introduced to user education, which was also knows as bibliographic instructions, down the line in my practicing career I now come across Information Literacy. Is there really a difference between the two?? Apparently yes, how
ever the distinction is very little but outcome very very big. Bibliographic Instruction/User education
Here we talk of set instructions that are taught to users to locate information that they need quickly and effectively. It centers around the library tool, which is generally known as the library catalog. Users are shown how to search for information using subject, author, titles etc interface. The users are then introduced to Dewey Decimal Classification and how subjects are classified under Dewey. Libraries subscribing to online databases, use the training sessions to demonstrate to users how to find articles on databases. In some academic libraries this is sometimes combined with the library orientation day, where users are given the library tour. In that era as students of the bibliographic instructions we were seen as receivers of the instructions, not much was expected from us in terms of having a learning dialogue where we can start conversations of learning with our peers, let alone where we can be taught to evaluate resources, as mostly all of them were in print, and mostly reviewed and deemed suitable by the acquisition side of the library.
Information Literacy (IL) In comes the Information Literacy program.
The Prague declaration, (2003) defines information literacy as encompassing 'knowledge of ones information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand, it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the information society, and is part of the human right of life long learning.
The most glaring difference of the two is that information literacy teaches users critical skills to find, evaluate use or create information, learners previous knowledge is taken into consideration and is used to support content taught, the skills acquired in class are not just to pass the module, but for life long use. Another key difference between BI and IL is that with bibliographic instruction too much focus by teachers was on finding print format i.e book or newspapers, with IL focus has shifted drastically with the introduction of the digital age, users are tought to search, find electronic format records, and are tought discerning skills as not information available in the digital world is empirical.
The evolving role of a teacher librarian
Librarians are sometimes known as the walking and talking encyclopedia. This is due to the variety of of quires they receive on the daily bases. The role of librarian is evolving to that of teacher librarian, gone are the days where librarians are duty bound to organize collections and know the dewey set A-z. Today's librarians are collaborators, they provide spaces for online collaborations for students and lectures to meet and discuss content, they introduce and train on new learning management systems, i.e Blackboard, they assist students learn to create content, this we see with digital podcast and you tube videos for class projects, librarians not only end there, they provide one on one service to assist students with bibliographic and in-text referencing, a job that was previously left to lecturers. Librarians are event organisor's and tend to do well in internal marketing for current awareness programs , using lib-guides, blogs, and related social media packages. In research environment teacher librarians are equal to the task by teaching research skills, finding literature for research, collaborating with faculty to assist with selecting suitable content, with the varied information technology skills among patrons librarians also assist with basic computer skills like Microsoft packages, print and internet connections.
Shooo after all this a cup of coffee will not be such a bad idea,
