Threshold Concept: Authority is constructed and contextual

Topic:  Midwifery

Materials needed

Textbook

Internet access

Participants: 4^th Year Nursing Students

Objective: To demonstrate that relevance of authority could be found in traditional and non-traditional scholarly sources of information

1.      The threshold concept authority is constructed and contextual proved challenging for me to fully grasp.  I come from an old school of thinking, and understood information to be   legitimate and credible only if it comes from a scholarly source, i.e. scholarly journals and textbooks.  After learning that authority is contextual and depends on the information need and usage, my perspective got changed. Experienced and novice researchers must be careful not to lose relevant information, by relying on traditional scholarly sources of information only.  Novices researchers must be trained to evaluate discern suitability based on use, and to learn that information may be packaged in formal and informal sources.

Users of information must use the librarians CRAAP test as a parameter to evaluate sources.

·         Currency: The timeline of the information

·         Relevance: Importance of the information for your needs

·         Authority: The source of the information

·         Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness & correctness of the information content

·         Purpose / Point of View: The reason the information exists.

Learning Outcomes/ Knowledge practices
•      Students should be able to define different types of authority such as subject expertise (Scholarship), society position (public office or title), or special experience (participating in an historic event)
•      Use markers of authority to determine the credibility of sources
•      Recognise that authoritative content may be packaged formally or informally and may include audio, visual an non-print sources

Activity

·         Students to read a midwifery chapter in a  textbook, visit commercial midwifery website to learn to differentiate types of authority of each source

·         Students to create individual  blogs on midwifery, and to credit works of authors used within the blog

·          Students to open a Facebook page and Mendeley account, and invite other students to share knowledge, read peers work posts and to increase visibility of works produced.

·         Check for accuracy and issues of bias on the sources

·         Check for purpose or reason for information, i.e. for or for commercial reasons

Activity Link to Knowledge practice/disposition

•     Students to recognize that authoritative content maybe packaged formally and informally i.e blogs, textbooks
•     Students to learn to take responsibility when participating in communities of practice, i.e cite the works of others when blogging, share relevant and accurate information
•     Understand the role of the information ecosystem where authorities actively connect with each other and sources develop overtime