Information literacy: the new “pedagogy of the question”?

Susie Andretta,London Metropolitan Universitys.andretta@londonmet.ac.ukhttp://www.ilit.org

Essential aspect of learning

Fully integrated in the investigation of disciplines

Underpinned by collaboration

(faculty, library and administrative staff)

Information literacy in Higher Education

“a practice that challenges the learners to think critically and to adopt

a critical attitude toward the world […] Unlike the pedagogy of the

answer, which reduces learners to mere receptacles for pre-

spackaged knowledge, the pedagogy of the question gives learners

the ‘language of possibility’ to challenge the every constraints which

relegate them to mere objects.”

“Quite often a teacher or text book is seen as a font of knowledge

that is fundamentally true. Students often don’t question or criticise

the source of knowledge and so do not learn how to evaluate

knowledge in the ‘real’ post-education world.”

Does education empower or domesticate?

Pedagogy of the question - finding a voice?

“The question for me as a teacher is not just to become silent now

and say bureaucratically to the students that it is time for you to

speak (because it is written in the curriculum). What I have to do

is learn how to challenge students to [..] find their voices, to get [..]

into speech [..] into concreteness, and little by little I also have to

go into silence.”

Information literacy module & independent learning

Empowering the learner through Information literacy

1. Making students responsible for their learning

“non-compulsory attendance increases the trust between the pupil and the tutor. I feel that tutors often think you do little or no work because you have not attended the lectures, but this module proves otherwise.”

Empowering the learner through Information Literacy

2. Making learning relevant & at students’ own pace

“I felt control over my learning. I learnt what I needed to at my own

pace, rather than learning something new each week at the lectures

and not fully understanding what was taught, then having to catch up

with those more experienced.. This method also ensured that I kept

interested as well as challenged”

Challenges faced by information literacy as the pedagogy of the question

Power and control Conflicting relationsSpoon-feeding expectations from learners

Does education empower or domesticate?

And who should be in charge of the answer?