school libraries: where learning starts learning starts with you: productive pedagogy through the...
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School Libraries: Where Learning Starts
Learning Starts With You: Productive Pedagogy Through The School Library
Dr Ross J Todd
Center for International Scholarship in School LibrariesSchool of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jerseycissl.scils.rutgers.edu [email protected]
50 Years of Research50 Years of Evidence50 Years of Learning
“With the school library literally the heart of the educational program, the students of the school have their best chance to become capable and enthusiastic readers, informed about the world around them, and alive to the limitless possibilities of tomorrow.” Mary Gaver, 1958
Gaver, M. Every child needs a school library. Chicago, ALA, 1958 Gaver, M. Effectiveness of Centralized Library Service in Elementary Schools. Rutgers University, 1963
Schools & Libraries Studied
Since 2000, 16 state-wide studies undertaken AK, CO, DE, FL, IA, IL, MA, MI, MN, MO, NC, NM, OH, OR, PA,
TX
Over 8,800 schools
Elementary, middle and high school libraries serving an estimated 2.6 million students
Diverse funding authorities: Sate Libraries, Education Dep’ts, Federal (IMLS), professional school library associations
Three Types of Studies
1. Studies that examine the presence of school library infrastructure, personnel and library services / processes and their correlation to achievement as measured by standardized test scores (with other school and community conditions controlled for eg. Adult educational attainment; Minority enrollment; Per pupil spending; Teacher-pupil ratio) (Lance) What school libraries look like; what they need to have
2. State-wide studies that examine the nature and strength of helps provided through school libraries linked to learning outcomes (CISSL) How good school libraries work: Ohio, Delaware
3. Learning through school libraries (CISSL)Instructional dynamics of school libraries (IMLS study NJ)
Student Achievement
Learning outcomes are achieved through deliberate actions and instructional interventions of school administrators
and school librarians
INFORMATIONAL – TRANSFORMATONAL – FORMATIONAL
3 Studies: Student Learning Through School Libraries
Ohio: 13,123 valid student responses and 879 teacher responses (39 schools) (2003-4)
Australia: 6,718 valid student responses and 525 teacher responses (46 schools) (Lyn Hay, 2004-5)
Delaware: 5,733 valid student responses and 408 teacher responses (13 schools) (2005-6)
25,574 students tell us!1,812 teachers tell us!
Reading
Not merely acquiring sound-print and writing techniques
“Complex system of deriving meaning from text”.
The transformation, communication and dissemination of text and the development of meaning and understanding.
“An attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in one's context” (Paulo Freire,1973)
The school library as a transformational agent in the reading-literacy-knowledge life cycle begins with reading
Reading
When reading is at risk, it is not just school libraries that are at risk; more
critically, it is knowledge that is at risk.
Are our school libraries as transformational as we think and believe when it comes to reading?
Reading Patterns Ohio & Delaware
In terms of perceptions of how school libraries help students, reading statements overall ranked low, compared to other helps
Reading helps strongest in elementary school, and decline throughout schooling
Reading helps significantly higher for African American students
Reading helps significantly higher for girls rather than boys
The scores of schools in small cities are significantly higher than other type of schools
Reading-Literacy-Knowledge Life Cycle:
Delaware
Survey of 154 public school libraries in Delaware (2004-2005) (100% of public school libraries)
Measured: - School Library employees- Frequency of co-operations, co-ordinations, collaborations- Participation in professional development activities- Provision of professional development activities- Information literacy interventions- Reading / writing initiatives- Significant learning outcomes enabled by school
library- Information resources, information technology, budgets
Reading - Delaware
Typical activities to promote reading and motivate readers: literature displays, book talks, promoting information resources, reading incentive programs, and to a much lesser extent story telling, book clubs and author visits.
Primarily passive activities.
Reading activities that foster active student engagement, discussion and creative outputs far less frequently reported.
High school students “don’t have time to read”.
AN ACTIVE READING CULTURE
Focus on reading activities that foster active student engagement, discussion and creative outputs:
web blogs; book raps; interactive book reviews; online literature circles, reading pals online; create your own e-books; student-run school reading web pages
CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING
"Education is not an affair of telling and being told but
an active constructive process.”
At the heart of knowing is constructing meaning, and at the heart of meaning is
reading
Are our school libraries as transformational as
we might think?John Dewey
Think of the most recent time you worked with a class in your school library.
What did your students really learn?
What deep knowledge and deep understanding of their curriculum topic did they come way with through their school library experience?
What skills and attitudes did they continue to develop? How do you know this?
How did they transform information into knowledge?
And how would you explain it to your school community?
The dimensions of Productive Pedagogy
Intellectual QualityDeep knowledge
Deep understanding Problematic knowledgeHigher order thinking
Meta-languageSubstantive communication
Quality Learning Environment
Explicit quality criteriaEngagement
High ExpectationsSocial Support
Students’ self-regulationStudent direction
Significance Background knowledge Cultural knowledge Knowledge integration Inclusivity Connectedness Narrative
Gore, J., Griffiths, T., & Ladwig, J. (2002). Productive Pedagogy as a Framework for Teacher Education: Towards Better Teaching. Newcastle: Faculty of Education, University of Newcastle. Available at: http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/gor01501.htm
Libraries as Transformational?Delaware Study
Number of instructional collaborations with teachers is low.
Information literacy instruction initiatives typically center on knowing about school library, different sources and formats, learning how to use resources, and evaluating information.
Are we really playing a role in helping students transform information into new knowledge?
Learning Outcomes: Delaware
39% indicated school library had helped students develop skills in locating, selecting, organizing and evaluating information
37% indicated school library helps improve reading skills; interest & motivation in reading
22% indicated improvement in technology skills
16% indicated development of positive attitude to libraries
4.5% indicated outcomes linked to curriculum standards and goals
New Jersey IMLS Funded Research
What learning outcomes does the school library enable as students make use of diverse digital and print information sources?
How might these learning outcomes be identified, measured, and embedded into professional practice?
Develop a learning impacts measure for use by school-based teams. (SLIM Toolkit: School Library Impact Measure)
Schools Context & Sample
10 New Jersey public schools
Experienced and expert school librarians
Diverse public schools
10 school librarians working on curriculum projects with 17 classroom teachers
574 students in Grades 6 – 12; range of disciplines
Inquiry Training Institute Feb 24, 2004: overview and critique of units, use of data collection instruments, procedures and ethical guidelines
Central Research Questions
As students proceed through the stages of a collaborative inquiry project:
What changes, if any, are evident in their knowledge of a curriculum topic
What changes, if any, are shown in their feelings?
How does their study approach influence knowledge construction of a curriculum topic?
What interactions exist between knowledge construction, feelings, and study approach?
How did school librarians and teachers help students with their learning
Data Collection Instruments
Five data collection instruments were used to collect the data from the students:
1. Writing Task 1 (at initiation of inquiry unit)2. Writing Task 2 (at midpoint of inquiry unit) 2. Writing Task 3 (at conclusion of inquiry unit)4. Search Journal Log5. Study Style
The instruments consisted of a combination of qualitative and quantitative questions to identify changes in knowledge, feelings, study approaches, helps
Measuring Changes in Knowledge
Substance of knowledge
Amount of knowledge
Structure of knowledge
Personal estimate of knowledge
Labeling of knowledge
Substance of Knowledge
Statement type Definition Example
Property statements describing characteristics
The color of Valentine’s day is red
Manner statements describing processes, styles, actions
People drive aggressively in USA
Reason statements of explanations of how and why
The wall was constructed to block invaders
Outcome statements providing end result (People eat too much) As a result, people got very sick
Causality statements showing some event causally leads to another
Too much alcohol can lead to liver failure
Set Membership statements about class inclusion Michelangelo created works such as statue of David, Cistine Chapel and the famous Pieta
Implication statements showing predictive relations, inference, implied meaning
He was suspected of poisoning him
Value Judgment statements presenting personal position or viewpoint
That’s not right
Changes in Knowledge
Two distinctive approaches to knowledge construction:
-- Additive
-- Integrative
ADDITIVE APPROACH
Knowledge development characterized by progressive addition of property facts
As the students built knowledge, they continued to add property and manner statements, and to a lesser extent, set membership statements
Stockpile of facts, even though facts were sorted, organized and grouped to some extent into thematic units by conclusion.
Remained on a descriptive level throughout
INTEGRATIVE APPROACH
Initial: superficial sets of properties
Moved beyond gathering facts:- building explanations- address discrepancies- organizing facts in more coherent ways
Interpret found information to establish personal conclusions and reflect on these.
Some students subsumed sets of facts into fewer but more abstract statements at the end
Changes in knowledge (knowledge growth) did not occur evenly in the schools
No significant variations across the age, grade, and gender groups; the disciplinary field does not seem to be an explanatory factor
Nature of task: imposed task or negotiated task
Engagement and ownership in the topics
Nature of Interventions: Development of skills to construct knowledge rather than finding information
Factors Contributing to Differences Across
Schools
Rethinking Information Literacy?
Information literacy instruction typically focuses on “finding” information: transport rather than transformation
Are we unwittingly contributing to plagiarism?
Typically treat information literacy as a separate discipline (teacher teaches content and school librarian teaches information skills)
Scope and sequence models of Information Literacy are problematic (akin to “fixed schedules”)
Students do not go beyond the basic knowledge level of Bloom’s Taxonomy: recalling and recognizing information
Guided Inquiry
Need to think more strategically about our instructional interventions
Specific interventions are determined by the stage of the search process, the affective, cognitive and behavioral needs of the learners, and the curriculum standards and goals to be achieved
Instructional interventions enable students to produce and demonstrate deep understanding, and facilitate intellectual and personal agency
Starting point for the school library is not information literacy, but a critical Zone of Intervention in the learning standards, and the nature of disciplinary knowledge and how a discipline / field of study develops knowledge
An Approach to Auditing Standards
Identify ZONES OF INTERVENTION where information-to-knowledge processes and knowledge outcomes are embedded and lend themselves to inquiry in the school library = opportunities for developing authentic research
Understanding how disciplinary knowledge is constructed
Frame information-to-knowledge processes (Information Literacy) in the language of the particular discipline and based on how knowledge is constructed in the discipline
Establish learning outcomes as established by the Standards, using language of standards
Construct instructional interventions, building in approaches to Evidence-Based Practice
An Approach to Auditing Standards
Dimension aspect
Zone of Intervention
Disciplinary Knowledge Construction
Instructional Intervention
Outcomes Measures (EBP)
Outcomes
Standard: ……………….
Dimension, or part of a dimension, at any level thatlends itself to inquiry and authentic research throughthe school library, and where the pedagogical expertiseof the school librarian can contribute to reaching Standards
Mathematics:Knowledge Construction
Aim to develop students sense of mathematical inquiry: problem posing, problem solving, modeling and investigation
Mathematical Inquiry framework (= IL Framework)CONJECTURE, FORMULATION, SOLUTION, COMMUNICATION
Find ideas, examples, counter examplesExplore patternsDevelop conjecturesTest simple conjecturesExplain propositionsAnalyze reasonableness of points of viewDevelop generalizations by abstracting featuresTest truth statements and generalizationsDevelop models
Implementing Guided Inquiry: Design
Strategies
Initiated though compelling situations and questions
Instruction puts emphasis on meaningful, authentic activities; focus on identifying and solving intellectual and/or real-world problems
learning activities resemble ways that students will use knowledge and skills in the real world
Students are more motivated to engage in their inquiry when they are able to exercise some choice over questions and how to present their new understandings.
Implementing Guided Inquiry: Design
Strategies
Attempt is made to connect with students’ background knowledge
Instructional activities involve transforming prior knowledge, skills, attitudes and values - higher order thinking and critical analysis occurs throughout.
Instructional activities enable students to develop deep knowledge, deep understanding
Opportunities for sustained dialogue and feedback, opportunities for students to provide their understanding of concepts or ideas during the search process
Implementing Guided Inquiry: Key Strategies
Choice of products to show their new understandings
Students have opportunity to communicate and share their new understandings
Inquiry engages students in conflicting information
Students are given opportunity to practice their new skills
inquiry learning is responsive to students’ personal, social and cultural worlds, valuing differences and cultivating an inclusive community
CRITICAL THINKING
Read
View
Listen
Connect
I didn’t know that! Questions I have???
I agree / disagree I wonder ….
Dealing With Conflicting Information to Develop
Knowledge
Central Questions
Source 1 eg encycl
Source 2 eg Poor quality web site
Source 3 egHigh quality web site
Source 4 egNewspaper
Source 5High quality print source
What I can say? Evidence for my statement?
who
what
when
where
why
how
result
Transformation of Text: Help Organizations
The Information BaseAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Creating the Text Transforming the text
History of Organization
Vision and Goals of Organization
Significant Achievements
Barriers
Transformation of Text: Help Organizations
The Information BaseAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Creating the Text: Transforming the text
History of Organization
Vision and Goals of Organization“research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights”http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-index-eng
Synthesizing sets of ideas into your own words
Creating a bullet point summary
Significant Achievements
Barriers
School LibrariansLeading Learning
School librarians must be dedicated to best practice
Continuously enage in thinking about and reflecting on effective school library practices
Translate this thinking into action to lead learning through school libraries
Move beyond just thinking about improvement, and taking action – implementing local strategies and processes that contribute to a cycle of ongoing improvement
Thinking and believing without action is pointless
Taking action means you are living the solution.
Not taking action means that you will be living someone else’s dreams and someone else’s solutions.
And someone else’s solutions may not be in the best interest of student learning outcomes through the school library.
The Reading - Information - Knowledge Challenge