Sharing practice … collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice

Christine IrvingFormer SILP Project Officer &

Researcher Freelance Information

Professional

Workshop on Promoting Employability through Specific

Literacies University of Greenwich, London

Tuesday 11th March 2014

Sharing practice … collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice

Exercise: 15 minsThink about the following questions then discuss with the person/s next to you.

Questions?Sharing practice:

a. Do you share practice?b. Why do you share or not share?

Exemplars of good practice:c. Do you use exemplars of good

practice?d. Why do you use or not use them?

Collect case studies or exemplars of good practice:

e. Do you collect case studies or exemplars of good practice?

f. If so what do you collect or what do you use them for?

Sharing practice … collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice

My answers

Sharing practice: a. Do I share practice? - Yes

Exemplars of good practice:b. Do I use exemplars of good

practice? - Yes

Collect case studies or exemplars of good practice:

c. Do I collect case studies or exemplars of good practice? - Yes

What do I share, use and collect and why

Development of a National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland)

A national overarching framework

that all sectors of education can recognize and develop or which can be applied to the world of work.

Development of a National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland) – Aims:

• defining information literacy learning in terms of statements of skills, knowledge and understanding

• enabling the notional levelling process and outcomes to become transparent and clearly understood by other learning providers, receiving organizations and or employers to meet the needs of the lifelong learner more effectively;

• supporting a continuing learning process through identifying a learning pathway within the context of SCQF (Scottish Credit Qualification Framework) (SCQF, 2005) as part of an educational guidance or personal development planning process;

• mapping the existing learning that is taking place allocating a notional level to learning outcomes utilizing relevant reference points such as the SCQF generic level descriptors with the intention of providing a general shared understanding of each level which can then be linked to academic, vocational or professional practice;

• incorporating and highlight CILIP's information literacy skills and competences definition (CILIP, 2004) and SQA's Information Handling Skills Intermediate 2 qualification

Development of a National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland)

A national overarching framework

Enriching the framework with exemplars of good practice to demonstrate how specific competencies can:

• be applied in practice for different subjects, levels of pupils / students and how this could be linked to the framework, the steps involved and showing the connection;

• demonstrate links to higher level complex thinking skills and innovation.

Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice 2009

Known exemplarsIdentified through:• Project partnerships• Personal and Professional

networks• Professional publications /

articles/ websites / blogs – social media

• Draft framework piloting exercise

But more needed …

Identifying new exemplars• Initial email approach asking

for exemplars of good practice – met with silence

• A new more proactive strategy had to be adopted …

More proactive strategy …

• people did not see their activities as ‘exemplars of good practice’

• need to explore, identify, discuss, visit and see information literacy activities being carried out by project partners and interested parties

• then ask if the activity could be used as an exemplar / case study.

Lessons learned ….

• There is a tendency for people to think they are not doing anything special and therefore do not respond to emails for exemplars of good practice.

• They are however happy to share their practice once contacted.

• It is therefore essential to use networks of contacts, leave plenty of time to talk, visit and work with people on submitting their work as a case study / exemplar.

• Sharing practice also contributes to professional development both for the individual and their community and to the field of research.

Sharing practice … collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice

Snapshot from National Information Literacy Framework (Scotland) 2009

Framework case studies / exemplars of good practice http://www.therightinformation.org/temp-exemplars/

Workplace• NHS Scotland information literacy competency framework – for NHS staff, patients, general

public• Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy – set out change required: a focus on individual

development, a response to needs of the economy, demand of employers• Scottish Government Information Services IL activities – workplace training• iKnow (Information and Knowledge at work) – workplace training materials (blog posting)

Public Libraries• Inverclyde Libraries – employability course• Caerphilly Public Libraries –

School case studies / exemplars of good practice• Govan High School Future Skills Symposium – core transferable skills that pupils can use in

school and beyond – employability (blog posting)

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotland www.therightinformation.org/

Community of practice members: • Share practice, expertise,

thoughts and ask questions

• Contribute to the communities’ knowledge of information literacy activities, case studies, news, conferences and events, new research, discussions etc.

Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice 2012

Information skills for a 21st Century Scotlandwww.therightinformation.org/

Community of Practice First face to face meeting - main areas of interest expressed:

• Developing core IL skills in FE;• Assessing the impact of IL training;• Advocacy for IL; • Instructing teachers in IL, • IL as an employability skill; • IL toolkits for young people; • Teaching IL skills in public libraries;• Links between schools and public libraries, • Use of electronic IL resources in public libraries; • Online training packages in HE (short demo of SMILE); • Workplace IL skills social media; training materials for teachers. • NLS the Toolkit being developed - looking for partners to work with in the

different sectors on the toolkit.• Identify training and CPD needs .

Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice 2012

Work, Employability theme ….

Crawford, John C and Irving, Christine. (2013) Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Policy issues, the workplace, health and public libraries. Chandoswww.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=2618&ChandosTitle=1

• Chapter 5 The challenge of the work environment • Chapter 6 The Scottish Government Library: a case study• Chapter 8 Employability, informal learning and the role of the public library.

Case studies collected through … knowledge, CoP, Jisc email lists …

Sharing practice … collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice

Lessons learned:

Calls for exemplars of good practice or best practice do not work on their own. Whether it is the actual term or words used people are reluctant to step forward for whatever reasons.

Whether this is a nationality or professional trait or a combination of both it leaves the collector with the task of seeking out activities, investigating them and then making a decision on whether it fits the qualities they think makes a good exemplar of good / best practice or case study.

Necessary to use a variety of means but using networks of contacts, getting out and about talking to and seeing first hand what people are doing is an amazing experience which despite being time consuming is definitely worthwhile and has proved successful.

Collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice 2012

So is it worth all the effort of collecting case studies / exemplars of good practice?

Definitely …

it provides ideas and benchmarking possibilities and hopefully will encourage sharing practice and collaborative working. It also gives the research community insights into what activities practitioners and researchers are involved in.

Personally – it helped/helps my employability prospects