Critical Literacies: Exploring

the Intersections

of

Writing and Information

Literacy

Bridgewater State

University

17 Oct 2014

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM STUDENTS ABOUT INFORMATION LITERACY?

MICHELE VAN HOECK PROJECT INFORMATION LITERACY & CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY MARITIME

Composition Information

Literacy

Recognize when

information is needed. Locate,

evaluate, and use effectively

the needed information.

WHAT IS INFORMATION LITERACY?

In an environment of rapid technological

change, proliferating resources, escalating

complexity, diversity of choices, and unfiltered

formats of uncertain quality…

The sheer abundance of information will not

in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities

necessary to use information effectively. . .

Information literacy forms the basis for

lifelong learning. It is common to

all disciplines, to all learning environments,

and to all levels of education.

WHY DO WE NEED IT?

The information literate student:

1. Determines nature and extent of information needed

2. Accesses needed information effectively and efficiently

3. Evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.

4. Uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

5. Understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.

Information Literacy Threshold Concepts

Scholarship is a Conversation

Research as Inquiry

Authority is Contextual and Constructed

Format as a Process

Searching as Exploration

Information has Value

ACRL DRAFT FRAMEWORK

SEARCHING AS EXPLORATION

FORMAT AS A PROCESS

How would you rate the information literacy of the students you teach, on average?

What do you see students struggle with most in research projects?

POLL!

“Adjectives that describe how you feel when you get a research assignment?”

fear, angst, tired, dread, excited, anxious, annoyed, stressed, disgusted, intrigued, confused, overwhelmed

2008, n = 86 | 7 campuses

How Do Students Feel About Research?

Project Information Literacy A large-scale study about early adults and their research habits

2008

n = 86

2009

n = 2,318

2010

n = 8,353

n = 191

Focus

groups

Online survey Technology

& Prompt analysis interviews

2011

n = 560

Eight studies

13,000 students, 63 US campuses

Passage studies

2012 2013 2014-15

n = 23 n = 35 n = 60

n = 33 n = 1,941 n = 4,000

Online

survey

Workplace Freshmen Lifelong

Overview of findings @ http://tinyurl.com/lg7fryh

Finding Evaluating/using Multitasking Transitioning

What Can We Learn From Students?

8,353 students

(sophomores, juniors, seniors)

Course and everyday life research

Spring 2010

25 campuses across U.S.

Funded by MacArthur Grant

ONLINE STUDENT SURVEY

3

Takeaways

from the

2010

Student

Survey

GETTING STARTED- THE HARDEST PART OF COURSE RESEARCH

#1

Search

Using Information

Task definition

Search Self

assessment

69% 41% 30% 25%

WHAT TASKS ARE MOST DIFFICULT?

Getting started (84%)

Defining a topic (66%)

Narrowing a topic (62%)

#2

STUDENTS USE THE SAME FEW GO-TO SOURCES

SOURCES MOST USED

97%

96%

94%

88%

85%

75% 100%

Course readings

Search engines, includingGoogle

Library databases (e.g.,JSTOR)

Instructors

Wikipedia.org

WIKIPEDIA IS “MY PRESEARCH TOOL”

#3

WHY WIKIPEDIA?

82%

76%

69%

67%

64%

54%

44%

39%

17%

16%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Obtain a summary

Get started on assignment

Interface is easy to use

Finding the meaning of terms

Comprehensible explanations

Citation trail included

Figure out search terms

Current, up-to-date entries

More credible than other Web sites

Peer-to-peer source

Instructor’s handout

Course readings

Google and

Wikipedia

JSTOR

etc.

Instructors

Satisficing

Situational context

Big picture & Language contexts

A FAMILIAR PATH…

FOR A NOVICE

RESEARCH FINDING CONTEXT

TEACHING IDEAS FOR THE

FIRST STAGES OF RESEARCH WRITING

1. ACKNOWLEDGE GETTING STARTED IS DIFFICULT

2. FEEDING THE DRAGON: DISCUSS THE “IDEA STAGE”

Getting Started LibGuide - "idea sources" : CountryWatch, Room for Debate

3. SUGGEST “IDEA SOURCES”

4. LANGUAGE CONTEXT: DEVELOP SEARCH WORDS

Concept mapping

Brain-storming

Freewriting

Narrowing- down exercises

LANGUAGE CONTEXT

Concept mapping

5. EXPAND BIG PICTURE CONTEXT

VS.

COMMENTS QUESTIONS

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM COLLEGE GRADS?

Employer interviews College graduate

focus groups

“DAY AFTER GRADUATION” STUDY

23 EMPLOYERS

Media

Tech

Engineering

Government

Manufacturing

Financial

33 GRADUATES

Santa Rosa Junior College

University of Puget Sound

University of Texas Austin

Harvard College

WHERE?

graduate focus groups

employers

WHY?

STUDENTS WILL WORK AS

1% Academics

Something Else

5% Years in Higher Ed

Rest of Life

OUR STUDENTS’ LIVES

We asked about “doing research”

or “solving information problems”

at work.

Translating “Information Literacy”

14 ACRL

information literacy

performance indicators

16 Habits of Mind

CODING

FINDINGS: WHAT DID EMPLOYERS SAY

ABOUT COLLEGE GRADS STRENGTHS AND

WEAKNESSES?

Ease with technology

STRENGTHS

“The contrast is so evident between us on one side and them on the other.

They are connected in a way my generation wasn’t.”

- an employer

“Information? They find it, they take it,

and they blend it, they mash it up,

they re-purpose it.”

- another employer

DIFFICULTIES

We need someone who will

explore on their own and then

come back to the team and say,

‘Here's my best take, what do you

think?’ They need that ability to

invite discussion and be able to

redirect on the fly.

1. ENGAGE TEAM DURING RESEARCH PROCESS

They believe the computer is their workspace, so basic interactions

between people are lost. They won’t walk over and ask someone a

question. They are less comfortable and have some lack of willingness to use people as sources and also have

a lack of awareness that people are a valid source of information.

There were many graduates who just looked in one place—

the Internet—and that was the problem. It’s a whole bag of tricks you need for doing

research today.

2. USE VARIETY OF FORMATS

difficulty

distinguishing the noise from the solid

material

3. FIND PATTERNS

get stuck in the mud trying to figure out what

it all means

I don't think there's a lot of

that desire to go deep. They expect information to be so

easy to get, that when it's not, it's frustrating to them.

4. BE THOROUGH

WHAT DID GRADS SAY?

“Which college learning experiences

have been most applicable?”

“What’s challenging about solving

information problems in the

workplace?”

WE ASKED:

My job feels like there’s a perpetual thesis due, but my job is literally about finding

information that does not exist. My information needs

have changed and intensified since I was an

undergraduate.

Systematically evaluate sources

Critically analyze published sources

Synthesize large volumes of content

WHAT TRANSFERRED? ABILITY TO:

1. Filtering and sorting relevant sources (57%)

2. Summarizing and integrating different sources (43%)

3. Reading and comprehending sources (34%)

LOOKING BACK: FRESHMAN DIFFICULTIES

2013 Learning the Ropes interviews, n = 35 first year students; 6 campuses

1. Increased sense of urgency

2. Little structure or direction

3. Highly contextual and

fundamentally social

WORKPLACE CHALLENGES

OVERLAP: WORKPLACE RESEARCH IS SOCIAL

The biggest hurdle for me was getting used to talking to strangers.

They need to look beyond their

computer screens.

Recent grad Employer

Grads perceive: fast pace Employers need:

persistence, thoroughness

OPPOSING VIEWS

Synthesizes a variety of sources

Requires persistence

Requires openness to continuous learning

Is fundamentally social

WORKPLACE RESEARCH:

Why aren’t grads better at doing research

in teams?

POLL!

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Most learning does not take place with the master; it takes place with journeymen and other apprentices.

Lave & Wenger

How are project groups

in college different than

Communities of Practice?

IDENTIFYING, CONTACTING EXPERTS

PEER ROUNDTABLES

THANK YOU!

ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education: www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

ACRL Draft Framework for Information Literacy:

acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Framework-for-IL-for-HE-Draft-2.pdf

Project Information Literacy reports: projectinfolit .org/publications

Etienne Wenger, Communities of practice: A brief introduction. http://wenger-trayner.com/theory/

CRITICAL RESOURCES

IMAGE CREDITS

Ditch digging by Auburntown Historical Society

Arthur Sulzberger by Reuters News Service

“Sea of Blue” by Flickr user Ben Stephenson

Etienne Wenger by Wikimedia Commons user Beverly Trayner

Jean Lave from UC Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures "Getting help at the ref desk" by Flickr user Wendt Commons

“Seminar Bard College Berlin, 2013” by Wikimedia Commons

user Irina.stelea