In this interactive workshop, participants will develop strategies rooted in informed learning for partnering with disciplinary instructors in higher education courses to advance students’ information practices and learning. Informed learning is an approach to information literacy that describes how students may use information in situation-specific ways to learn (Bruce, 2008). Highlighting how information-focused learning activities are an integral part of the learning process, informed learning emphasizes the need for students to learn about using information at the same time they are learning about subject content. A curriculum design model for developing instruction grounded in informed learning, informed learning design supports the development of curricular partnerships between librarians and classroom instructors that recognizes the vital role information plays in disciplinary learning (Maybee, Bruce, Lupton and Pang, 2019). This approach to embedding information literacy into curricula has been successful in a faculty development program–with research suggesting relationships between how students use information, academic success, and levels of motivation (Flierl, Bonem and Maybee, 2021).
Participants in this interactive workshop will be academic librarians interested in collaborating with classroom instructors to integrate informed learning into course curricula. Led by experienced facilitators, participants will work in small groups to uncover opportunities in their own contexts and compare ideas and practices with others. They will use the informed learning design model (Maybee et al.) to envision partnerships with instructors to develop information-rich learning activities reflective of their shared expertise. Examples of successful collaborations will be shared with participants from a grant-funded project in which 30 librarians and instructors at three large universities in the United States participated in a 4-week program in which they used informed learning design to develop information literacy coursework. Participants will learn strategies for collaborating with classroom instructors to teach students to use information to support disciplinary learning, including: 1) identifying opportunities within their institutional context for partnering with instructors; 2) recognizing how their own experiences of collaborating with instructors aligns with research-based conceptions of collaborative information literacy work; and 3) determining ways they can apply informed learning design to successfully partner with instructors and contribute to the development of information literacy in curricula.
References
- Bruce, C. S. (2008). Informed learning. American Library Association.
- Flierl, M., Bonem, E., & Maybee, C. (2021). Developing the informed learning scale: Measuring information literacy in higher education. College & Research Libraries, 82(7), 1004–1016. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.82.7.1004
- Maybee, C., Bruce, C. S., Lupton, M., & Pang, M. F. (2019). Informed learning design: Teaching and learning through engagement with information. Higher education research & development, 38(3), 579–593. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1545748
Clarence Maybee1, Michael Flierl2, Rachel Fundator1
1Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; 2The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA