Estudio de caso

I have created a table to illustrate a picture of what information literacy learning may look like at different levels of progress. Its roots have grown from several different sources in the literature, infused by personal professional experience and informed by the needs of the secondary school context.

The first of these roots lies in my previous research project with Key Stage 5 students, described in chapter one, which was influenced by Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Objectives (Bloom and Krathwohl 1956). It provided the notion of improving progress and allowed us to determine where information literacy teaching had been successful. This was defined by the student, either through their work or in their interview, where they demonstrated their

knowledge of how to learn, adopting new strategies, adapting them in other contexts, and a self- awareness that enabled them to evaluate their skills as a learner. These behaviours mark out the more independent learner from the beginner.

The transfer of skills learnt in one context to another, critical thinking in relation to the

experience and a student’s growing metacognition, are identified in the literature as indicators of successful learning (Flavell 1979; Nisbet and Shucksmith 1986; Perkins and Salomon 1989; Beyer 1997; Limberg 2007). In a holistic view of information literacy these are the indicators of an information literate student. In a secondary school setting these features are characteristic

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of a student who is able to work more independently and is less reliant on the teacher as the cognitive authority for all knowledge. Encouraging students to become independent learners through their individual ability to access and use information is the librarian’s goal as expressed in the Alexandria Proclamation (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organisation 2005) mentioned at the outset of the literature review. It is all of these strands of thinking that I have tried to capture in this picture of what information literacy might look like at different levels of progress:

Levels Learner Attainment

Characteristics Ability Teacher Role

5

Metacognition: self-awareness

as a learner

Critical thinking, tests methods and consciously hones

skill

Adapts and integrates for own use and articulates personal impact Accommodate student autonomy 4 Understands complexity and has coping strategies Selects appropriate technique and shows critical thinking Confident in making choices and testing

them Provide opportunities for independent application 3 Adapts skills to different contexts Understands differences Discusses principles/rules for different subject contexts Guide practice examining use in other contexts 2 Awareness of transfer Connects with previous experience

Needs prompting and support to make explicit link to other

experiences Guide practice using knowledge of work in other subjects 1 A trained behaviour Knowledge of resource e.g. a dictionary No transfer, personal selection or autonomy of thought Close direction

Table 5.1: Information Literacy Levels

The table describes attainment, how this can be identified by its main characteristic and what the student should be able to do as a result at different progress levels. The Learner Attainment column is inspired by the theories of Flavell (1979), Bloom and Krathwohl (1956) and Tabberer (1987). Library instruction that focussed on training a behaviour leading to fact-finding rather than encouraging a deeper form of learning was critiqued in the literature (Tabberer 1987; Limberg 2007; Williams and Wavell 2007) but in my experience this is often the initial teacher role when introducing a skill or topic for the first time. Therefore it is shown here as the first level of practice to represent the initial introduction and of a skill.

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The table describes an attainment level, how this can be identified by its main characteristic and what the student should be able to do as a result. This is an attempt to define what this learning looks like, if we know what good practice looks like then we can think about how to support students in reaching that place. The other key aspect of this table is that no specific resource, subject or student age group is specified. Its design is influenced by a holistic view of

information literacy which puts the learner, changes in their understanding and as a result their behaviours, at the centre of its focus.

The Characteristics, Ability and Teacher’s Role columns at levels 2 to 4 were inspired by the work of Nisbet and Shucksmith (1986), Perkins and Salomon (1989) and Beyer (1997) to utilise what is known about learning transfer. The features of level 5 are particularly influenced by Flavell (1979) and Bloom and Krathwohl (1956). The teacher’s role is identified as close direction initially, but in work where skill transfer pedagogy is being used, it is at the level of guided practice. At levels four and five as students have gained experience, confidence and exhibit these qualities by making personal choices, they demonstrate their understanding of how to adapt their abilities in different circumstances and improve their performance. This means they are gaining independence and can eventually work in a more autonomous manner. The table is also written in response to the finding in this research of how important it is to contextualise information literacy in the teaching of different subjects. The table is intended to be applicable in any secondary school subject or school library situation. This is another reason why specific information literacy skills are not listed and the emphasis has been placed on how skill learning takes place and becomes absorbed into practice. This is in recognition that it is essential for information literacy to be tailored to the dominant approach to the use of information literacy in each context and to the task in hand.

Levels two and three have implications for teacher training and knowledge. They require an understanding of where else the student has experience of this skill and a knowledge of what that practice looks like, so that principles, rules and differences can be examined with students. This requirement will be considered further in the section on implementation.

The issue of learning transfer between contexts is acknowledged in the interview data (Teacher A, B, C, E and L) and pedagogy is mentioned in the form of teacher modelling and discussion (Teacher A and G). Otherwise a somewhat passive attitude towards the issue is demonstrated (Teacher E) reflecting other priorities and a lack of knowledge as to how to take the matter forward. This might be an indication of how little empirical research has been published about pedagogy for learning transfer. This table could be a way of bringing relevant pedagogical theories for learning transfer (Nisbet and Shucksmith 1986; Perkins and Salomon 1989; Beyer 1997) to the wider attention of secondary school teachers and librarians.

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This table is a graphical representation of skill learning, a complex topic and this chosen form is necessarily reductive by nature. The table’s purpose is to stimulate thinking about making progress in information literacy visible, to inspire pedagogy and methods of assessment, rather than provide an exhaustive guide or a prescriptive solution.

5.1.2 Theme Two: The absence of effective pedagogy for information

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