Talent,Schmalent: An Instructional Design/Action Research Framework for the Professionalization of Teaching in Academic Libraries

When myths become canonical beliefs within a professional culture, they can have a profound impact on professional practice. In this paper we identify as a pernicious educational myth the belief that the ability to teach well is a naturally occurring innate talent or skill. The first two sections of the paper aim to demonstrate (i) that the concept of the naturally gifted teacher is a myth based on factually incorrect assumptions about expertise development and (ii) that this myth has several major negative implications for professional practices around teaching in academic libraries. We then we draw on the education literature to offer an alternative model for the cultivation of teaching excellence, an instructional design/action research framework that prioritizes ‘deliberative’ practice over innate talent. We close with suggestions for how academic librarians and library administrators can implement this framework within their institutions.     

Legal Research Boot Camp: One Approach to Meeting the Research Needs of Law Students

This article describes the legal research boot camp offered at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. It is an intensive, one-week course offered the first week of the summer break to prepare students for their summer clerkships. It is also a vehicle to teach law librarianship students how to teach legal research.     

Evidence-based decision-making: awareness,process and practice in the management classroom

In an increasingly information rich environment, it is important to teach students decision-making alongside information gathering and management methods. This paper examines the implementation of evidence-based decision-making in a first year introduction to management course at a large university in the Midwestern United States. Students learned decision awareness, decision-making process creation and decision practice alongside areas of management and basic business principles. Students perceived increased skill in decision-making, both individually and in groups. This venture has implications for others looking to help students not only learn experientially, but also improve critical thinking in practice.     

BLACKBOARD在图书馆用户教育中的应用

图书馆用户教育是一门培养学生利用信息资源能力的课程,具有实践性强、动手操作多等特点,用传统的课堂教学方式难以满足学生的需求。Blackboard教学平台具有强大的课程管理功能和交流互动功能,是国内外高校广泛应用的网络教学管理平台。作者结合图书馆用户教育的特点,对采用Blackboard开展图书馆用户教育的必要性和可行性进行了分析。     

Impact of embedded librarianship on undergraduate nursing students’ information skills

Background:One-shot library sessions have numerous drawbacks; most notably, they rarely have a long-term impact on students’ research behavior or skill sets. Library literature notes that when students interact with an embedded librarian, their skills improve. While close partnerships with subject faculty are important, librarians must also assess students’ skill sets to determine the impact of these teaching efforts.Case presentation:During the course, the embedded librarian used various activities and assignments to teach information-seeking skills, with the expected outcome of increased skill sets. This IRB-approved research project focused on measuring and assessing students’ information-seeking abilities before and after interacting with the embedded nursing librarian. Changes in students’ information fluency skills were measured using pre- and post-tests.Conclusions:The study results provide evidence of the benefits of the embedded librarianship model. Continued measurement of students’ skills acquisition is important to enable librarians and library administrators to show the positive impacts the library has on student learning and success.     

Practices of Locating Health Information in an Electronic Environment: Reflections on Conducted Health Information Skills Training

ABSTRACT

Health information skills in an electronic environment are essential to health science librarians, who serve as educators both within and outside of their health training institutions. This reflective study was conducted to examine the application of online health information skills obtained from the training provided for librarians who are working in health settings. Health sciences librarians, as future information skills educators, therefore need to possess their own health information skill sets. Capacity building is vital in order to promote the development of health information skills for health sciences librarians who can then teach and advocate the concept of health information skills on the Internet within and outside of their places of work.     

Learn something new in 20 minutes: Bite Size sessions to support research and teaching

The School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at The University of Sheffield run an innovative series of informal 20‐minute Bite Size sessions to help staff and students teach, research, collaborate and communicate more effectively. The sessions have two clear strands: one focused on teaching and the other on research. The remit is not to teach people how to use something in their work or study, but to let them know why they should use it and how they can employ it. By introducing participants to the possibilities and how they can apply ideas and technologies in their work and study in an enthusiastic manner, it is possible to send them away with at least the intention to explore and experiment. The evidence shows that this organic approach is working – staff and students are starting to use many of the tools that Bite Size has covered. Any kind of widespread change within organisations can be hard to deliver, but by bringing champions on your side and delivering sessions in a convenient, informal and timely manner; good practice and ideas can spread naturally. H.S.     

高职《成本会计》教学反思

《成本会计》课程是会计专业的一门理论性和实践性都很强的专业核心课程,在会计专业课程中起着重要的作用。高职成本会计教学的主要目标是向社会培养一些具备会计技能的实践技能型人才,但是成本会计课程体系复杂,高职学生基础薄弱,掌握起来有一定的难度,如何根据成本会计的特点教好成本核算内容,是作为会计专业教师一直思考的问题。我认为,在教学中应根据高职学生的特点,采取有效的教学措施来提高教学水平,让高职学生牢固掌握成本核算知识。     

How high-school students find and evaluate scientific information: A basis for information literacy skills development

This study examined the relationship between curricula in secondary-level science classrooms, which support development of information literacy skills, and actual student skills. A vast body of research reflects deep concern with the level of information literacy skill development among secondary and post-secondary students. But even when educational curricula mandate skill development, many students are unable to demonstrate sophisticated information searching and critical evaluation skills. The findings of this study, which we based on analyzing information seeking tasks and conducting interviews with students in three biology classes in a large urban high school, demonstrated a similar lack of skills. Pressure on teachers to “teach to examinations”—that is, to focus on substantive content rather than on information literacy skills and information literacy skills deficits among teachers themselves—is a possible explanation for these results. The study is of particular interest to teachers of the curriculum applicable in the study context, but the broader implications of repeated indications of gaps in students' information literacy skills are a significant indicator that schools must assume a larger responsibility for information literacy instruction. Leaving skill development to the post-secondary environment will not ensure that citizens are sufficiently skilled to participate fully in 21st century life, in workplaces or in their personal life contexts.     

We Won't Be Fooled Again: Teaching Critical Thinking via Evaluation of Hoax and Historical Revisionist Websites in a Library Credit Course

ABSTRACT

At Central Michigan University, librarians teach multiple sections of an eight-week, one-credit research skills class to hundreds of undergraduate students each semester. While the main focus of the course is to teach students how to find, use, and properly cite library resources, librarians also address critical thinking skills by designing lessons to teach World Wide Web organization and how to analyze the information found via search engines. Showing student's obvious hoax sites about “tree octopi” and “male pregnancy” introduces the concepts of critical thinking and Website analysis. Most students quickly refute the information on such sites. However, students have a more difficult time assessing social, historical, or political revisionist Web sites' validity. Contrasting those claims with evidence accepted by international courts, historians, and scientists is useful in pointing out the flaws of seemingly well documented but one-sided revisionist sites. There are dangers in exposing students to these groups via their Websites. Yet, it is important to do so in order to convey the importance of critical analysis of information. The authors discuss students' pre- and post-test (CMU's online assessment tool, the “research readiness self-assessment” [RRSA]) scores to determine whether critical thinking skills have improved.     

Development of Targeted Online Modules for Recurring Reference Questions

When students are given assignments with specific information needs, they may turn to the library for help. The UNC Health Sciences Library developed three short online modules to teach first-year pharmacy students how to find early/animal studies, mechanism of action information, and specific study types in an effort to lessen demand on the reference desk. The modules filled two goals: to free up time that had been spent on three common low-level questions and to provide a pedagogically sound online tool to teach students how to find answers to these three questions. The modules were created using Adobe Captivate. Developing and promoting the modules took three hours of the pharmacy librarian's time compared with nearly 23 hours spent answering individual questions via e-mail, in consultations, and at the reference desk before the modules were introduced. After introducing the modules, only one student asked for help from the library compared to more than 60 who viewed the online modules at least once.     

基于Google scholar的英文经济学文献检索技巧

从检索案例出发,对利用Google Scholar检索英文经济学文献的技巧进行探析,说明如何运用检索技巧,实现检索目的。     

Addressing below proficient information literacy skills: Evaluating the efficacy of an evidence-based educational intervention

Over the course of three years, an educational intervention was developed to teach information literacy (IL) skills, change perceptions of IL, and to recalibrate self views of the abilities of first year college students who demonstrate below proficient information literacy skills. The intervention is a modular workshop designed around the three-step analyze, search, evaluate (ASE) model of information literacy, which is easy to remember, easy to adapt to multiple instructional situations, and can provide a foundation for building information literacy skills. Summative evaluation of the intervention demonstrates that students who attend the workshop see an increase in skills and awareness of information literacy as a skill set. Increases in skills, however, were not sufficient to move participants into the proficient range. While workshop participants were able to reassess preworkshop skills, skills gained in the workshop did not result in recalibrated self-views of ability. Like the development of skills, the recalibration of self-assessments may require multiple exposures to information literacy instruction.     

Embedded Library Services: From Cooperation to Collaboration to Enhance Student Learning in Asynchronous Online Course

The online environment presents a unique challenge to higher education. Shifting from the face- to-face format to online not only involves rethinking course design, but requires careful consideration of when and how to teach students, how to find and evaluate information needed to successfully complete coursework. One solution is faculty teaming with subject librarians to design and build in teachable moments. This case study discusses one such successful partnership from designing the course to choosing and embedding library resources and finally to the learning outcome of the online course.     

Connecting Past to Future Needs: Nursing Faculty and Librarian Collaboration to Support Students’ Academic Success

The article illustrates the evolution of a research assignment in an undergraduate nursing course and the development of the information literacy session. The authors show how, through a variety of strategies, they were able to retain research and writing rigor and at the same time, decrease research stress in the students. Through feedback from students, observations, and analysis of the research articles, the authors were able to think critically on how and what to teach the students. The article supports the existing literature on research stress in nursing students and offers a model on how nursing faculty and librarians can collaborate to support students’ academic success.     

Using Creativity

Summary

The purpose of this article is to provide readers with creative methods for procuring funding for building an electronic information literacy instruction classroom. Using the Library Instruction Program at Niagara County Community College as a case study, the authors explain how grant funding was obtained to create a 24-computer lab classroom to teach students how to search for information effectively. A complete explanation of instruction provided to grant participants is also included. This article is particularly useful for librarians working with limited resources and for instruction librarians responsible for teaching students how to search for information in electronic form effectively.     

IM and SMS Reference Services for Librarians (THE TECH SET #19), by Amanda Bielskas and Kathleen M. Dreyer

ABSTRACT

In an era where physicians rely on point-of-care databases that provide filtered, pre-appraised, and quickly accessible clinical information by smartphone applications, it is difficult to teach medical students the importance of knowing not only when it is appropriate to search the primary medical literature but also how to do it. This column will describe how librarians at an academic health sciences library use an unusual clinical case to make demonstrations of searching primary medical literature real and meaningful to medical students, and to illustrate vividly the importance of knowing what to do when the answer to a clinical question cannot be found in a point-of-care database.     

Teaching Legal Research in a Government Library

ABSTRACT

Law libraries that serve the public have diverse clientele, types of reference and research requirements, and opportunities for contact that firm and academic law libraries seldom experience. This article explores these opportunities, which the authors take advantage of for providing a “teachable moment.” opportunity to teach something. The specific subjects are diverse: the legislative process, summary dissolution, arbitration rules, or how to use a keyboard's mouse. Our constant goal is to teach or show that libraries and librarians are still an integral part of today's commercial and legal arenas, and to demonstrate that a government agency can actually be a beneficial tax-supported institution.     

Teaching from the journal: An instructional method

Instruction librarians are often asked by instructors to teach the attributes of a peer-reviewed journal. Students are then asked to reference peer-reviewed papers in their written presentations. This column discusses a method of instruction that can be used in upper level undergraduate natural science classes. It focuses on the journal along with the author(s), abstract, keywords, acknowledgments, references, and footnotes to teach the research and publication process and to lead the students to a better understanding of how a journal (and a paper) becomes indexed and enters the flow of information in a particular field.