I get my facts from the Internet': A case study of the teaching and learning of information literacy in in-school and out-of-school contexts (original) (raw)
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Students‟ future worlds will require the use of conventional print literacies and new multiliteracies in order to access and construct information that requires print, electronic and face-to face interactions within private and public economic sectors, and within local and global corporate worlds (Luke, 1998). Research has called for a new understanding of literacy and literacy teaching and learning to account for the context of our culturally and linguistically diverse and increasingly globalized societies, and to account for the burgeoning variety of text forms associated with information and multimedia technologies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003a). Drawing on a sociocultural theory of literacy learning situated in particular contexts, this qualitative multiple-case study examines the school and out-of-school contexts of four second grade children. It focuses on the ways in which these contexts afforded and constrainedopportunities for the children to engage in, appropriate, and recontextualize information literacy (IL) practices. Findings show that despite similar constraining factors in both contexts (i.e.,press of time, perceived needs, access to informational texts, and disruptions and interruptions), the out-of-school contexts offered the children greater and more diverse opportunities for engagement than did the school context. Further, findings show that the children‟s school IL practices crossed to out-of-school contexts where the children embedded and changed them inflexible, playful, and contemporary ways that enhanced their IL development. Although the children tried to transfer the practices and genres back in the classroom, these attempts were largely ignored unless they fit with the practices upheld by the school. The study offers new knowledge of how school literacy may impact some children‟s out-of-school literacies. It provides implications for teachers, parents and curriculum writers in conceiving IL as social practice and in recognizing the role of out-of-school contexts as spaces to construct meaning. It also suggests that attempts to bring the literacy practices from children‟s out-of-school lives to the school context for purposes of literacy instruction may be misguided; rather, it may be more realistic to concentrate efforts on supporting those out-of-school contexts that enable children to recontextualize school practices for a wider and more global use.
School Library Media Research, 2008
In the past decade information literacy has received increasing emphasis in K-12 and postsecondary education, yet the information literacy skill levels of high school and college graduates continue to vary considerably. This report compares findings across a subset of data collected in three independent research studies focusing on students' conceptions and perceptions of how they have learned what they know about information literacy. Competency theory, which posits that low-skilled individuals in some knowledge domains are often unable to recognize their deficiencies and therefore tend to overestimate their abilities, is used as the theoretical framework in each study. Data on participants' previous experiences with information literacy instruction was collected through surveys or interviews. A majority of students reported that they were largely self-taught, but some also reported having received instruction from school library media specialists (SLMSs) and, to a lesser degree, public and academic librarians. Overall, low-performing students tended to identify peers as sources of knowledge while proficient students tended to identify SLMSs and teachers as sources of knowledge. These findings have important implications for researchers and practitioners in developing information literacy instruction for low-performing students. Research indicates that SLMSs do make a difference in students' information literacy skill levels. In a study of students in a California community college information literacy course, Smalley (2004) found that those who came from high schools with librarians performed much better on both mid-course and final assessments than those students who came from high schools without librarians. Moreover, numerous studies in various states indicate that more time spent on information literacy instruction results in higher scores on academic achievement tests (see, for example, the studies summarized in Lance and Loertscher 2003). Of course, what constitutes information literacy instruction varies from school to school. In a nationwide survey of high school library media specialists, Islam and Murno (2006) found that the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standard taught most frequently was number five, which involves the ethical use of information (specifically, proper documentation of sources); the skill taught second most frequently was number three, which involves the critical evaluation of sources; and the skill taught least frequently was number four, which involves the effective use of information. Still, despite the fact that many SLMSs are providing information literacy instruction, significant numbers of students graduate from high school ill prepared for college. A national survey conducted for Achieve discovered that 40 percent of recent high school graduates who went on to attend college felt that they had gaps in their ability to do research, with 10 percent reporting large gaps (Peter D. Hart 2005). Among college instructors, 59 percent felt that their students were poorly prepared to do research (Peter D. Hart 2005). And a study by the Educational Testing Service (2008)found that of three thousand college students and eight hundred high school students who took the ICT Literacy Assessment Core Level Test, only 13 percent scored as information literate.
Information literacy as a catalyst for educational change. A background paper
2002
The idea of information literacy, emerging with the advent of information technologies in the early 1970s, has grown, taken shape and strengthened to become recognized as the critical literacy for the twenty-first century. Sometimes interpreted as one of a number of literacies, information literacy (IL) is also described as the overarching literacy essential for twenty-first century living. Today, IL is inextricably associated with information practices and critical thinking in the information and communication technology (ICT) environment.
NO LITERACY LEFT BEHIND: ADDRESSING INFORMATION ILLITERACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE
There is a growing concern in scholarly literature indicating that college students struggle with conducting research and using information effectively (Head, 2013; Lawrence, 2013; Head & Eisenberg, 2011). This research study examines the elements and causes of information illiteracy from a secondary education perspective. The methods used assess the information literacy skill levels of high school juniors, intervene with information literacy instruction, and evaluate the merit of the intervention. The project purpose is threefold: (1) establish a baseline of students’ ability to seek, use, disseminate, and communicate information; (2) determine what instructional strategies (including self-paced resources, collaborative instruction, and assessments) will increase student capacity to locate and integrate information; and (3) measure student and teacher perceptions of the importance of information literacy.Currently, the Common Core State Standards Initiative (2012) treats information literacy as a skill component to be integrated into the curriculum. Since there is not a state-sanctioned assessment examining information literacy within North Carolina, this study will serve as a springboard for capturing data related to information literacy. Whenimplemented at the district level, this intervention method will use existing standards (specifically curriculum) to increase student readiness for career and college-level course work.