assessing collaboration:The effect of pedagogical alignment and shared learning outcomes for information literacy instruction in first year writing classes

it’s fun, but is it effective?

• Does aligning our pedagogy actually help students learn and use an inquiry approach?

• Does this collaboration have an impact on the achievement of Tier I Writing’s research outcomes?

how we got started

• Tier I Writing and Library Instruction

• Outcomes revision• Lilly Fellows

Program

what is inquiry-based learning?

diving in versus surf(ace)inga national perspective

The idea embodied in this report would turn the prevailing culture of receivers into a culture of inquirers, a culture in which faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates share an adventure of discovery. The first year university experience needs to provide new stimulation for intellectual growth and a firm grounding in inquiry-based learning (1998, The Boyer Commission).

diving in versus surf(ace)ingan institutional perspective

Rather than teaching the results of others’ investigations, which students learn passively, instructors assist students in mastering and learning through the process of active investigation itself.

(2004. Lee et. al, 9)

diving in versus surf(ace)inga disciplinary perspective

[The] lack of clarity about the relationship between the products of student writing and the field still pervades too much of our work. The resulting silences position students —especially our first-year writing students—too strongly as consumers, too clearly as adapting to, rather than participating in and contributing to, composition studies.

(2004. DeJoy, 1)

Tier I research outcomes:

• Demonstrate the ability to locate, critically evaluate, and employ a variety of sources for a range of purposes

• Demonstrate an understanding of research as epistemic and recursive processes that arise from and respond back to various communities

why inquiry in the library?

“I already wrote my paper – I just need to find three scholarly sources to back up what I already said.”

why inquiry in the library?

“Librarians can prove to be essential allies for writing teachers insofar as they might reinforce several key underlying assumptions: that knowledge is dialogic, not just informational; that knowledge springs from inquiry motivated by genuine problems and cognitive dissonance, and that knowledge grows through a process of substantive revision.”

(2004. Norgaard, 222)

why inquiry in the library?

• Research is an integral component of the recursive writing process

• Models scholarly inquiry• Promotes critical

thinking• Integrates seamlessly

with course and program objectives

fusing best practice:

• Collaboration• Inquiry-based pedagogy• Outcome driven

methodology

• Semester-long project• Taking place within normal

framework of class/library visit• Data collected throughout

semester

selection and population

• Instructors who use inquiry-based learning pedagogy in their class

• Aimed for: ten sections, across eight Tier I Writing themes

• Actual: nine sections, across five themes, with seven instructors

quantitative data

Pre and post class student surveys:• inquiry approach to research • confidence level • perceived skill level• perception of the necessity of library

instruction • perception of the necessity of library resources  • perceived relevance of the session • transfer of learning

• Class worksheet• Reflective paper• SIRS forms• Student papers

qualitative data

the library session:

response

Seek out new information, analyze, evaluate, and plan

create new knowledge

the rubric

• Applied to student papers/projects• Evaluating inquiry through the

standard of integration

When you think about doing research for an assignment,

it’s primarily in what context?Inquiry

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Helping you tofind a focus

Helping youfigure out whatyou want to say

To back up whatyou already think

To meet therequirements foryour works cited

page orbibliography

To find facts for areport

Other

Pre-Class Post-Class

Other: “To find facts for a report to back up my ideas and make them stronger.”

class worksheets

1. How did you find this information?2. How did you decide that it was (requested type

of) information? Where did the information come from?

3. What is the material’s purpose? Why was it written?

4. Find some text in the source that might help you refine or change your search in some way. How might your search change, and what would you search for next after reading this material?

5. Why would the type of writing in this material be important to the conversation about (class topic or issue)?

What's the purpose of this information?

To inform

To raise awareness

To provide perspective

To help with an issue

To persuade

How did your search change?

Re-formulated

or new question

Same keyword, different source

Search personal

name

Search new keyword

How is this information important to the conversation about the issue?

Provides rationale

Changes awareness

Shares scholarly

knowledge

Provides information

to apply

Provides new

information

Provides background information

Provides personal

perspective

Provides another "side" or

take on issue

minute papers

• How To’s, navigating physical and online space, citations

• “How to redefine a “search.”• “How to start research on a topic in

different ways.”• “Evaluati(ve) criteria, and how to tell if

something is a good source or not.”• “Not all information is relevant and

sometimes it leads you the wrong way.”

1. What was the most important thing you learned today?

minute papers

• How To’s, navigating physical and online space, citations

• “How I am going to write this paper.” • “Applying research to ideas and putting it in

writing.”• “The best way to research and how to tell

what is important and relevant to what you are researching and writing about.”

• Finding topic-specific information • Evaluation – how to know if something is

“legit”• “How to pick a topic and break it down into

things to research.”

2. What would you still like to know more about?

future research

• Using the rubric, compare work from classes that do not visit the library or do not use inquiry-based pedagogy

• How long does it take students to adopt an inquiry process in regards to research? Do they ever?

• Is attitude toward research and/or libraries affected by adopting an inquiry process?– “I would love to learn how to avoid writing

research papers for the rest of my life and still get a degree in something like law.”

– “Still would like to know where I can pay people to write papers for me.”

works cited

• The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University. Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America’s Research Universities: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1998

• DeJoy, Nancy C. Process This : Undergraduate Writing in Composition Studies. Utah State University Press, 2004.

• Lee, Virginia, et al. "What Is Inquiry-Guided Learning?" Teaching and Learning through Inquiry: A Guidebook for Institutions and Instructors. Ed. Lee, Virginia. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2004. 3-16

• Norgaard, Rolf. "Writing Information Literacy in the Classroom: Pedagogical Enactments and Implications." Reference & User Services Quarterly 43 3 (2004): 220-6.

questions & contact info

Sara D. Miller Assistant Library Instruction Coordinator100 Library, E-119AMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, Michigan, USA 48824smiller@mail.lib.msu.eduPH: 517.884.0835

Nancy DeJoyDirector, First Year Writing235 Bessey HallMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, Michigan, USA 48824dejoy@msu.edu PH: 517.432.4031