Beyond “Alternatives to Research Papers”

Applying Alternatives to Specific Subjects

By

Kendall HobbsReference/Instruction Librarian

Wesleyan UniversityNELIG Annual Program 2002

Why Alternatives? Research paper benefits and

drawbacks. More systematic information

literacy instruction and practice. Info lit integrated into course

content. Virtually limitless possibilities.

Why a List? Librarians have seen such lists

before, but faculty usually have not.

Faculty were typically taught their subject but not how to teach it.

Make it easy for faculty to rearrange assignments.

Before Making a List Do your homework:

Education theory (active learning, critical thinking, learning styles, stages of intellectual development, etc).

Course, department, school curricula. Your experience helping students, and

knowledge of collection, resources, strategies, etc.

Define and prioritize goals for list.

Putting the List Together What do faculty want their

students to be able to do? How can their students learn to do

this? What do students want to be able

to do? And why would they want to do your assignments?

Applying the List What is important for this course

or discipline? What is unique to this course or

discipline?

Keep in mind: info lit is a means, not an end.

Some Examples Phil 200 – Philosophical Methods Soc 202 – Sociological Analysis Anth 201 – Anthropological Theory

Philosophy – What’s Important or Unique

Primary / secondary / reference overlap.

Philosophy – Assignments Compare reference sources: look

up one topic in many sources. Search log: note databases used,

search strategies, results, etc. Annotated bibliography: place

each source in reference to others.

Sociology – What’s Important or Unique

Statistics, surveys, etc.

Sociology – Assignments Update statistics: find latest

statistics, compare with older analysis.

Research proposal: include literature review, place proposal in context.

Anthropology – What’s Important or Unique

Time

Anthropology – Assignments Pick a journal, trace its history. Pick a theorist, write a brief

intellectual biography, referring to past and present critiques in the literature.

A good idea that didn’t quite fit: compare an older and a recent ethnography.

Bibliography Farber, Evan I. Alternatives to the term paper. New Directions

for Teaching and Learning, v. 18, June 1984, p. 45-53. Gibson, Craig. Alternatives to the term paper: an aid to critical

thinking. The Reference Librarian, no. 24, 1989, p. 297-309. Rehmke, Denise M. Creating meaningful assignments for

student learning. In: Learning and Libraries in an Information Age. Teacher Ideas Press, 1999.

Souchek, Russell; Meier, Marjorie. Teaching information literacy and scientific process skills: an integrated approach. College Teaching, v. 45, no. 4, Fall 1997, p. 128-31.

Winiarz, Elizabeth; Sullivan, S. John. Discovering the variety of library resources through bibliographic instruction and an assignment. Canadian Library Journal, v. 48, Oct 1991, p. 335-8.

Wesleyan’s List

Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum(list of alternative assignments):http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/instruction/infolit2.pdf

Information Literacy for Wesleyan Students: http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/instruction/infolit1.pdf