May 1, 2009 LOEX 2009 Conference Breakout Session

Re-Tooling the Factory: Scaffolding for

Library Labs in Large First Year Courses

Joanna Szurmak Science Liaison Librarian

University of Toronto Mississauga

Library

Session Outline About UTM and PSY100

the large class IL instruction problem Literature review Methods

Scaffolding Instruction Pedagogies

Experimental and statistical shortcomings Results Future work

Session Learning Objectives

Identify and reflect on the challenges of providing IL instruction in large classes.

Reflect on ways of assessing and packaging IL instruction pedagogies in large classes using the PSY100 case study.

Identify and analyze IL scaffolding tools. Develop insights into the “laborious

process of refinement and re-negotiation”(Thaxton & Mosby, 2004, p.189).

PSY100 at UTM

University of Toronto at Mississauga: primarily undergraduate campus; 10,000 plus students;

Introduction to Psychology (PSY100): key pre-requisite for 12 programs of study; largest 1st year course on campus; textbook/lecture/lab model; text-based multiple-choice tests 56% of

course mark.

“industrial remains” by extranoise at http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=698787

Psychology Instruction:Studies Found in Literature Larkin, J. E., & Pines, H. A. (2005).

Developing information literacy and research skills in introductory psychology: A case study [Electronic version]. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31, 40-45.

IL skills are part of a stand-alone assignment; Librarian works to develop assignment but

stays out of the classroom; IL skills are reflected in summative course

evaluation.

Psychology Instruction:Studies Found in Literature Thaxton, L., Faccioli, M. B., & Mosby, A. P.

(2004). Leveraging collaboration for information literacy in psychology [Electronic version]. Reference Services Review, 32, 185-189. Librarians do extensive pre- and post-

assessments of student IL competencies; Librarians and faculty collaborate to focus

instruction on course learning objectives; IL embedding is a “laborious process of

refinement and renegotiation” (p. 189).

Large Class Instruction:Studies Found in Literature Vander Meer, P., Ring, D. M., & Perez-

Stable, M.A. (2007). Engaging the masses: library instruction with large undergraduate classes [Electronic version]. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 14, 39-55.

Comprehensive theoretical review; Authors offer diverse strategies; Key component is “active learning” (p. 41)

which involves higher-order thinking (analysis, synthesis, evaluation).

Large Class Instruction:Studies Found in Literature Chalmers, M.,(2008). Lessons from the

academy: actuating effective mass-class information literacy instruction [Electronic version]. Reference Services Review, 36, 23-38.

Comprehensive theoretical review of large class IL challenges;

Suggestions on active learning from the sciences where such classes are routine;

“Are we trying to teach too much?” (p. 34)

The Situation, Well Articulated:

“To date there has been scant discussion in the library literature about using mass-class active learning pedagogies in information literacy (IL) instruction.” (Chalmers, 2008, p.23)

Putting it all together in PSY100

stand-alone assignments fostering engagement;

IL content mapping;

assessment;

active scaffolding pedagogy.

Situating IL in PSY100

PSY Lab Scaffolding

Instruction and

Reference FrameworkInformation Needs of Students

Embed IL content into a natural niche in the course structure so that it can be fully supported by the existing framework.

Cognitive Scaffolding

Cognitive supports that allow students to internalize new tasks;

Structure they can build upon. Has to fit within the PSY100 framework of:

Textbook/lecture/multiple choice; lab activities.

Has to fit within the support structure of: course activities; library reference.

PSY100 Cognitive Mapping

Richard C. Overbaugh and Lynn Schultz, Old Dominion University

http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

text-based multiple choice (54% of the mark)

lecture-based multiple choice (21%)

Labs (25%)

Where are the HOTS?

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS):

Top 3 levels of the Taxonomy

Where are the HOTS in PSY100?

LAB ACTIVITIES

BONUS!ACRL IL Performance Indicators

and Outcomes 1.2f, 2.5band others

Cognitive Scaffolding Has to fit within the PSY100 framework of:

Textbook/lecture/multiple choice; pre-labs and lab assignments.

Has to reconcile the Modus Operandi of :

PSY lab coordinator;

library instruction and reference;

No HOTS

Needs ease of marking

Wants good researchquestions

Existing PSY100 “Library Lab” Not formally part of the lab curriculum; 0.5% part of the lab mark, but: Presented in the lecture to 500 students in

15 minutes.

No scaffoldingNo thematic cohesion with lectureNot supporting learning objectives

The Interim SolutionIn the short term: analyzed the course IL content; redesigned the library assignment to be

more engaging (with Dr. Jeffrey Graham, PSY100 lab coordinator).

moved the library tutorial introduction into the lab where it fits better thematically.

But that’s a problem, too, because…

PSY100 is a mass-class

up to 1500 students in the Fall/Winter session;

3 lecture streams of 500 students each; up to 25 lab sessions.

One cannot effectively teach in 20 sections.One has to innovate in the Summer session

(200students) and adapt new insights for theFall/Winter session.

PSY Summer Session: Retool and …

investigate what kinds of scaffolding and instruction pedagogies work to support IL skills in the assignment;

Collaborate

encapsulate the best practices so that they can be reproduced either by lab TAs or in an online tutorial

PSY100 Plan of Action

Give students the new lab assignment. Conduct a 10-question IL pre-test and

post-test. Carry out a 30 min. instruction session in 2

summer lab sessions. Investigate the effects of active or

concept-based instruction vs. task-based teaching.

Focus on Instruction Pedagogies

Lab coordinator sees different issues than instruction librarian.

Task-based instruction gives

them less room for error…Yes, but with

concept-based active learning they will re-use

what they learned!

IL Pre- and Post-Tests SAILS instrument:

“standardized assessment of information literacy skills” (Kent State University).

10 questions chosen from: search strategies (ACRL IL Standard 2) search tool selection (ACRL IL Standard 2) search tool identification (ACRL IL Standards 1, 2)

Post-tests carried out 10 days after pre-tests.

Data Analysis Challenges

No control group since everyone has to do the assignment and get instruction;

Pre-test and post-test questions not identical;

Only ¾ of the data collected thorough the learning management system.

Student IDs stripped out for privacy reasons.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Aggregate quantitative analysis; Averages and STD/SEM values for both

data sets;

No pre- and post- mapping for individual test subjects;

No paired t-tests to measure statistical significance of the effect of instruction.

PSY100 Pre-Test Results

Scores are out of 100

SEM=17.0

SEM=17.0

PSY100 Pre-Test ResultsPre-Test Averages and

STDs

Concept Task

PSY100 Post-Test Results

Scores are out of 100

SEM=18.7

SEM=21.7

PSY100 Post-Test ResultsPost-Test Averages and

STDs

Concept Task

Results Side by SidePre-Test Averages and

STDs

Concept Task

Post-Test Averages and STDs

Concept Task

Erratum

Results are interesting but not statistically significant.

My paper says they are: I made a mistake of using response number

SEMs vs. average score SEMs.

Upcoming…

More PSY100 pre- and post-test data Will present more data, along with ideas on

how to assess actively in IL tutorials using iClickers.

When? WILU 2009 in Montreal, QC, on May 26, 2009.

Future Work

What was the role of the assignment? There were IL benefits to doing it, but they

were not measured independently. How to translate the tentative results to

serve the Fall/Winter course? See Chalmers(2008) for ideas.

Images in this Presentation All images are either public domain or used

under a Creative Commons Licence from everystockphoto.com (Attribution Licence).

All public domain images are from the Library of Congress flickr collection of photos from the 1930’s-1940’s taken by Alfred T. Palmer.

CCL images are by extranoise at http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=698787.