Australian School Library Association > Professional Development > Online 2006 > Powerful Performance - abstracts

ASLA Online II: Visions of Learning Abstracts

The presenters and their biographical information are correct as at 28 April 2006. The organisers of ASLA Online II reserve the right to alter or delete this information.

Powerful Performance - abstracts

Miss Jennie Bales (Senior Education Officer, ICT Professional Learning, Department of Education, Tasmania, Australia)

Jennie is currently employed by the Education Department of Tasmania as a Senior Education Officer for Professional Learning with a focus on the embedded use of ICTs in enabling students in being information literate. Her previous experience includes working as a teacher librarian, a Curriculum Officer, ICT resource teacher and as a lecturer in the field of teacher librarianship. In 2005 she was awarded the Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year in recognition of her professional practice. Jennie is currently undertaking doctoral research with Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia.

Student-designed rubrics for purposeful assessment
This paper explores the value of rubrics as one form of student assessment and considers the powerful learning opportunities offered when students are actively engaged in designing their own rubrics for self-assessment. The educational benefits of involving students in the development of their own assessment criteria is discussed in relation to the importance of students having a clear understanding of the task and the learning opportunities it provides. Rubrics are presented as a means to aid students in constructing their own learning pathways and to set meaningful and purposeful goals for future learning. One collaborative approach for facilitating students in designing a rubric will be presented, providing a practical strategy to aid implementation in the classroom or library setting. The model presented focuses on assessing information literacy capabilities and provides a framework that can be transferred and adapted to support assessment in other key learning areas.

What was the question? Providing opportunities for student evaluation of questioning techniques.
This paper presents an approach to support student analysis of their own discussion dialogue when evaluating the questions asked by group members in a literature circle and the responses that each question prompted. The importance of asking effective questions is discussed with a focus on question starters that promote in-depth responses and higher-order thinking. Literature circles are presented as a successful model for providing opportunities for students to develop and apply their own questioning techniques. The use of information and communication technologies to provide a source data for student analysis is exemplified. Electronic transcripts generated in an online environment to capture synchronous discussion provide students with a copy of their online conversations. The potential educational value of such material is discussed through the presentation of students’ own analysis of their discussions to demonstrate how such material can assist students in reflection and self-evaluation of their learning.

Dr Lesley S. J. Farmer (Professor, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, USA)

Dr Lesley Farmer coordinates the Library Media Teacher program. She earned her M.S. in Library Science at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and received her doctorate in Adult Education from Temple University. Dr Farmer has worked as a teacher librarian in K-12 school settings as well as in public, special and academic libraries. A frequent presenter and writer for the profession, Dr Farmer’s research interests include information literacy, collaboration, and educational technology.

Using narrative inquiry as an assessment tool
In an effort to study assessment as an element in the scholarship of teaching, the investigator incorporated narrative inquiry into her information foundations (LI500) and library media management (LI550) courses. Students electronically posted and shared reflections about their life of information for LI500 and about three course-related critical incidents they experienced that semester for LI550. A content-analysis matrix was developed to capture relevant data for each form of narrative activity. Electronic journaling enabled students to: self-assess areas for improvement; and assess peers’ situations and problem-solving approaches. Relationships to information changed from personal and idiosyncratic to objectively abstract onto activist. Central management issues were human relationships, resource management and administrative details; main sources of support were administrators and fellow teachers. Journals helped instructors to assess: 1) students’ areas of concern; 2) how students solved critical issues; and 3) degree to which course content dealt with the critical events. The activities also fostered a sense of a community of practice, and helped link academic coursework and field experience.

James was formerly Sub Dean of the Faculty of Science & Agriculture at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia. He is currently a Vice President of IASL and Chairperson of the School and Resource Centers Section of IFLA. James' most recent publication, co-edited with Marlene Asselin, is titled Leadership issues in the information literate school community. He is currently working on another publiction, Information literacy and assessment with Dr. Lesley Farmer.

Learning and assessing in the information literate school: a social constructivist perspective
This paper explores social-constructivist theory, both as epistemology and as a model of understanding learning and framing teaching. It proposes that such a model is consistent with a view of school as an information literate community. Such a community places as much emphasis on teachers as learners and reflective practitioners as it does upon students connecting the threads of their world (home-school-personal experience) in order to build their own understanding of the world as it connects to their community. It then considers the implications of acceptance of these models for the role of subject teachers and specialists as assessors of learning. It argues that a social constructivist explanation of knowing is inconsistent with instructional paradigms that set out to compare learners or to assess an objective and measurable reality. It considers implications for the role of the teacher librarian and the way that teacher librarians are appraised. This is not a paper about school libraries or about isolated library activity. It assumes that school librarians and subject teachers are educators and partners, each with their own expertise.

Joy is the Course Coordinator for the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) and Senior Lecturer in teacher librarianship at Charles Sturt University. She is Director of the Centre for Studies in Teacher Librarianship, and coordinated the first Australian international research retreat in Canberra during April 2005. Formerly a teacher librarian in Canada and a teacher librarian educator in the USA, she has made Australian her home since 2002. She conducts research on student information use and has presented this research internationally.

Plagiarism and learners: understanding the connection
Information use is a complex concept with the meaning often taken for granted. How much do we know about how students integrate the information they locate into the assignments? Do they have effective strategies for incorporating ideas gained from other sources? Do they understand the need to identify which words and ideas are theirs and which came from someone else? Is their level or degree of learning related to their strategies for using information in any way?

A research study of a year 11 ancient history class using information to complete an assessment task provides some interesting preliminary results. The study explored elements of information use but this paper focuses on one all-too-common information-use strategy: plagiarism. The degree of plagiarism exhibited by these students is considered in relation to the teacher’s purpose in assigning the task, value gained through the assignment, what they learned, self-directed learning and powerful performance.

This study continues a series of studies conducted with year 11 students, the first in Canada and the second in the US. Although the small number of study participants in each case makes generalisation impossible, the goal is to explore the concepts deeply, not to provide hard evidence. These studies are intended to prompt discussions among teacher librarians and teachers regarding whether students are really prepared to use information effectively or whether too much is taken for granted. Listening to what students say about their experiences can help educators consider these ideas from a student’s point of view and develop teaching strategies that respond to student needs and reactions. Those who expect students to make sense of information can develop a deeper understanding of appropriate information use, process and product, student engagement and student learning.