Background

The Scotch College Information Literacy Project, which commenced in Term 2, 2001 is multifaceted. A major part of the project will provide benchmark information about information literacy practice at Scotch. It involves a set of questionnaires administered to staff and students, focus group interviews and semi structured interviews of selected staff and students. In addition document analysis and observation are being used to document current practice. The project is also exploring a series of innovative practices in selected units of work across a number of subjects.
 
Six classroom teachers, one educational support teacher, and three teacher librarians are working together to embed information literacy skills into units of work. Classes involved are from year 8 to year 11 and subjects involved are Economics, English and Science.
James Henri of Hong Kong University and Gayner Eyre of Charles Sturt University are the external researchers supporting the project
Funding for the project was provided by the Scotch College Research and Development Department.

Rationale

Teaching and learning must be about content and process learning but often the emphasis is on content. Teachers may assume that students will learn information skills on their own or that they have been taught in another subject area. It cannot be assumed that students have sufficient prior knowledge of the information seeking process beyond what is required to fulfil more than basic research requirements. Instruction needs to be planned to assist students acquire these skills. 

At Scotch it is anticipated that this project, while building on existing strong programs, is effective in demonstrating that teachers and teacher librarians operating as teams in a planned and collaborative way will improve the chances of improved learning outcomes and information skills for students.

The project identifies roles of the project partners.

Role of the teachers

• To work with the teacher-librarians on the design and development of the unit
• To meet with the academics prior to commencement of the unit to discuss strategies, assessment and outcomes 
• To encourage students to maintain reflection, perhaps using a diary, of his learning throughout the unit
• To reflect on teaching/learning strategies
• To evaluate student learning outcomes in relation to the expectations that underpin the information literacy project

Role of teacher-librarians 

• Assist in the formulation of the unit of work
• Inform teachers about the information literacy skills that need to be embedded into each unit
• Manage distribution, collection and dissemination of student surveys
• Provision of a resource pack for all teachers
  Liaise with researchers
• Provision of professional development for teachers on "developing innovative research tasks that avoid plagiarism" at the start of the unit
• Individual workshopping of teachers during the unit
• Team teaching units of work with teachers
• Organising morning teas to encourage collegiality

Role of researchers

• Provide a theoretical framework by which to explore the research questions
• Workshop teachers and teacher librarians
• Provide resources and links to effective practice
• Assist with professional development at the start of the project
• Formulation of research instruments, data gathering and analysis
• Observation of lessons
• Final report

Information Literacy Model (77Kb pdf file)
Sample unit of work (627Kb pdf file)
Links to Information Literacy Resources