This section is organized by themes representing specific teaching philosophies.

Establish rapport
Establishing rapport with students is critical to success in teaching information literacy workshops. Prepare carefully but be ready to improvise. Librarians teaching workshops for classroom faculty may have little control over the classroom environment.

METHODS

  • Enthusiastic five-minute library tour. After welcoming  students, I pepper them with questions about their backgrounds (e.g. are you a transfer?) as well as their experiences in using libraries, which is helpful to how I will approach teaching the session, and, more importantly, this helps get students engaged and talking. I point to service areas and emphasize that the reference librarian is always there to help and wants to help our students and can help with non-library-related questions
  • Ice-breakers in Zoom
  • Thoughtful partnership with classroom faculty to increase their engagement which in turn has a critical impact on student engagement. This often requires meetings and correspondence prior to the session to plan the workshop together. I interact with the classroom instructor as needed during my instruction, often to ask questions or help me reinforce a concept.
  • Frequent discussion prompts, e.g., “why is citation a good practice?” stimulates engagement.
  • Teaching to the immediate, forthcoming assignment (an information literacy best practice) which requires more intensive preparation versus providing a generic workshop.
  • Kindness matters. It is always best to show the class  kindness and warmth as grounding for learning.

Engage by starting with the familiar
I believe an effective teacher engages students by addressing familiar experiences and meeting students where they are. Most students require an ‘on-ramp’ before being taught library skills which involves ample use and discussion of Google and, if the instructor is willing, Wikipedia.

METHODS

  • In Introduction to Hospitality Management HMGT1101, I approached the Industry Profile assignment by having students initially analyze a company website. To get students thinking more critically about these websites, I always make sure that we look at company news or other company-generated social media. Students start to learn how to think critically about information when they are made aware of the differences between journalism and a press release. After they learn how to use the library, students do an activity comparing the two types of sources (company website versus published article).
  • Use of student friendly examples, e.g. I compare the library search portal Onesearch to online shopping re. using the filter feature to add and remove elements.
  • I explain plagiarism via this scenario: what if student created a video and someone else lifted its content without giving credit
  • Lived knowledge as a type of expertise when teaching about expertise
  • For advanced students, I model how to interrelate the internet with library sources which demonstrates real life research, for example in HMGT3502 Research Seminar.

Active learning
Incorporate structured activities with and without group work into information literacy instruction whenever possible and provide students with worksheets that stimulate analytical thinking to create structure.

METHODS

  • Think/pair/share in resource analysis (Activity designed by Anne Leonard)
  • Various book scavenger hunts and related exercises
  • Citation exercise for Eng1101, Schmerler. Students learn about different materials as genres and how citation is a form of documentation and varies by material type. Citation helps with finding the source
  • Activities for predatory publishing workshop include a mythbusters icebreaker and concluding exercise in a Google Doc analyzing a solicitation email (see slide 45)

Address different student learning styles
Because students learn different ways, I always include varied representations of concepts, particularly visuals.

METHODS

Students are knowledge creators
I think students need to understand that knowledge creation is a process, and it is important to approach that understanding critically. Students are also knowledge creators. This is one of my “big ideas” that I bring to my teaching; I teach students that when they do library research, they are entering into (scholarly) conversations and growing their expertise.

METHODS

Research is iterative
Research is a non-linear process.

METHODS
With students, I emphasize reading for research and understanding different types of reading including the importance of foundational background information during the research process is critical to student success.

For faculty, I encourage them to recognize that the literature review is needed at the beginning of their research process, when drafting their article, and afterwards in order to stay engaged with scholarly conversations.

Open access benefits all 
Open access is good not only for readers but also for authors and benefits faculty authors at City Tech and all authors.

METHODS

Educate and communicate about open access in a clear and simplified manner that appeals to individual author concerns. This is achieved via consistent and regular messaging to the college community. I send an individualized email every time a City Tech faculty member publishes, offer regular workshops, provide consultations, and create library support materials. Print outreach materials help message that Academic Works amplifies faculty research.

next: –>Teaching Effectiveness