Week 4: Information Literacy Wrap-up and Assessment

Reflections on Week 3 Class - "Information Literacy"

Here are some of the interesting things I took away from the class period:

• Defining "information literacy" is hard, though I did enjoy finding new ways to conceptualize the term "use."  Our group felt "application" is a good substitute, but still lacks some of the connotation of "use."  I actually like the ACRL's definition of information literacy because, although it contains the word "use", it also casts a wider net of the skills we expect an "information literate" person to possess.  In class, my group also added an additional component to the definition - integrating new knowledge and modifying existing existing understandings and beliefs about information.
• Comparing IL with reading comprehension was not something I have considered previously.  I can see how reading for comprehension is very much analogous to deeper levels of information literacy (ie. looking for deeper meaning, making connections, analysis, etc).
• This was my third course in which we have discussed Kuhlthau's Information Search Process, and each time I find new facets that make me think a little deeper.  This time I considered the concept of "zone of intervention" occurring around the exploration phase, and also what this means for library students and the master's education curriculum.  Are we being taught that we should be engaging users a little later in the search process?  Are we gaining the skills for this?  I think my answer for UMich SI is mostly "yes we are," but some days I waiver, and I don't really know what the trend is overall for the education of future librarians.
• Also, a further extension of our discussion on whether our familiarity of a subject affects our movement through Kuhlthau's model - I suggest that perhaps instead of skipping steps altogether for topics with which we are familiar, we instead move through the first few steps much more quickly.  I have no data for this, just an idea.
• Striplings "Model of Inquiry" was also very interesting, but at this point in class I was becoming more cynical (read: low blood sugar) and couldn't help but wonder about the practical use of some of these models (not just Striplings, but others as well).  In a perfect world - yes, all of these steps would be present in information consumers at least part of the time.  But honestly, I cannot remember when I last had time to "reflect."  This blog is really the best example, yet I struggle with the blog because typically the emphasis in school is put on producing something (or "expression") and once that product is one, immediately moving on to the next product.  I almost feel guilty spending a significant amount of time on refection, even though the blog-as-reflection is also a "product."  What can we realistically do to incorporate more reflection into day-to-day tasks?  Okay, rant over.  I'm going to go eat a candy bar and hopefully come back in a better mood!

Design of Learning Environments and Formative Assessment
This week's readings built well on what we've been discussing in class.  How can we integrate what we know about how people learn and what we need to be teaching them (eg. information literacy) to promote learning and understanding.  This week's answer - through the thoughtful design of learning environments, including considerations about assessment techniques.

Chapter 6 - "The Design of Learning Environments" from How People Learn 
 The bulk of this chapter is discussing four important considerations for designing learning environments:

• Learner-centered environments - teachers are aware of the prior knowledge, skills, and beliefs that students bring with them to a classroom.  Teachers also attempt to use student's prior knowledge to enhance learning or can engage them in "cognitive conflict" and then help students understand such conflicts (p. 134).
• Knowledge-centered environments - address the areas in which students need to gain knowledge in order to be successful learners.  This goes beyond rote memorization, to encouraging learning as understanding and helping students develop an "integrated understanding of a discipline" (p. 138).
• Assessment-centered environments - students are provided with feedback with regards to how well they are achieving their learning goals.  Assessment may be "formative" or "summative"  Formative assessment is preferred for improved teaching and learning because it helps students develop an understanding of their performance while they still have a chance to modify it.
• Community-centered environments - teachers and students are recognized as part of a classroom and school community, as well as the larger local, regional, national, or global communities.  If the community environment is ignored, certain teaching and learning methods may not promote student growth in knowledge and understanding.  Additionally, the culture of each community has important implications in the classroom.  I loved the example on page 146 of the Inuit who view quiet children as a marker of high intelligence and self control, while the non-Inuit administrators assumed children who do not talk in class must have a speech delay.  Such misunderstandings can take negatively affect the ability of teachers and students to create a productive learning environment.

The last part of the chapter discusses the importance of alignment between the four types of learning environments.  Specifically, that understanding who students are, what is being taught, how it's being taught, where it's being taught, and how it's being assessed are all important for thoroughly understanding how much students are actually learning.

"Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems" - D. R. Sadler (1989)
This article describes in more depth what "formative assessment" is and why it is important in learning.  

• More specifically, formative assessment is "concerned with how judgments about the quality of student responses can be used to shape and improve the student's competence by short-circuiting the randomness and inefficiency of trial-and-error learning" (p. 120).  Teachers providing "feedback" to learners about the success and progress of their work is a key feature to formative assessment.  Additionally, the process of providing feedback to students also helps the teacher monitor student progress and adjust appropriately. 
• The purpose of formative assessment and feedback in learning is to help students continually improve their learning and performance by understanding: 1) the standard or goal to which they are to perform, 2) their current performance and how it compares to that standard, and 3) how to take action to fill in "gaps" between their performance and the standard (p. 121).
• Additionally, the article describes in some depth the "qualitative judgments" which are necessary in assessment.  That is, rarely can helpful assessment be based on hard-and-fast rules or a scale; rather, teachers must make many of their judgments based on tacit knowledge of what is "high quality" and what is not using a variety of criterias.  The qualitative nature of these judgments makes it difficult for teachers to accurately express performance standards to students.  The challenge then becomes for teachers to learn how to "download" these judgments and standards to students, so that students my learn how to monitor their own performance more effectively.

 Take-Away Points?
One of the biggest connections I made this week between these two readings and what we have discussed previously is the importance of metacognition and monitoring one's own performance as a key component of learning.  We have discussed previously that metacognition is a central feature of active learning and learning for understanding.  To me, two important features of formative assessment are: 1) it aims to promote students' awareness (self-monitoring) of their own functioning with regards to standards or goals for performance, and 2) the purpose of feedback is to help students develop an internal gauge for assessing their own performance, rather than continually relying on an outside authority to do so.  This is important when we consider that the aim of education should be to help students build a knowledge-base they can use outside of a classroom environment.  Additionally, formative assessment is effective at promoting this type of understanding because it allows students to incorporate feedback into their current product or performance, unlike summative assessment which does not.

Although I think assessment is an important feature of learning, I could not help but consider how much responsibility this puts on the teacher.  Particularly since many judgments of student work are qualitative and based on "fuzzy" criteria, teachers have a huge weight to bear with regards to communicating these standards effectively to allow students' development of learning, understanding, and metacognitive skills (as discussed above).  But I also do not think teachers can do this alone.  Therefore, Sadler's statement that "only when a learner assumes ownership of a goal can it play a significant part in the voluntary regulation of performance" speaks volumes to the fact that teachers can only do so much.  To some extent, students have to want to learn and they have to want to perform better.  Without this type of internalization, assessment seems nearly useless to the learner.  I think this is partially where other aspects of the learning environment, particularly the concepts of learner and culturally-centered environments, can support assessment because they allow teachers to understand their students and ways in which they can be encouraged to learn.

Of course, in the end this comes back to: how does this apply to librarians?  Or, how can librarians apply these concepts?  This week, I'm a little stumped because I do not understand well when librarians are given opportunities to provide formative assessment.  I suppose this will likely be discussed in class as well, and I look forward to hearing others' views.