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Teachers’ real-world information literacy:

a study of school teachers’ use of research information in support of their own reflective

evidence-informed practice

Funded by the Economic and Social Science Research Council, 2002-2003

Dorothy Williams & Louisa Coles

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Background: aims, context, questions

Methods used Findings Conclusions/Implications for

librarians

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Aim To examine teachers’ current

practice, attitudes and skills in relation to the effective use of research information in their professional practice.

Research information: the published output of a planned piece of research – i.e.

information relating to “external” (other people’s) research

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Dual context

Information literacy

Evidence-informed practice/ research-based teaching

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Information literacy Research has focussed largely on

students (school and HE), pedagogies and the role of libraries

information seeking behaviour in professional groups; conceptions of information literacy amongst academics

We know relatively little about teachers’ own confidence, abilities and strategies as information finders and users

Previous research in UK in 90s (Best, 1990; Wilson, 1997) suggested teachers were not confident information users – is this an ongoing issue?

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Use of research information is part of reflective, evidence-informed practice

Stenhouse: the research-based teacher is not only an action-researcher but also someone who tests out the application of other people’s research findings in their own classroom

Cordingley (1999): “need to see the activity of interpreting evidence developed by others as a high status activity which is central to reflective practice”

Various UK information initiatives (by teacher professional bodies and government) are actively promoting better online access to research reports, digests and systematic reviews – EPPI-centre; GTC Research of the Month website; DfES Research Informed Practice Site

Lack of teacher take-up of research findings has been the subject of much previous research, but not from information literacy perspective

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Qs: in the context of evidence-informed teaching How confident do teachers feel about

finding and using information (general and research-specific) in their own professional learning?

What strategies do they employ and how does this compare with traditional definitions of information literacy?

What are teachers’ attitudes towards finding and using “external” research information?

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Mixed methodology Surveys : 3000 teachers, 500 head-teachers, 250 school

librarians, 49 Schools Library Services (SLS), 100 Education Authority (EA) Advisers in Scotland, England, and Wales – low teacher response

In-depth scenario interviews with 28 teachers, probing research information strategies used in relation to a) development of subject area; b) development of teaching strategies

4 group exercises, with 2-6 teachers, probing teachers’ approaches to evaluation of quality of research information

Online discussion forum: reflection/refinement of key findings

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Barriers to use of researchFive of top 6 barriers (out of 35) were

information related:

Lack of time to find and read Lack of information about what is available Relevant information is not compiled in one

place Lack of easy access The amount of research is overwhelming Lack of research information in the school

library

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Information literacy

Teachers report relatively high levels of confidence in information literacy

They were more confident in finding general subject information than searching for research or professional opinion

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Confidence in finding information

47.8 46.2 47.855.4 49.7 43.9 40.4

42.3 41

1617.3

1617.3

15.1

0

20

40

60

80

100

generalbackgroundreading on

subject area

subject-basedinformation inpreparationfor teaching

recentresearch in asubject area

research:teaching

methods andstyles

professionalopinion:teaching

methods andstyles

research:learning theory

professionalopinion:

learning theory

Information Type

perc

enta

ge o

f tea

cher

s in

dica

ting

'con

fiden

t' or

'v

ery

conf

iden

t'

very confident

confident

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Confidence in information literacy

91.9 88.985

81.1 79.3

67.160.9 59 56.3 57.5

0

20

40

60

80

100

identifying &defining info need

locating info evaluating &selecting

organising &synthesising

communicating &presenting

aspects of information literacy

perc

enta

ge

of

teac

hers

indi

catin

g 'c

onfid

ent'

or 'v

ery

conf

iden

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General information

Research Information

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Relationship between information literacy and other factors

Attitude/Involvement in Research: those who have been involved in research are more likely to be confident in research IL (p < 0.001).

Sector: Nursery and primary teachers less likely to be highly confident in general IL or research IL than those in the secondary sector (p < 0.01).

Subject: Maths teachers less confident than others in research IL (p < 0.05); teachers of social and environmental subjects more confident than others (p < 0.01) about their general IL (not echoed in relation to research IL).

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Sources used

Teachers confidence in research information literacy is based on use of a limited range of research sources (similar to range of general information sources teachers cited in relation to professional development in 1997 study)

Reliance on informal sources; readily accessible sources; not necessarily the most reliable sources for research evidence

Libraries in bottom half of sources used.

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Source used for subject related research

% regularly using source

Source used for research related to teaching & learning theories & practice

% regularly using source

1 Colleagues: Informal discussions 46.5 Colleagues: Informal discussions 34.3

2Professional magazines or newspapers

41.3Professional magazines or newspapers

34.3

3 In-service events 37.2 In-service events 30.1

4 EA Information 34 EA Information 28.5

5 Mainstream Newspapers 29.5Colleagues: school-based development meetings

25

6Colleagues: school-based development meetings

28.5 Mainstream Newspapers 17.9

7 The Internet 27.6 The Internet 13.5

8Colleagues: EA-wide development meetings

15.7 Head teacher 13.1

9Colleagues: local subject networks

15.4Colleagues: EA-wide development meetings

11.9

10 Head teacher 13.8 Research journals 11.2

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Information literacy categories

Information confident/active – have developed/are aware of successful information strategies; encouraged to find/use research information by school/HT ethos

Information aware/passive – do not follow the course of action they would recommend to others; knowingly accept compromise; expect others to do it for them - expectation that head teachers and Education Authorities should take responsibility; discouraged by school ethos

Lack information skills/knowledge – experience problems in finding, evaluating and/or synthesising information

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Aware/passive “I don’t really discriminate, anything that’s available, it’s

quite a narrow range of material….and sometimes it’s out of date as well….” (s Principal Subject Teacher)

“You talk to people in your own school......but you get a very limited view….the danger is there that the person you’ve asked has asked someone else in the same school and it gets very in-bred…” (s Teacher)

“…when you actually looked at the size of the sample studied it was really not valid, so small. And so I do check that out, but I don’t really get into it. I like a bit of a life.” (p Head Teacher)

“Somebody else can sift through the data, we need the conclusions” (s Principal Subject Teacher)

“I think people like to be spoon fed. If it’s there, they’ll look at it and they’re interested in it. But they wouldn’t go looking for it. That’s a huge leap…” (p Head Teacher)

“I would expect that the management would be able to provide me with any background information or ways of accessing that information” (p Teacher)

“If it’s in school and if it lands on your lap then fine, I’ll read it, but I couldn’t put a lot of effort into it”

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Lack information skills/knowledge

“sometimes I feel it’s just a needle in a haystack kind of thing….” (n Teacher)

Internet – “just hit or miss” “just potter about” (p Teacher) ; ”sort of clicking fairly aimlessly about on the web”(p Head Teacher)

“I’d be really hard pressed to tell the difference between a good piece of research and a not so good piece…” (p Head Teacher)

“I found it really hard…because it was like so abstract, and you had to do a lot of work to make it relevant to practice and experience” (p Head Teacher)

“it wasn’t specific enough for me as to how to adapt it to your practice” (s Teacher)

Concerns about information overload

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Conclusions Relatively closed world – information is

gleaned from colleagues and people who are known and trusted

Lack of time and lack of ready access in one place are seen as major barriers: Internet/web is breaking through some of the barriers but some are not confident in their ability to search/evaluate

Teachers are not pro-active information seekers in relation to changing professional practice

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Conclusions Relatively confident about finding and using

general information but less confident about research info

Less confident in synthesising, organising and communicating information – yet this is fundamental to professional learning, to “the knowledge creating school” (Hargreaves, 1999)

Real-world information literacy is based on a pragmatic acceptance of what’s provided, even if known to be limited in scope or quality, rather than a desire to search out, evaluate, synthesise the most valid/highest quality info

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Implications? Information literacy in teacher education (initial and in-

service):

need for greater focus on finding and using information in professional learning (not just as classroom activity or academic/HE);

more focus on effective use of sources likely to be accessible in professional life – e.g. internet/web and people

For school librarians:

scope to solve some of the time/accessibility problems which discourage professional information seeking/use by teachers (proactive approach, use of intranet, collaboration between librarians and education authorities, some reprioritisation)

information literacy in schools – more emphasis on information and learning, less on library

Implications for information literacy development in pupils?

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Further information

Project website:http://www.rgu.ac.uk/abs/research/page.cfm?pge=8785

Contains a link to the project report on the ESRC’s REGARD database

Contact: d.williams@rgu.ac.uk