Radcliff, S. & Wong, E. Librarians Leading the Charge: Collaborating with Faculty to Design Evidenced-Based Instruction. Presented at California Academic and Research Libraries (CARL) 2014 conference. Librarians at Saint Mary’s College of California will present part two of their study, following their 2012 CARL conference presentation: “English Composition Students: How Are They Using Their Sources?” Having discovered through this research that students do have problems paraphrasing, quoting, integrating and citing their sources, Librarians, in collaboration with English Composition faculty, designed a new study to test out three instructional methods (behaviorist, cognitive and social constructivist) on teaching integration and citing of sources in six sections of advanced English Composition classes. Results of the three methods will be evaluated through pre/post test scores and correlated with a content analysis of the students’ research papers. The results of the content analysis will also be used to compare past studies’ results and presented to English Composition faculty in part three of the librarians’ study. All three methods and the lesson plans will be made available for faculty to use with the knowledge of how effective the methods are in relation to specific student learning outcomes.
- 1. Librarians Leading the Charge: Collaborating with Faculty to
Design Evidenced-Based Instruction Presenters: Sharon Radcliff and
EliseY Wong Saint Marys College of California 1
2. What are the Effects ofVaried Instructional Methods?
Behaviorist, cognitivist, and social constructivist instructions
Pre/post tests comparison Impact on student performance on citing
and integrating sources 2 3. How Well Composition Students Cite and
Integrate Sources? In-text citations and bibliographies Types of
sources used in bibliographies Paraphrasing vs. quoting How
quotations are integrated 3 4. Our Study Objectives Assess the
effectiveness of different instructional methods Students' citing
behaviors Examine how sources are integrated Evaluate students'
citation performance Students writing proficiency and faculty
expectation 4 5. About Saint Marys College Catholic, Lasallian,
liberal arts college Undergraduate and graduate schools Total
enrollment: 4257 Total full time students: 3746 Number of full-time
faculty: 213 Student-faculty ratio: 13:1 Average class size: 20 5
6. Who are SMC Students? Female: 59%; Male: 41% White: 43%, Latino:
25%,Asian: 14%, African-American/Black: 2%, others: 16% 87%
freshmen from California 99% of freshmen living on campus Tuition
and fees: $39,890 % of full-time undergraduate receiving financial
aid: 86% 6 7. SMC New Core Curriculum Information Evaluation and
Research Practices Students will learn to judge the authenticity,
validity, reliability, and originality of the sources of
information they use 7 8. SMC Composition Program Learning outcomes
for ENG 5 includes: Develop search strategies and use library
resources to locate relevant materials Practice evaluating sources
critically Evaluate and synthesize evidence Properly integrating
and citing sources 8 9. Learning Theories Overview Gredler, M. E.
(2009). Learning and instruction: Theory into practice (4th ed.).
New Jersey: Merrill. Hergenhahn, B. R. & Olson, M. H. (2005).
An introduction to theories of learning (7th ed.). New Jersey:
Prentice. Leonard, D. C. (2002). Learning theories,A to Z.
Connecticut: Greenwood. Schunk, D. H. (2008). Learning theories :An
educational perspective (5th ed.). New Jersey: Merrill/Prentice. 9
10. Behaviorist Models Learning is shaped by a change in behavior
E.Thorndike, J.Watson, & B. F. Skinner Classical and operant
conditioning theories Stimulus-Response, positive/negative
reinforcement, rewards & punishment, behavior modification 10
11. Cognitivist Models Learning progresses in stages Component
display theory (D. Merrill); Social cognitivist theory (A.
Bandura); Stage theory of cognitive development (J. Piaget);
Elaboration theory (Reigeluth); Conditions of learning (R. Gagne)
Information processing schemas, mastery learning, concept mapping,
scaffolding 11 12. Social Constructivist Models Learning is
interactive, reciprocal, and collaborative L.Vygotsky, J. Bruner,
D. Kolb, C. Rogers Problem based learning; Discovery learning;
Social development theory Inquiry based, active learning, learner-
centered, experiential/situated learning 12 13. Studies on
LearningTheories and Instruction Blummer, B., Kenton, J. M., &
Liyan, S. (2010).The Design and Assessment of a Proposed Library
Training Unit for Education Graduate Students. Internet Reference
Services Quarterly, 15(4), 227-242. Miranda, M.V. (2009). Creating
the Successful Community College Student: Using Behaviorism to
Foster Constructivism. Community College Enterprise, 15(1), 21-38.
Sulaiman, J. J., & Dwyer, F. F. (2002).The Effect ofVaried
Instructional Text Design Strategies on the Achievement of
Different Educational Objectives. International Journal Of
Instructional Media, 29(2), 215-224. Yilmaz, K. (2008). Social
Studies Teachers'Views of Learner- Centered Instruction. European
Journal OfTeacher Education, 31(1), 35-53. 13 14. Highlights from
the Studies A collaboration between faculty and librarian in a
library training unit for information literacy using direct
instruction and inquiry-based approach (Blummer, 2010)
Constructivism is not always better than Behaviorism (Miranda,
2009) Strategies have varying influences on student achievement
depending on types of learning objectives (Sulaiman, 2002) Faculty
participants identify their teaching style more with cognitive and
constructivist approach than the behaviorist approach (Yilmaz,
2008) 14 15. Research Background SMC librarians have done two major
bibliographic studies and two internal citation study over the past
10 years. The first bibliographic study was done on 9 Composition
sections in 2004; the second was done on 13 sections in 2006. The
first internal citation study was a pilot study of 25 papers done
in 2008. In the second internal citation study (2010), 85 papers
were analyzed. 15 16. Library Instruction Classes SMC librarians
traditionally do an instruction session for every section of ENG 5
(25-28 sections) Library session is now required for ENG 4 Library
instruction for ENG 4 and 5 includes group work and tutorials on
search strategies, evaluating and citing sources. 16 17. Benefits
of Collaboration Curriculum design Instruction Research 17 18.
Research Design IRB approval Composition faculty survey Lesson
plan/instructional methods Data collection (Spring 2013) Pre/post
tests Student papers 18 19. Faculty Survey 15 questions regarding
their classroom practice on MLA citing and integrating sources
(12/28 responses) Instruction via group work, lecture, and
individual exercises All devote class time on integrating sources;
most on MLA; some also give take-home assignments All require
students to submit work-cited page; most require students to
consult specific types of sources 19 20. Survey highlights All
respondents devote class time on integration of sources; 10 give
take home assignments 11 devote class time on MLA; 8 give take home
assignments 7 give at least one research paper 11 require students
to consult specific types of sources 9 include quality of work
cited page into grading rubric 11 devote class time on ethical use
of sources 20 21. Instructional Methods Integrating sources,
quoting, paraphrasing, MLA citation (in-text and bibliographic) Six
participating faculty members randomly assigned to teach one of the
following: Behaviorist: Mostly direct lecture; students complete
exercises individually in class; candies were used as incentives
Cognitivist: Series of mini-lectures/discussions, inter- woven with
students working on examples with increasing levels of difficulty
Social constructivist: Brief introductory lecture; students then
work on examples in groups 21 22. Pre/Post Tests Tests were given
before and after the instruction during one class period 10
questions per test Learning objectives of both tests: Understand
the purpose of citing Identify the key components of a citation
Identify basic format in MLA for in text and bibliographic
citations Learn how to identify good uses of paraphrasing and
quoting as part of integrating material from a source into a
research paper 22 23. Pre-Test Score Results by Learning Theory
Group 23 24. Post-Test Scores by LearningTheory Group 24 25.
Results: Behaviorist Pre/Post Test Scores 25 Behaviorist n=33
Pre-Test Score Post-Test Score Difference Mean 8.09 8.70 .61 SD
1.55 1.13 26. Results: Cognitivist Pre/PostTest Scores Cognitivist
n=35 Pre-Test Score Post-Test Score Difference Mean 7.63 9.06 1.43
SD 1.37 .94 26 27. Results: Social Constructivists Pre/PostTest
Scores Social Constructivist n=35 Pre-Test Post-Test Differences
Mean 8.29 8.86 .57 SD 1.78 .810 27 28. Results: Pre/PostTest Scores
for all 3 Groups All groups n=103 Pre-Test Score Post-Test Score
Difference Mean 8.0 8.87 .87 SD 1.4 .97 28 29. Whole Group Increase
in Scores from Pre-Test to Post-Test After performing a t-test on
the two results: pre and post test score means; it was determined
that this change was statistically significant at the .05 level. So
although no difference in performance could be detected between the
learning theory groups, all the mean test scores improved test
after the treatment (instruction session) 29 30. Analysis of
Results The post-test scores went up by varying amounts
(behaviorist: .66; cognitivists: 1.43; social constructivists: .57)
for all learning theory groups. The cognitivists group showed the
largest gain; however after a statistical analysis was performed
(2-way ANOVA) it was determined that the difference between groups
was not statistically significant at p
