Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Peer to Peer Part 2A follow up study of students’ information
literacy development using a student researcher
Iain Baird, Academic LibrarianFran Porritt, Academic LibrarianEthan Lumb, Projects Assistant
Sue Myer, Learning Hub Manager
• Post 92 University• Main Campus in Middlesbrough • Five schools: 19,630 students including 8,511 part-
time• 57% of our undergraduate students over 21
Teesside University
Aim• Teesside University students tackling challenging
assignments– Experiences, strategies and expectations– What helps, what hinders?– What changes over time?
• Insight for development of information literacy approaches• Students as researcher bids in 2013 and 2015
– Enhanced credibility of student researcher• Understanding of students’ perspectives• Encouraging honesty in interviews
Methodology• Sample
– 4 students from original sample of 10 students from 5 schools
– Convenience as during summer– Student researcher
• Semi-structured interview– Audio-recorded, then transcribed
Participants• P1 – psychology student – at end of 1st year and 3rd year UG• P4 – animation student - at end of 1st year and 3rd year UG• P5 – criminology student – at end of 2nd year and on MSc• P7 – forensic science student – at end of 2nd year and
repeated final year
Secker, J. and Coonan, E. (2011). A new curriculum for information literacy. Available at: https://newcurriculum.wordpress.com/ (Accessed: 10 February 2016).
Strands and Bands• Becoming an independent learner• Mapping and evaluating the information landscape• Resource discovery in your discipline• Ethical dimension of information • Synthesis and knowledge creation• Social dimension of information
• 4 progressive ‘bands’…starting with the development of practical skills and expanding through increasingly complex processes
Becoming an Independent Learner• I would definitely say that I am much quicker now at
finding what I want. Especially on things like Google Scholar, because you can type stuff in and just get reams and reams of it. But even like the library searches, like the journals searches, on the find journal articles bit, there’s certain ones of them that I’ll use, and there’s certain ones that I won’t. Because I know my way around them. [P1, 2015]
Becoming an Independent Learner• Cos some people didn’t actually turn up to them [library sessions]
and when it actually came round to writing essays, they would be ‘where did you get that from, where did you get that from’. [P1, 2013]
• Yeah, in first year we had a library session where they talked us through everything. It still took me about 3 months to fully get my head around it. But you could probably tell who didn’t turn up because they didn’t have a clue. Even in second year they were only just realising you could search for journal articles and lib guides and stuff. [P1, 2015]
Mapping & evaluating the information landscape
• I didn’t really used to find information. If you’d seen my assignments last year I didn’t. I’d go on the Teesside website and find something that we had a full electronic copy of and chose that. [If] I couldn’t find a full electronic copy, I couldn’t find anything. There was nothing to be found. [P7, 2015]
• Science Direct …you get on a little tangent. You’ll download one thing and they’re going “and we’ve suggested this”. It won’t even be relevant but you’re going I’ll give that a look. And then they’ll suggest something and you’ll give that a look. And then before you know it you’re looking at the science of cartoons or the mental ability of certain things and you’re like, I kind of want to test it now. Make a bunch of rabbits watch cartoons and stuff, and see if they do weird things. [P7, 2015]
Mapping & evaluating the information landscape
• Could also go to the Library and get books on different areas and also anatomy books, which was really helpful. Or we could use the internet - Google, Wikipedia, all those great reliable (irony) resources. Just mostly books we used. [P4, 2013]
• This year we have been banned using pretty much Google and Wikipedia, so we have to find it on proper websites, which I honestly thought was going to be really hard. But since we had so many lectures by the people at the library, we were able to understand it nearly instantly and where to go, how to do it and everything is very ordered on the websites so we know exactly what to do, which is really helpful. [P4, 2015]
Mapping & evaluating the information landscape
• But compared to others years when my reference list would be like half books, half journals. In third year it was just journals. [P1, 2015]
• I try and use many different sources in the sense of no matter what as long as it’s relevant I’ll use it. So some people say you know oh well MSc you shouldn’t use websites, well you should, because I found something that Theresa May said that now psychology and coercion is now a crime against domestic violence. That’s relevant because that was only a few months ago. But it was just in the Telegraph. Journals all the time because they are peer reviewed – everyone knows that. And books, but the three of them fused together really allow your ECA to flourish. [P5, 2015]
Resource Discovery in your Discipline• I just had a little mooch…because when we came to do the
workshops in the library about finding journals in different ways, I already had an idea of where things were, so it was a lot easier. [P1, 2013]
• You see I think I have definitely developed an ability to home in on what I need. Rather than spend two hours and have nothing to show for it, which is what you just do in first year. [P1, 2015]
Resource Discovery in your Discipline• I found it easier to get a starting point on Google Scholar because it was
more general and then from that I would look at the reference lists and find them in the library search engines…PsycINFO I think is the one I used and Ebsco, those two I used the most. I don’t know whether it was just me and I was writing the wrong things in, but that’s the way I worked. I got a general idea on Google Scholar and then picked more specifically (from) the library. [P1, 2015]
• I always go through the University portal. …Google Scholar I have found some good stuff. I think Sage is the best. Because there is a full package of journals. [P5, 2015]
Resource Discovery in your Discipline• Science Direct …decided to crash like 2 weeks before
everyone’s projects were due in. So you’d be opening up journals and it’s going well you need to log in to use me. And you’d log in and it’d go well that’s not a real user. Teesside University doesn’t exist. And then when you were trying to come into the library for books and stuff, somebody would already have them out, so you were like I’ll just find it online. There’s always Google Scholar [P7, 2015]
Ethical Dimension of Information
• One of the skills is doing your references right. Because if you don’t do that, right you get a bad grade. Anything else would be flagged as plagiarism, if you don’t reference or quote properly, so it’s definitely a big skill that I’ve learned and that’s actually one of my favourite things I’ve learned as it’s really fun [P4, 2015]
• It’s only taken me 5 years but I can reference an assignment. I think I’ve even attended like 2 referencing workshops and I still get confused. [P7, 2015]
• I never, never like to pack it with too many references. I like a lot of references in, but I like my own voice to come through. [P5, 2015]
Ethical Dimension of Information• There are ethical issues, it can’t be too violent, it can’t be
surrounding certain areas because it’s iffy. With copyright we need to make sure it’s all of our work. If we decide to use something from our previous work we have to reference, otherwise its self-plagiarising and that’s kind of against the rules. [P4, 2015]
Synthesis and Knowledge Creation• That was a minefield because there was so much literature
[P5, 2013]• It’s gone beyond me wanting to just do it for an essay I also
want to know the knowledge and I also want to know what this person is saying. Regardless of whether it goes into the essay or not. Because I like to absorb as much as possible. …So now I’m actually reading, rather than punching in keywords and thinking oh well I need this, I need that. I’m reading a good quantity of the actual journal and thinking yeah this is relevant. [P5, 2015]
Synthesis and Knowledge Creation• So I thought, if I can research this and get to enjoy it, and I’m asking more
questions this is perhaps something I could look at for my dissertation. [P5, 2015]
• Well this year has been very research heavy, and I’ve spent more time researching than actually doing work. Which explains a lot of issues. Because the things we would do in the subjects as soon as you find one (piece of) research, and start writing your essay, you’ll realise you’ll find more, and more, and more, so you actually ended up researching throughout the whole project. And there’s no time where you don’t research, which is great because you build on your knowledge but still it’s a bit of a pain when you find something and you’re like I wish I had that, like five weeks ago. [P4, 2015]
Social Dimension of Information
• If it’s good I know I’m going down the right lines and really I’ve flourished and really developed as a criminology student and I’m not far away from being a criminologist. [P5, 2015]
Implications for Information Literacy
• Library sessions valued• More than just keywords• Google Scholar as tool of choice• Efficiency versus complexity• Ethics - not just about referencing• Value of the student voice
