IDP Journal Club Notes
June 23rd, 2009: 12-1pm, 303 Doe

Lorenzen, M. (2001). "Active learning and library instruction." Illinois Libraries 83(2), 19-24.

•     This is a review article about active learning

•     Appreciated that it pointed out all the issues that we couldn't put words to in our instruction

•     Good suggestions of little things we can do immediately

•     May have been confusion over cooperative learning versus active learning - cooperative learning is certainly active but is not the only example of active learning.

•     Jigsaw method was useful and many of us use variations on it; how to implement the jigsaw method effectively?

•     Space constraints often affect how we can work with a class.

•     How do we encourage students to participate in the activity when all they want to do is start searching on their own topic?

•     TIP/IDEA: Start with discussion, "What do you want to get out of this?"; alternately, have professor ask students beforehand what they want to get out of the library session so you have a list beforehand.

•     Tell them how much time you'll save them in their searching

•     **Schematic of resources from Pat

•     Reinforce that they don't know everything - start with "What's wrong with JSTOR (or the database they know and use the most)?" Show them what they DON'T KNOW, and what you can teach them

•     TIP/IDEA: for starting class: give them a citation or something to find to see if they can locate it; or, have them bring in an article and have them search the citations

•     Using a visual representation of how information is linked usually gets their attention (Web of Science does this well)

Allen, E. (1995). "Active learning and teaching: Improving postsecondary library instruction." Reference Librarian 51/52, 89-103.

•     TIP/IDEA ACTIVITY: Have them think/reflect/talk/write about something to reinforce concepts. Idea: have students diagram their research process

•     Make them think: What is my next step in this process?

•     "Active" learning does not have to mean "active" in the literal sense. It can be anything that isn't passive learning - it can mean mental activity.

•     Ask instructors what kind of group the class is, in terms of how responsive or interactive they are. This may tell you more about the instructor than about the class, however.

•     You need to have a hook for your class - they should have a need already when they come in, such as a research assignment.

•     Think about how you present yourself/your profession/libraries when you teach, because students often have no idea what we know, what we do, and what we have to offer them.

•     TIP/IDEA ACTIVITY: Instead of having "canned searches," do live searches and let the students see how the process actually works. have them suggest things to try to focus/expand the search. give suggestions to guide them with their search strategies.

Further readings mentioned during discussion:
   

• Pat's slides of information resources (PPT slides)
• Char: Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die; by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. NY: Random House, 2007.
• Auster, Carol J. and Mindy MacRone. "The Classroom as a Negotiated Social Setting: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Faculty Members' Behavior on Students' Participation." Teaching Sociology, 22 (October 1994), pp. 289-300.
• Jacobson, Trudi E. and Beth L. Mark. "Teaching in the Information Age: Active Learning Techniques to Empower Students." The Reference Librarian. 51/52, (1995) pp. 105-120.
• Ragains, P. "Four variations on Drueke's active learning paradigm." Research Strategies (13). pp40-50.
• Gedeon, R. (1997). Enhancing a large lecture with active learning. Research Strategies, 15(4), pp. 301-309.

Here are three videos about active learning in instruction settings. Please watch each video and use the "send feedback" link at the bottom to post your comments or responses and start a discussion.

Video 1:

From UTLibraryInstruction youtube channel:

Mockumentary of a Library Instruction session gone horribly wrong.

Questions to consider:

• Do you see yourself in this video?
• How do you deal with a differentiated audience ("regular ol' student", "eager student", "slacker", others)?

Video 2:

From Robert Monge, Western Oregon University:

Ideas for sprucing up your Library Instruction.

Questions to consider:

• What techniques could you use in your own session?
• Which do you think are the most applicable?

Video 3:

From questions to concepts: interactive teaching in physics:

Introduces some ideas about interactive learning that can be applicable across disciplines.

Questions to consider:

• What did you learn from videos 2 and 3 that you would take to improve the session in video 1? Explain what you would do and how you would do it. 

Do you have a favorite video about teaching? Include it in your feedback!

Presentation Feedback

Following Seda Chavdarian's presentation, we asked instructors to write down one thing they already do in their classrooms that could be considered active learning, or a new idea they learned from the presentation that they would like to try. The following are the responses.

• I frequently start a class by asking the students to see how many books they can find on N topics. We then compare search results:
  >Who found none?
  >What search terms did you use?
  >What databases did you use?
  >What type of search did you perform?
  Lesson learned = your success in finding materials is dependent on databases you search, on the words you search, and on the type of search you perform.
  -Pat Maughan, TLIB


• Excellent model of active teaching/learning!
  The body language makes students feel so welcome to follow the instructions and enjoy learning french!


• Active learning takes particular attention to implement in one shot classes.


• Non-instructional aspects of classes may work in short workshops.


• Teaching is similar to conducting a theatrical play.
  How much the student will retain from lecture depends on both the instructor and the student him/herself.
  Sometimes it is beneficial to leave an open-ended question for the students to answer (by not providing an exact correct answer).


• Important of not lecturing for more than 10-15 minutes, and that even 2 minutes of talking to other students is helpful.


• Take a break every 15 minutes.


• I like the "Magic Door" - leave everything else outside.


• I was really impressed by the idea of flexibility - having a plan B so that if plan A isn't working, you can adjust. I should develop a plan B more often.
  I was also intrigued by the "non-instructional" aspects of active learning and will think about how to include it in my instruction.


• I think a lot of these techniques aren't very applicable to grad students.
  I could give search examples and ask them to try and construct a relevant search query, and discuss what results they get for different searches. This would only be for the more difficult, less straightforward databases.


• I have a question: We have our students only for one 50-minute period. How can we make sure they feel comfortable enough to participate actively when we are strangers to them? Does anyone have any ideas?


• Stop after 10-15 minutes and let students discuss concepts for 2-3 minutes.