ReTooling the Factory: Scaffolding for Library Labs in Large First Year Courses

1
Re-Tooling the Factory Scaffolding for Library
Labs in Large First Year Courses

• Joanna Szurmak
• Science Liaison Librarian
• University of Toronto Mississauga Library

2
Session Outline

• About UTM and PSY100
• the large class IL instruction problem
• Literature review
• Methods
• Scaffolding
• Instruction Pedagogies
• Experimental and statistical shortcomings
• Results
• Future work

3
Session Learning Objectives

• Identify and reflect on the challenges of
  providing IL instruction in large classes.
• Reflect on ways of assessing and packaging IL
  instruction pedagogies in large classes using the
  PSY100 case study.
• Identify and analyze IL scaffolding tools.
• Develop insights into the laborious process of
  refinement and re-negotiation(Thaxton Mosby,
  2004, p.189).

4
PSY100 at UTM

• University of Toronto at Mississauga
• primarily undergraduate campus
• 10,000 plus students
• Introduction to Psychology (PSY100)
• key pre-requisite for 12 programs of study
• largest 1st year course on campus
• textbook/lecture/lab model
• text-based multiple-choice tests 56 of course
  mark.

industrial remains by extranoise at
http//www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId6
98787
5
Psychology InstructionStudies Found in
Literature

• Larkin, J. E., Pines, H. A. (2005). Developing
  information literacy and research skills in
  introductory psychology A case study Electronic
  version. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31,
  40-45.
• IL skills are part of a stand-alone assignment
• Librarian works to develop assignment but stays
  out of the classroom
• IL skills are reflected in summative course
  evaluation.

6
Psychology InstructionStudies Found in
Literature

• Thaxton, L., Faccioli, M. B., Mosby, A. P.
  (2004). Leveraging collaboration for information
  literacy in psychology Electronic version.
  Reference Services Review, 32, 185-189.
• Librarians do extensive pre- and post-assessments
  of student IL competencies
• Librarians and faculty collaborate to focus
  instruction on course learning objectives
• IL embedding is a laborious process of
  refinement and renegotiation (p. 189).

7
Large Class InstructionStudies Found in
Literature

• Vander Meer, P., Ring, D. M., Perez-Stable,
  M.A. (2007). Engaging the masses library
  instruction with large undergraduate classes
  Electronic version. College Undergraduate
  Libraries, 14, 39-55.
• Comprehensive theoretical review
• Authors offer diverse strategies
• Key component is active learning (p. 41) which
  involves higher-order thinking (analysis,
  synthesis, evaluation).

8
Large Class InstructionStudies Found in
Literature

• Chalmers, M.,(2008). Lessons from the academy
  actuating effective mass-class information
  literacy instruction Electronic version.
  Reference Services Review, 36, 23-38.
• Comprehensive theoretical review of large class
  IL challenges
• Suggestions on active learning from the sciences
  where such classes are routine
• Are we trying to teach too much? (p. 34)

9
The Situation, Well Articulated

• To date there has been scant discussion in the
  library literature about using mass-class active
  learning pedagogies in information literacy (IL)
  instruction. (Chalmers, 2008, p.23)

10
Putting it all together in PSY100

• stand-alone assignments fostering engagement
• IL content mapping
• assessment
• active scaffolding pedagogy.

11
Situating IL in PSY100
PSY Lab Scaffolding
Instruction and Reference Framework
Information Needs of Students
Embed IL content into a natural niche in the
course structure so that it can be fully
supported by the existing framework.
12
Cognitive Scaffolding

• Cognitive supports that allow students to
  internalize new tasks
• Structure they can build upon.
• Has to fit within the PSY100 framework of
• Textbook/lecture/multiple choice
• lab activities.
• Has to fit within the support structure of
• course activities
• library reference.

13
PSY100 Cognitive Mapping
text-based multiple choice (54 of the mark)
lecture-based multiple choice (21)
Labs (25)
Richard C. Overbaugh and Lynn Schultz, Old
Dominion University http//www.odu.edu/educ/roverb
au/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm
14
Where are the HOTS?

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Top 3
levels of the Taxonomy
15
Where are the HOTS in PSY100?
BONUS! ACRL IL Performance Indicators and
Outcomes 1.2f, 2.5b and others

LAB ACTIVITIES
16
Cognitive Scaffolding

• Has to fit within the PSY100 framework of
• Textbook/lecture/multiple choice
• pre-labs and lab assignments.
• Has to reconcile the Modus Operandi of
• PSY lab coordinator
• library instruction and reference

No HOTS
Needs ease of marking
Wants good research questions
17
Existing PSY100 Library Lab

• Not formally part of the lab curriculum
• 0.5 part of the lab mark, but
• Presented in the lecture to 500 students in 15
  minutes.

No scaffolding No thematic cohesion with
lecture Not supporting learning objectives
18
The Interim Solution

• In the short term
• analyzed the course IL content
• redesigned the library assignment to be more
  engaging (with Dr. Jeffrey Graham, PSY100 lab
  coordinator).
• moved the library tutorial introduction into the
  lab where it fits better thematically.
• But thats a problem, too, because

19
PSY100 is a mass-class

• up to 1500 students in the Fall/Winter session
• 3 lecture streams of 500 students each
• up to 25 lab sessions.
• One cannot effectively teach in 20 sections.
• One has to innovate in the Summer session (200
• students) and adapt new insights for the
• Fall/Winter session.

20
PSY Summer Session Retool and

• investigate what kinds of scaffolding and
  instruction pedagogies work to support IL skills
  in the assignment

21
Collaborate

• encapsulate the best practices so that they can
  be reproduced either by lab TAs or in an online
  tutorial

22
PSY100 Plan of Action

• Give students the new lab assignment.
• Conduct a 10-question IL pre-test and post-test.
• Carry out a 30 min. instruction session in 2
  summer lab sessions.
• Investigate the effects of active or
  concept-based instruction vs. task-based teaching.

23
Focus on Instruction Pedagogies
Task-based instruction gives them less room for
error
Yes, but with concept-based active learning they
will re-use what they learned!

• Lab coordinator sees different issues than
  instruction librarian.

24
IL Pre- and Post-Tests

• SAILS instrument
• standardized assessment of information literacy
• skills (Kent State University).
• 10 questions chosen from
• search strategies (ACRL IL Standard 2)
• search tool selection (ACRL IL Standard 2)
• search tool identification (ACRL IL Standards 1,
  2)
• Post-tests carried out 10 days after pre-tests.

25
Data Analysis Challenges

• No control group since everyone has to do the
  assignment and get instruction
• Pre-test and post-test questions not identical
• Only ¾ of the data collected thorough the
  learning management system.
• Student IDs stripped out for privacy reasons.

26
Quantitative vs. Qualitative

• Aggregate quantitative analysis
• Averages and STD/SEM values for both data sets
• No pre- and post- mapping for individual test
  subjects
• No paired t-tests to measure statistical
  significance of the effect of instruction.

27
PSY100 Pre-Test Results
SEM17.0
SEM17.0
Scores are out of 100
28
PSY100 Pre-Test Results
Pre-Test Averages and STDs
Concept Task
29
PSY100 Post-Test Results
SEM18.7
SEM21.7
Scores are out of 100
30
PSY100 Post-Test Results
Post-Test Averages and STDs
Concept Task
31
Results Side by Side
Pre-Test Averages and STDs
Post-Test Averages and STDs
Concept Task
Concept Task
32
Erratum

• Results are interesting but not statistically
  significant.
• My paper says they are
• I made a mistake of using response number SEMs
  vs. average score SEMs.

33
Upcoming

• More PSY100 pre- and post-test data
• Will present more data, along with ideas on how
  to assess actively in IL tutorials using
  iClickers.
• When?
• WILU 2009 in Montreal, QC, on May 26, 2009.

34
Future Work

• What was the role of the assignment?
• There were IL benefits to doing it, but they were
  not measured independently.
• How to translate the tentative results to serve
  the Fall/Winter course?
• See Chalmers(2008) for ideas.

35
Images in this Presentation

• All images are either public domain or used under
  a Creative Commons Licence from
  everystockphoto.com (Attribution Licence).
• All public domain images are from the Library of
  Congress flickr collection of photos from the
  1930s-1940s taken by Alfred T. Palmer.
• CCL images are by extranoise at
  http//www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId6
  98787.