Information Literacy Skills the link between secondary and tertiary education

1
Information Literacy Skills - the link between
secondary and tertiary education

• Christine Irving
• Glasgow Caledonian University

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Presentation overview

• Background
• Desk Based Research
• Project
• Aims and Objectives
• Outcomes
• Advisory Group
• Partners
• Contact Details

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Research _at_ Glasgow Caledonian University

• Electronic Information Services (EIS) usage by
  staff and students at Glasgow Caledonian
  University (GCU) 2002-3
• LIRG (Library and Information Research Group)
  /SCONUL Value and Impact study 2003-4
• Drumchapel Project - Study of ICT skills among
  pupils in a secondary school in a deprived area
  of Glasgow 2003

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Information Literacy Initiatives

• National Initiatives in Scotland
• Practitioner Activities
• National Strategies and Declarations
• Research Projects

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Information Literacy strategies and
declarations

• UK lagging behind the US and Australia
• 2003 Prague Declaration Towards an Information
  Literate Society
• http//www.infolit.org/International_Conference/P
  ragueNewsRelease.doc
• CILIP Information Literacy Group
• Defining information literacy for the UK
• http//www.cilip.org.uk/publications/updatemagzine
  /archive/archive2005/janfeb/armstrong.htm

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Information literacy definition for the UK

• Information literacy is knowing when and
• why you need information, where to find it,
• and how to evaluate, use and communicate
• it in an ethical manner.
• CILIP Information Literacy Group

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Information Literacy Skills or Competencies

• Definition implies several skills (or
  competencies) required if an
• individual is to be information-literate - an
  understanding of
• a need for information
• the resources available
• how to find information
• the need to evaluate results
• how to work with or exploit results
• ethics and responsibility of use
• how to communicate or share your findings
• how to manage your findings

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Information Literacy models

• IL models e.g.
• PLUS model, Big 6, Big Blue Connect
• SCONUL Seven Pillars
• dearth of frameworks derived from the models
  which are directly curriculum based

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Teachers and pupils information literacy skills

• reflected in several research studies
• Robert Gordon University Dorothy Williams
• Teachers conceptions of information literacy in
  relation to their classroom practice
• http//www.rgu.ac.uk/abs/research/page.cfm?pge13
  088
• Universities of Sheffield Webber and Strathclyde
  
• Sheila Webber Bill Johnston
• UK academics' conceptions of, and pedagogy for,
  information literacy
• http//dis.shef.ac.uk/literacy/project/

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Project Aims and Objectives

• innovative one year national pilot project which
  will develop curriculum based IL frameworks with
  secondary and tertiary partners which, at the end
  of the project, can be rolled out to other
  participants.
• to produce secondary school leavers with a skill
  set which further and higher education can
  recognise and develop or which can be applied to
  the world of work directly.

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Specific objectives

• Identify student information literacy skills they
  bring to university
• IL skills mapping exercise 5 -14, 14 -17, HE
• Convert identified IL skills an IL framework
  extending from secondary into higher education
• pilot and test developed framework
• Identify barriers to and constraints on the
  development of a national IL framework
• Test the link between IL, progression, and
  retention and the employability agenda

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Outcomes

• Develop a viable, tested and piloted draft
  framework
• Creation of expertise which can be rolled out
  further in secondary and tertiary sectors
• Contribute to
• curriculum development in Scotland
• the teaching and learning of IL skills within
  education
• the understanding of the role of IL in the
  progression / retention and employability agendas
• IL research within tertiary and secondary
  education
• the development of the secondary / tertiary
  interface by encouraging partnership activity

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Project Advisory Group

• FE library representative
• HE IL expert
• Learning and Teaching Scotland
• Local Authority Education Resource Service IL
  expert
• School library representative
• Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC)

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Project Partners

• Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities
• North Ayrshire Council and The City of Edinburgh
  Council Education Resource Services
• Doon Academy, Govan High School, Firrhill High
  School and St. Augustines
• University of Abertay
• Learning and Teaching Scotland
• GAPS (General Academic and Professional Services)
  Department GCU

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Contact Details

• Christine Irving
• Research Assistant / Project Officer (part-time)
• Information literacy skills - the link between
  secondary and
• tertiary education
• Learner Services
• Glasgow Caledonian University
• Room RS305
• 6 Rose Street
• Glasgow G3 6RB
• Tel [phone]
• e-mail christine.irving_at_gcal.ac.uk