Learning Through The School Library: Evidence-Based Practice: 21 Strategies

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Learning Through The School Library
Evidence-Based Practice 21 Strategies

• Dr Ross J Todd
• Director of Research
• Center for International Scholarship in School
  Libraries
• Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
• rtodd_at_scils.rutgers.edu
• cissl.scils.rutgers.edu
• scils.rutgers.edu/rtodd

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Evidence-BasedPractice (EBP)What is it?
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I am a school librarian at x. We are confronting
a serious situation. Because of the financial
crisis in our community, our school board is
addressing a proposed substantial budget cut.
One of the proposed strategies is to drastically
reduce the number of school librarians in the
area claiming that school libraries can be
effectively run by aides to ensure services are
provided and the library remains open. This is
despite the fact that I have hundreds of students
in the library each day, and teach in the
classroom regularly. I have voiced my objection,
but I am told that such reductions will not
impact on student learning in any way.
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Evidence Based Practice

• If your local newspaper asked you We want to do
  a story on your school library and how it really
  helps students learn.
• If your school board was trying to make a budget
  decision and asked "how your school library
  impact students?
• If your principal asked "what is the current
  research on school libraries and their impacts on
  state standards?"
• What would you answer?

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Evidence-based Practice

• Evolving concept in many professions and new
  paradigm for professional practice
• 1990s Medicine and Health Care - to teach
  medical students how to independently find,
  appraise and apply the best evidence, and to
  apply it to solving clinical problems

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Two key dimensions of EBP in current usage

• Conscientious, explicit and judicious use of
  current best research findings in making
  decisions about the performance of the day-to-day
  role
• Where day-to-day professional work is directed
  towards demonstrating the tangible impacts and
  outcomes of sound decision making and
  implementation of organizational goals and
  objectives.
• Local actions, local processes, and local,
  immediate outcomes

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Evidence-Based Practice

• Gathering evidence in YOUR local school
• You are able to provide convincing evidence that
  answers these questions
• What differences do my school library and its
  learning initiatives make to
• student learning outcomes?
• What are the differences, the tangible learning
  outcomes and learning benefits of my school
  library?

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Traditional Approaches to EvidenceEmphasis On
Information

• Number of classes in the library
• Number of library items borrowed
• Number of students using the library at lunch
  times
• Number of items purchased annually
• Number of web searches
• Number of books lost
• Students suffering from PFS and LHC
• And who can do this?

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Learning-Centered Approach to EvidenceEmphasis
on Knowledge

• Understanding how school libraries help kids
  learn Learning outcomes in terms of
• Information processes
• Information technology
• Reading
• Knowledge outcomes mastery of content
• Independent learning
• Attitudes and values of information, learning
• Self concept and personal agency
• And who can do this?

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EBP School Library Context

• Identifying indicators and outcomes of learning
• Systematically locating evidence
• Analyzing and organizing evidence
• Summarizing evidence
• Presenting evidence
• Celebrating achievements
• Reflecting on evidence to reshape practice

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Value of EBP Australia Study 2003

• Visibility of school librarian in learning
  outcomes
• Meaningful time with teachers
• Clearer sense of learning outcomes by taking an
  evidence approach feel you are succeeding by
  being able to state specific outcomes
• More effective judgments about student progress
• Clearer feedback to students and to school
  community on outcomes
• Covered more curriculum content in less time
• Pooling of expertise
• Stronger emphasis on creative and authentic
  learning
• Focus to instructional planning
• Teachers as advocates
• Job satisfaction

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EBP Issues and Concerns

• Accountability Threat to professional authority
  and autonomy immunity from accountability calls
• I have to be a researcher intellectual skills
  required to undertake evidence-based practice are
  information literacy competencies
• Our goal is lifelong learning, so how can we
  identify outcomes? Providing learners with
  explicit feedback on how they are learning in
  their formative years is fundamental to effective
  teaching and learning
• EBP detracts from the job! What then is your
  job?
• Time I do not have time to do this.
• Professional Development we need examples,
  models, templates

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Evidence of Instructional Intervention and
Library Program
Intellectual Agency Deep knowledge Deep understanding Problematic knowledge Higher order thinking Meta-language Substantive communication Personal Agency Self Confidence Willingness to take risks Trying new ideas and practices Independence Autonomy
Social and Cultural Agency Respect for different values, cultural knowledges, viewpoints Team building, collaboration, negotiation, decision making Knowledge integration from bits and bytes to conceptual coherence and integration Connect with current and future lives Social and ethical values Social and Cultural Agency Respect for different values, cultural knowledges, viewpoints Team building, collaboration, negotiation, decision making Knowledge integration from bits and bytes to conceptual coherence and integration Connect with current and future lives Social and ethical values
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EBP IN ACTION

• 21 strategies

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1. Action Research

• Problem identification related to curriculum
  standard
• Mutual commitment to improvement
• Plan for investigation of problem
• Implement actions / strategies to improve
• Effects of actions observed and recorded EBP
• Reflect on outcomes
• Ongoing cycle of planning, action, evaluation

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2. Mapping Knowledge

• Map knowledge at beginning, midpoint and end of
  instructional unit
• What differences do you see?
• How do students describe the differences?
• Mapping can be in the form of prose, concept
  maps, diagrams

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INTELLECTUAL QUALITY NJ RESEARCH 2005

• Higher order thinking movement from description
  to explanation and reflection
• Deep knowledge Evident in the nature of the
  sources students accessed, and the changing
  search patterns from generalist background
  information to specialist, detailed, information
  sources
• increased specificity of topic focus
• Deep understanding evident in extent of recall
  and in the types of causal and predictive
  relationships portrayed
• Substantive conversation Valuing of dialogue
  between teacher, librarian and students fluency
  in written statements
• Knowledge as problematic In some cases,
  students identified dealing with dealing with
  factual conflict or conflicting viewpoints and
  formulating their own (choice of topic) also
  evident in constructing arguments that show a
  basis for the claims they were making
• Meta-language Use of language specific to the
  topic domain not just provision of terms, but
  clarity of understanding these terms
• Increasing complexity of the language used to
  describe their knowledge, and the ordering of
  this knowledge into conceptually coherent units

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3. Analysis of student bibliographies

• Diversity of choice
• Depth of knowledge
• Accuracy of citation
• Relevance to task
• Use of multiple formats

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4. Checklists

• Students school librarians provide checklist or
  ratings of perceived levels of skills and / or
  knowledge acquisition
• Use before and after instructional intervention
  so that comparisons of differences, changes in
  levels of knowledge and skills can be documented
• Focus on identifying changes

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5. Rubric Strategies

• Students performance in final products are
  scaled according to a set of criteria that
  clearly define what is the range of acceptable to
  unacceptable performances and/or information
  products look like.
• Compare with previous assignments where no
  instructional intervention took place
• Provide summaries to show students performance
• Kathy Schrock Rubric Website http//school.discov
  ery.com/schrockguide/index.html

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6. Formal feedback strategies

• Examples
• simple feedback survey every term on what the
  library does best and least to help students
  with their school work
• Feedback at end of instructional unit what
  helped and did not help
• Feedback on quality of resources
• Feedback on what students could do better
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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7. Reflection sheets / self assessments

• At end of lesson / unit, students reflect on
• Knowledge gained
• Skills gained
• Things I need to work on
• Things I can apply to other research tasks
• Things that have helped me work better at home
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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8. Comment Cards / Advice Cards

• Advice to give to other students
• Build a kids guide to doing good research,
  using statements from the students, and put this
  on your library web site, or create a funky guide
  for giving out to students
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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9. Conferencing Strategies

• Group / individual review activities, students
  reflect on their work, on their constructive
  process and skills, and on benefits.
• Ask just a few questions, summarize responses
  (positive and negative) share responses back to
  students report at faculty meetings
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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10. Journaling Strategies /Search Log

• Writing entries in journal that focus on the
  research process as well as on the outcomes of
  their research
• Search strategies used
• Search terms
• Sources used
• Feelings and attitudes
• Next task
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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11. Portfolio Strategies

• Students construct a cumulative process of
  samples of their work collected over a period of
  time, matched to curriculum goals and information
  literacy requirements, as well as work progress
  reports, products, and self-assessments.
• Can be electronic available for whole school to
  peruse
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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12. Library Surveys

• (not of library use, but of library learning) of
  how students have helped them learn
• Eg. Using part / all of Ohio Study to gather
  perceptions
• ANALYSIS SYNTHESIS REPORTING

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13. Analysis of standardized test score data

• matches between scores and high-use library
  groups
• Matches between scores and reading enrichment
  programs
• Improvement in critical thinking interventions

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14. Photo voice

• Video Recording of learning process (for showing
  at staff meeting)
• Get students to use digital images, examples of
  searches and products created to construct a
  website of the unit being studied

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15. Exhibitions

• Exhibitions, displays of products plus student
  self assessments of learning
• Put up the story of learning, as well as the
  products of new learning
• Let the voices of students tell the story

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16. Motivation Board

• Motivation Board (staff room and library)
• Library Learner of the Month
• Teacher Collaborator of the Month

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Example of Motivation Board

• I have learned many things about the research
  process after completing this project. The
  tracking sheets showed me that organization is
  important when researching. It helped me manage
  the time and showed me just how indepth my
  knowledge became. Another good thing was that
  there was always help available from the teachers
  and librarians
• This was a very exhausting process, but none the
  less, it was all worth it. I finally learned
  how to write a proper paper, not only for
  research, but any paper in general. I got to
  spend quality time with my teacher and librarian.
  The three things I enjoyed in writing and
  research are reading the books, making an
  outline, and LEARNING. I definitely learned a
  lot both about my interesting topic, and the
  research to make it happen.

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17. Teacher-Related Strategies

• Number of collaborations
• Instructional focus (information learning) of
  collaborations
• Subject / grade levels
• Teacher observations
• Teacher summary of outcomes
• Teacher summary of benefits

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18. Library Reports

• Focus on Collaborations AND Learning Outcomes
• Summaries of Instructional units, highlighting
  instructional interventions and links to
  curriculum standards
• Summaries of learning outcomes
• Distribute to principal, library website, board
  members
• Include direct evidence tallies, quotes
• Send to multiple recipients Principal, School
  Board, include in parent newsletters

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19. Mission Statements and Policy Documents

• School Library Policy and Mission Statements
  Shift in focus from School Library to Student
  Learning Outcomes
• Test criteria
• Celebrate the Understood, not the Found
• Does your mission and policy statements do
  this?

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20 Getting the Word Out

• Summary of projects in School Newsletter to
  parents
• Staff, Curriculum and parent meeting learning
  outcomes focus
• Profiling teachers (indirectly profiling library)
• Photo and commentary of teaching units on school
  web, including student feedback of process and
  learning outcomes
• Teachers speaking at school librarian meetings
• Student morning tea to discuss learning outcomes
  with teachers
• Community newspaper stories
• Focus on national and state themes eg No Child
  Left Behind Legislation

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21 Your Actions?
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It is hard to set in motion what is still, or to
stop what is in motion
Cobham Brewer 18101897 Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable