Dr Ross J Todd Rutgers, the State University of NJ [e-mail]

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Dr Ross J ToddRutgers, the State University of
NJrtodd_at_scils.rutgers.edu
School Libraries, Productive Pedagogy and the
Leading of Learning
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Student Learning

• School libraries as powerful and engaging places
  in the lives of students do not happen by chance
  or force.

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Student Learning

• Learning outcomes are achieved through deliberate
  actions and instructional interventions of
  Teacher-Librarians and Teachers working as
  Partner-Leaders
• INFORMATIONAL TRANSFORMATONAL FORMATIONAL

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A TIME OF BOLD ACTION Lauren Becall

• "Standing still is the fastest way of moving
  backwards in a rapidly changing world.
  Imagination is the highest kite one can fly"

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The Victorian Landscape

• Increasing acknowledgement of
• the complexity and diversity of student learning
• intellectual quality as key learning outcome
• engagement with, and ownership of learning
• integratedness of disciplinary knowledges and
  skills
• inclusiveness educational leaders, learners,
  knowledge, community, cultural diversity
• teacher as the most important influence on
  student learning.

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REVOLTING LIBRARIANS
A Time for Bold Action
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Revolting Librarians

• Sex, drugs, and will you please be quiet - Our
  revolting jobs
• An archivists classification of problem
  patrons
• In the stacks and in the sack An undercover
  look at librarians and erotica
• Check out those buns or, What do you say to a
  male librarian?
• Library service to the insane
• Being a cataloguer is better than gutting fish
  for a living because
• Astrology and library job correlation

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• Risky Business The Leading Of Learning

From authority- or role- or person-centered
leadership to cultural- and learning-centered
leadership explicitly focuses on leading of
learning.
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Taking Risks

• "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling
  on his face and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper
  on his decision not to take the leading role in
  "Gone With the Wind.
• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is
  on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting
  the Beatles, 1962.
• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are
  impossible." --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal
  Society, 1895.
• "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous
  fiction". --Pierre Pachet, Prof. of Physiology
  at Toulouse, 1872

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Revolting Librarians Taking Risks

• Stop talking about collaboration
• Stop talking about information literacy
• Stop talking about research projects
• Stop talking about roles of teacher-librarians
• Start talking about guided inquiry through
  information resources
• Start talking knowledge outcomes, not information
  literacy outcomes
• Start talking about intellectual quality of
  learning
• Start talking about libraries as quality learning
  environments, not resource environments
• Start talking the leading of learning through the
  library
• You are the information-learning specialist,
  working with partner-leaders to lead learning
  through complex and diverse resources, enabling
  your students to develop deep understanding of
  their curriculum topics

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The Key Question

• What constitutes effective shared teacher
  librarian-teacher pedagogy and leading of
  learning through partnerships?

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The Principles of Learning and Teaching

• The learning environment is supportive and
  productive
• The learning environment promotes independence,
  interdependence and self motivation
• Students needs, backgrounds, perspectives and
  interests are reflected in the learning program
• Students are challenged and supported to develop
  deep levels of thinking and application
• Assessment practices are an integral part of
  teaching and learning
• 6. Learning connects strongly with communities
  and practice beyond the classroom

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Outcomes of the PoLT

• Intellectual Agency
• Personal Agency
• Social and Cultural Agency
• These learning outcomes are how we talk about the
  school library

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PERSONAL AGENCY

• Self Confidence
• Willingness to take risks
• Trying new ideas and practices
• Independence
• Autonomy

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INTELLECTUAL AGENCY

• Have depth and breadth of knowledge and
  understanding
• Able to engage in intellectual exploration
• Can think deeply about ideas and practice
• Can deal with conflicting data and information
  problematic knowledge
• Engage in higher oigher order, flexible thinking
  analysis, synthesis, evaluation, problem
  solving able to think creatively and laterally
• Able to reason with with evidence, particular to
  the discipline area Relevant, connected
  knowledge
• Able to use the complex language of a discipline
  
• Meta-language
• Substantive discussion of ideas

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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL AGENCY

• Respect for different values, cultural knowledges
  and viewpoints
• Team building, collaboration, negotiation and
  decision making
• Knowledge integration from bits and bytes to
  conceptual coherence and integration
• Inclusivity
• Connect with current and future lives
• Social and ethical values

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The Principles of Learning and Teaching

• As a key learning environment, how is the school
  library supportive and productive?
• How does the school library promote independence,
  interdependence and self motivation?
• How does the school librarys learning program
  reflect students needs, backgrounds,
  perspectives and interests?
• How does the school library challenge and support
  the development of deep levels of thinking and
  application?
• How does the school library provide meaningful
  feedback on learning that nurtures and nourishes
  learning?
• How does the school library connect learners with
  communities and practice beyond the classroom?
• EVIDENCE EVIDENCE EVIDENCE
  EVIDENCE

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PoLT ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT LEARNING

• Process of personal and social construction
• Cumulative and developmental process
• Involves the whole person thinking, acting,
  reflecting, discovering and linking ideas, making
  connections
• Transformative developing and transforming
  prior knowledge, skills, attitudes, values
  conceptual change
• Encompasses feelings and motivations
• Closely resemble the ways that students will be
  expected to use their knowledge and skills in the
  real world
• Dewey-Kelly-Brunner-Piaget-Vygotsky

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PoLT What do we want students to do?

• actively search for meaning and understanding
• construct deep knowledge and deep understanding
  rather than passively receiving it
• directly involved and engaged in the discovery of
  new knowledge rather than collecting facts and
  data
• encounter alternative perspectives and
  conflicting ideas so that they are able to
  transform prior knowledge and experience into
  deep understandings
• transfer new knowledge and skills to new
  circumstances
• use a range of complex knowledge construction
  competencies to transform raw data, prior
  knowledge and information into deep understanding
• take ownership and responsibility for their
  ongoing learning and mastery of curriculum
  content and skills
• contribute to societal well being, the growth of
  democracy, and the development of a knowledgeable
  society.

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Teacher-Librarians And TheLeading Of Learning

• Learning to Read
• Reading to Learn

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School Librarians And TheLeading Of Learning

• Learning to Read
• Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT)
• Reading to Learn

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The Unfortunate Reality

• Many types of research /project assignments using
  library or web-based sources contribute little or
  nothing to learning
• Very little evidence of construction of deep
  knowledge and deep understanding
• Rarely guided and sustained throughout the
  project
• Rarely equip students with the range of critical
  thinking and problem solving competencies
  necessary to demonstrate deep knowledge and deep
  understanding

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Dinosaur units are generally a disaster

• Cutting and clipping of information
  TRANSPORTATION rather than TRANSFORMATION of
  information
• Make decisions based on limited prior knowledge
  lack of building background before focus and
  formulation
• Focus on product construction rather than
  knowledge construction
• (Limberg, Sweden 2005)

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Transportation of Text

• Cutting and pasting plagiarism
• Amassing of facts without imposing any
  organizational or reflective structure
• No local or global coherence to the facts
• No interpretation of data / facts or development
  of positional stance
• Little evidence of internalization of
  understanding

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Transportation of Text
Presentation
Final version
Rewriting
Print-out
Interaction
(Limberg, Sweden 2005)
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Transformation of Text

• Collection of information and data pertinent to
  specific focus and responding to how knowledge is
  constructed in a particular discipline
• Imposing of a personal organizational framework
  on informational inputs to create thematic
  substructures and to represent deep understanding
• Identifying interrelationships of themes
• Critically reflecting on themes to develop
  personal viewpoints, positions

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Limbergs Research

• Get the material from the Net, I read it.
  Write down some good sentences, make a few
  changes and read through it again. Making my own,
  sort of! Then I think - Replace here and there.
  Pick certain words and make my own text by adding
  new words. I recognise the text if I read it
  several times. Use those expressions that fit
  in. (Kris)

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Limbergs Research

• I borrowed a book on sharks, picked out words
  from the book, from the text. I jotted these down
  in a little notebook as rough notes, then I
  rewrote it and then I painted a front page and
  then I put the whole thing into a boklet and the
  job was done. (David)

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Why do students transport text rather than
transform text?

• It is rewarded copying and pasting by being
  undetected
• Erroneous notion that more facts deep knowledge
  and deep understanding
• Assignment task promotes transport of text
• Not engaged or motivated
• Poor information competencies particularly
  those involving analysis, manipulation and
  synthesis
• Stress and competition
• Poor time management and planning skills
• Lack of confidence to manipulate information
• Unwillingness to ask for help and when they do
  ask, told this is an independent project you
  have to work it out for yourself
• Low level of assignments no critical thinking
  required
• Assessment of product only
• Absence of clear assessment criteria that
  emphasize deep knowledge and deep understanding

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CASE STUDY
Productive Pedagogy and the Leading of Learning
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CASE STUDY

• Do teacher librarian-teacher partnerships
  contribute to quality learning outcomes,
  evidenced in
• Intellectual agency
• Personal Agency
• Social and Cultural Agency
• In other words, is the PoLT framework useful for
  understanding the benefits of learning
  partnerships of teacher-librarians and classroom
  teachers?
• How is a supportive learning environment created
  through the school library?

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CONTEXT OF RESEARCH

• Grade 9 cohort at Gill St Bernards school, New
  Jersey
• Research involved 43 students (21 girls, 22 boys)
  undertaking a semester long course Research
  Project
• Collaboration of 7 teachers and teacher-librarian
  to develop complex research skills, strategic and
  deep information seeking, higher-order
  information analysis and synthesis to represent
  new understandings as a result of the research
• Instructional program built around the stages of
  Kuhlthaus Information Search Process and a
  series of carefully planned interventions
  targeted to the knowledge construction process.

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Information Search Process

•  
•  
• Tasks Initiation Selection
  Exploration Formulation Collection
  Presentation
• --------------------------------------------------
  --------------------------------------------------
  ------------------------------------------------?
  
• Feelings uncertainly optimism confusion
  clarity sense of
  satisfaction or
• (affective) frustration
  direction/ disappointment
• doubt
  confidence
• Thoughts vague-----------------------------------
  --?focused
• (cognitive) ---------------------------
  --------------------?
• increased interest
• Actions seeking relevant information-----------
  -----------------?seeking pertinent information
• (physical) exploring
  documenting

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DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

• Free generation written protocol administered at
  three stages in the information search process
  undertaken by the students (Initiation,
  Formulation/Focus and Presentation stage of
  research)
• students knowledge of chosen topic
• perceptions on levels of knowledge
• information seeking and use experience
• Structured search log kept by students which
  recorded all the sources used in constructing
  their research papers
• Affective Domain / Next Task Log feelings and
  task progression

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CHANGES IN INTELLECTUAL QUALITY

• Substance of knowledge knowledge about topic
• Amount of knowledge
• Structure of knowledge unstructured to high
  levels of organization and coherence
• Estimate of topical knowledge coded Nothing,
  Not Much, Some, Quite a Bit, A Great Deal
• 5. Title of knowledge

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MEASURING CONCEPTUAL CHANGE

• Graesser Clarks typology (1984) of statements
  based on the nature of relationships embedded in
  them. The statements were
• Properties statements describing
  characteristics
• Manner statements describing processes,
  styles, actions
• Reason statements of explanations of how
  and why
• Outcome statements providing end result
• Causality statements of some event causally
  leads to another
• Set Membership statements about class inclusion
• Implication statements showing predictive
  relations
• Value judgment statements presenting personal
  position or viewpoint

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INITIATION OF RESEARCH TASK

• Initial representations were lists of unrelated
  concepts, and generalities, language
  associations
• Statements were primarily property (is a), manner
  (describe how something happens)
• Average number of statements was 4 (range from
  0-11)
• Random representation unstructured, no clear
  sequence or organization guess work I think
  that, or at best chronological / historical
• Some indication of inaccuracy / misrepresentation
• Acknowledge that students knew very little
• Motivated to learn personal experiences,
  personal connections, intriguing facts about
  topic, curiosity, teacher/librarian recommendation

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MIDPOINT OF RESEARCH TASK FOCUS FORMULATION

• Dramatic increase in number of propositional
  statements range from 6-34 statements average
  number 17
• Focus on Properties describes characteristics
  Manner describe processes, styles, actions
  Reason explanations of how and why
• Some evidence of organizational structure of
  ideas some attempt to develop conceptual
  groupings
• Cognitive intents From initiation to
  formulation getting a bigger picture (building
  background) getting a changed picture (correcting
  misinformation) getting a clearer picture
• Key mechanism writing of abstract and its
  feedback

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CONCLUSION OF RESEARCH TASK SUBMISSION OF
RESEARCH PAPER

• Clear and precise listing of properties, manner
  and increasing use of set membership
• Final representations also stronger on reasons,
  outcomes, causality, implications, predictive,
  reflective (increased complexity)
• Average number of statements 31 (range 8 63)
• For 4 students, decrease in number of statements
  reflect higher levels of synthesis coalescing
  lists into conceptual categories
• Higher levels of structural centrality and
  conceptual coherence -ie. overall integrated and
  interlinked structure, yet subgroups of ideas
• Cognitive intents getting a clearer picture,
  getting a position in a picture (ie clarifying
  aspects in process of sorting and writing,
  developing a personal perspective)
• Reflective, comparative, positional personal
  ownership, and clearer focus on topics as
  evidenced by titles

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PRODUCTIVE PEDAGOGY INTELLECTUAL AGENCY

• the collaborative program of instruction
  contributed to growth of intellectual AGENCY
• development of knowledge representations from
  simplistic, superficial and disjointed structures
  to structures that embedded explanations, causal,
  predictive and reflective statements deep
  knowledge
• organization of ideas into structured conceptual
  groupings knowledge coherence and depth
• use of specific terminology associated with the
  celebrations with descriptions and explanations
  surrounding these terms
• choice of sources showed increasing complexity
  and depth from general background to specific
  topicality
• overall fluency and fluidity of the written
  representations indicate ability to substantially
  communicate in writing about their topical
  knowledge
• Ability to deal with conflicting facts or
  viewpoints
• evidence of constructing arguments and
  explanations in relation to conflicting aspects
  of topics

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SUPPORTIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

• Rollercoaster of emotions Very distinctive ebb
  and flow of emotions follows the six deadlines
  required to guide the students effectively
  through the research process
• Initial feelings varied from a state confidence
  to slight hesitation/uncertainty
• Increase in optimism and confidence as they
  identify a general topic and begin to investigate
  sources for relevant information
• Highest increase in negative emotions where
  complex information processing and knowledge
  construction takes place analysis, synthesis,
  dealing with conflict, structuring arguments,
  sequencing ideas with stress, pressure and
  brain strain being reported.

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SUPPORTIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

• roller coaster of emotions was recognized by the
  teaching team, and interventions implemented to
  support students
• Individual meetings and feedback sessions
  encouraged students to talk about their feelings
  and learnings opportunities for dialogue,
  feedback, encouragement
• instructional interventions explicitly targeted
  to the skills requirements, especially knowledge
  construction
• instructional intervention that modeled the
  intellectual scaffolds for successfully
  completing the task
• stages and milestones approach
• clear expectations of tasks to be submitted,
  criteria for assessment, dates, and feedback and
  support mechanisms
• providing direction and regulation to keep
  students on task and engaged, as well as able to
  manage all of the complexities of the task

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

• Reasons for choice of topic connections made to
  personal real life contexts
• personal experiences (participating in a
  particular celebration)
• personal connections (know someone who
  participates), knowledge of intriguing facts or
  aspects about topic
• curiosity (typically based on having read or
  viewed something)
• As students learned more about their topic, the
  specific new knowledge they acquired generated
  curiosity and motivation, encouraging them to dig
  deeper into their topic.
• links to students background knowledge and
  connection to the world beyond the classroom

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DID I LEARN ANYTHING?

• Perceptions of knowledge gained
• Know heaps more
• Know lots more, and surprised at breadth and
  depth of knowledge
• Know lots more, but still could learn more
• Know lots, but dissatisfaction about not knowing
  enough

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PERSONAL AGENCY

• learned to follow a set plan and be organized
• help me through papers in high school, college
  and life in general
• getting genuine information is hard and tedious
  work
• learned the basics of writing a more
  professional research paper
• research approach is more complicated but
  creates a much better paper
• my project is amazing. I have put a lot of hard
  work into it

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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL AGENCY

• Topic celebration of culture was an invitation
  to cultural exploration 81 of students chose
  celebrations outside of USA
• Able to draw out cultural comparisons
• Able to reflect on changes in perception about
  different cultural celebrations
• More accepting of different / strange cultural
  beliefs and systems which context of these more
  clearly understood

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School Librarians And TheLeading Of Learning

• Learning to Read
• Guided Inquiry
• Reading to Learn

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Schools Context

• 10 New Jersey public schools chosen by call for
  nomination and selected by NJ Expert Panel
• Experienced and expert school librarians
• Diverse schools
• 10 teacher-school librarian teams
• 10 school librarians working on curriculum
  projects with 17 classroom teachers
• 574 students in Grades 6 12
• Data collected over four weeks, Spring 2004
• Inquiry Training Institute Feb 24, 2004
  overview and critique of units, use of data
  collection instruments, procedures and ethical
  guidelines

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Inquiry Learning

• An inquiry approach to learning is one where
  students actively engage with diverse and often
  conflicting sources of information and ideas to
  discover new ones, to build new understandings,
  and to develop personal viewpoints and
  perspectives.

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Guided Inquiry

• Carefully planned, closely supervised targeted
  intervention of an instructional team of teacher
  librarians and teachers to guide students through
  curriculum based inquiry units that gradually
  lead towards development of deep understanding
  and independent learning
• Based on understanding student information
  seeking and use, and principles of
  constructivist learning
• Develops students competence with learning from
  a variety of sources while enhancing their
  understanding of the content areas of the
  curriculum
• Students not abandoned in the research process

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Interventions

• Guided inquiry is not doing information
  literacy
• Specific interventions are determined by the
  stage of the search process, the affective,
  cognitive and behavioral needs of the learners,
  and the curriculum standards and goals to be
  achieved
• Instructional interventions enable students to
  produce and demonstrate deep understanding, and
  facilitate intellectual and personal agency.
• The instructional partnership is not about
  teacher doing content and teacher-librarian
  doing information literacy, but about mutually
  solving learning dilemmas with the shared
  expertises information learning and
  disciplinary learning
• Starting point is a learning problem in the
  particular discipline, targeted to curriculum
  standards and content

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Implementing Guided Inquiry Key Strategies

• Initiated though compelling situations, and
  questions which meaningfully engage students in
  wanting to know, and which provide challenge and
  opportunity.
• Instructional activities put emphasis on
  meaningful, authentic activities that help the
  learner develop skills relevant to problem
  solving and to construct understandings focus on
  identifying and solving intellectual and/or
  real-world problems
• learning activities closely resemble the ways
  that students will be expected to use their
  knowledge and skills in the real world
• Students are more motivated to engage in their
  inquiry when they are able to exercise some
  choice over the specific questions they want to
  answer and how to present their new
  understandings.

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Implementing Guided Inquiry Key Strategies

• Attempt is made to connect with students
  background knowledge.
• Instructional activities involve the students in
  thinking, acting, and reflecting, discovering and
  linking ideas, making connections, developing and
  transforming prior knowledge, skills, attitudes
  and values - higher order thinking and critical
  analysis occurs throughout.
• Instructional activities enable students to
  develop deep knowledge, deep understanding.
• Students see that inquiry learning is
  developmental process of advancing,
  consolidating, reinforcing, and involving whole
  person opportunities for sustained dialogue and
  feedback, opportunities for students to provide
  their understanding of concepts or ideas

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Implementing Guided Inquiry Key Strategies

• Choice of products to show their new
  understandings
• Students have opportunity to communicate and
  share their new understandings
• Inquiry learning environment is one where
  academic and personal success and intellectual
  inquiry are valued and acknowledged, and one
  where students feel connected, cared for and
  trusted
• Students are given opportunity to practice their
  new skills to sustain and support their learning
  beyond the formal classroom and school library
  experience
• inquiry learning is responsive to students
  personal, social and cultural worlds, valuing
  differences and cultivating an inclusive
  community

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A TIME OF BOLD ACTION Edna St Vincent Millay
1892-1950

• Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour
• Rains from the sky a meteoric shower
• Of facts, they lie unquestioned, uncombined.
• Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
• Is daily spun, but there exists no loom
• To weave it into fabric.

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Useful Sources

• Ausubel, David P. (1963). The Psychology of
  Meaningful Verbal Learning. New York Grune
  Stratton.
• Brunner , J. (1975). Toward a theory of
  instruction. Cambridge Harvard University
  Press.
• Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Lexington, MA
  Heath.
• Dewey, J. (1944). Democracy and education. New
  York Macmillan.
• Gardener, H. (1983). Frames of Mind The Theory
  of Multiple Intelligences. New York Basic.
• Kelly, G. A. (1963). A theory of personality
  the psychology of personal constructs. New York
  Norton.

58
Useful Sources

• Gordon, C. Information Literacy in Action.
  Great Glenham UK, John Catt Educational, 2000.
• Loertscher, D., Koechlin, C., and Zwann, S. Ban
  those Bird Units 15 Models for Teaching and
  Learning in Information-Rich and Technology Rich
  Environments. Salt Lake City. Hi Willow Research
  and Publishing, 2005.
• Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004). Seeking meaning A
  process approach to library and information
  services. 2nd edition. Westport, CT Libraries
  Unlimited.
• Donham, J. K., Bishop, K., Kuhlthau, C, Oberg,
  D. (2001). Inquiry based learning Lessons
  from Library Power. Worthington, OH Linworth.
• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society The
  development of higher mental processes.
  Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press.