LOEX 2018: Pedagogy & Teaching Techniques

First the Abstract, Tomorrow the Moon! Breaking Down Barriers to the Scholarly Conversation through a Close Reading Activity

Annie Armstrong (Liaison Librarian, Coordinator of Teaching & Learning Services), Glenda Insua (Liaison Librarian) and Catherine Lantz (Liaison Librarian) @ University of Illinois at Chicago

While undergraduates are finding articles with greater ease, comprehending and engaging with the alien—and alienating—language of these sources can present a discouraging stumbling block that limits participation in the scholarly conversation and problematizes the writing process. So often, library instruction emphasizes topic development, search strategies and a cursory evaluation of sources focused on recognizing the elements of a scholarly article. This emphasis could be attributed to multiple factors: the limitations of the one-shot model, the sense that reading texts is not the librarian’s "turf," or lack of explicit emphasis on reading comprehension in the Framework and the previous standards. After growing tired of hearing themselves tell students again and again, “be sure to read the abstract, it’ll save you time!", without actively modeling the process to illustrate its benefits, the presenters designed an abstract analysis activity to foster a sense of self-efficacy in students dealing with these daunting texts for the first time. We will demonstrate how shifting the initial focus of instruction from amassing sources to unpacking the meaning of a single abstract can empower students. By taking the time to translate academic discourse into everyday language—and having a little fun with twitter along the way—students can build foundational skills to help them work with scholarly sources more meaningfully in the future.

TED My One-shot

Katy Lenn (Head, Research and Instructional Services) @ University of Oregon

Manned space flight has come a long way but many of the principles that propel today's space vehicles are the same principles that launched Jupiter-C, the first U.S. rocket. At times we get so carried away with the shiny new aspects of teaching we forget about some of the basic underpinnings of good teaching.

While the “lecture method” seems as cutting edge as the 1958 Mercury space capsule, there are aspects of that technique that are still viable and can be updated for today. People still embrace a good talk. Can over a billion TED Talk views be wrong?

With time in the classroom so limited, many instruction librarians don’t want to waste time “talking” and instead launch right into activities but, just as no good space mission would blast off without a thorough pre-launch procedure, instruction activities often require some pre-activity checks and descriptions to create the right launch pad.

Employing techniques so expertly demonstrated in the wildly popular TED talks can help with the situation librarians often find themselves – juggling the competing interests of quantity of content with limited time and lackluster student motivation.

This session will present some of the key techniques that constitute a successful TED talk and provide examples of how these techniques can translate to the classroom setting. There will be time for audience discussion of how to take one-shot session concepts and present them through the lens of the techniques described in the session.

Pointing a Telescope Toward the Night Sky: Transparency and Intentionality as Teaching Techniques

Beth Fuchs (Undergraduate Learning Librarian) @ University of Kentucky

How often do you provide your students with a telescope to better view your instructional intentions? Recent research from The Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has shown that students benefit when teachers articulate the thought processes behind their instructional decisions and goals. How can transparent teaching practices enhance the professional practice of instruction librarians, even when leading a one-shot session? This workshop will explore the research behind transparent teaching, consider the assumptions that underlie it, and provide practical ways to implement it. 

Learning to be Lost in (Research) Space

Angie Cox (Instruction and Liaison Librarian) @ University of Northern Iowa

When trying to cover as much territory as possible in a session, librarians often sacrifice deeper, more meaningful assessment and the emotional side of the research process to fit in content. Experiential learning approaches can be used to address the nonlinear and iterative nature of research (i.e., “messiness”) and prepare students for the emotional side-effects of the research process while still fitting in the needed content. This piloted approach demonstrated that students can learn to appreciate the ambiguity of research, become more comfortable with emotions that coincide with the process while still learning the basic mechanics of information searching.

The presenter will discuss: -- the negotiation process that took place with the faculty member prior to the one shot session-- the pedagogical compromises made during the planning process-- the reflective experiential learning teaching method-- the outcome of the session (i.e., what worked, what didn't, lessons learned) 

Diane's Notes

This was done for a Jr level anthro/sociology course

Much of the presentation was how the librarian negotiated with the faculty member away from a single 50-min one shot of EVERYTHING into a multi prong approach focusing only on the ambiguous, nonlinear, iterative nature of search

Read Kolb and Kuhlthau!!!

Presenter's slides and handout very detailed

Students are directed to search, reflect, revise search, reflect and revise again Could be applicable to our LSCI courses.

Need to fail in order to learn