Blog #1: Supporting the Questions that Don't Always Exist but Need to

    

The library learning commons is an active and welcoming environment full of learning materials, both nonfiction and fiction. Students come seeking these materials primarily for sources of entertainment or for sources of information. For this blog, the focus is on the information purpose. What do we do, as teacher librarians, when students come with big questions about the world and seek answers? 

    While we are focusing on information literacy, I can't help but think about one major stumbling block: students at my school very rarely come to the library seeking information, except on the very rare occasion they have been guided to do so by their teachers for a project. Otherwise, they might take out nonfiction books, but only if they are interested in the topic. They never seem to have a specific question in mind. It simply is, "I like cats, so I will take out a cat book." 

    Why are students seemingly not very curious? A big part, I believe, is because teachers are grossly overworked and don't have time or energy to encourage questions. They must teach the curriculum, find and/or create resources, manage extremely challenging student behaviors, assess in all areas, communicate regularly with parents, teach social emotional skills, attend meetings, etc. etc. etc. In fact, in this report based on a survey in 2020, 45% of Canadian teachers said they were barely coping or not coping at all with the daily stress of teaching (Canadian Teachers' Federation, 2020). Let's also remember that so many students in BC struggle with reading and can't even access information unless it is visual or oral. It's no wonder that the concept of fostering inquiry and curiosity is taking a backseat, or no seat at all. Berliner (2020) states in this article, "Children should be prompted and encouraged to ask questions even though that can be challenging for the teacher. We do need to find some time for questions during the day. There is not enough time in schools for creativity and following up on curiosity." 

    If, somehow, we can find time and space to support students to become curious information seekers, they then require information literacy skills. Information Literacy is a "set of critical thinking skills necessary to locate and use information effectively" (Sharpe, 2009). There are many different models of seeking out information to use with students, from the BC Points of Inquiry model to the Big Six model by Michael Eisenberg and Robert Berkowitz (Riedling, 2013). All provide a roadmap to keep the process on track and are fairly interchangeable. The overall process can be summarized by three general steps: 1) ask a question, 2) look for valid information, and 3) record/reflect on the findings. This process could easily be taught explicitly to students so that they could use the process independently down the road. In fact, the process itself is arguably much more important to learn than the answers themselves.

    The second step in my condensed summary of the inquiry models (look for valid information) requires a lot of intentional effort, knowledge, and thought from a teacher librarian. The teacher librarian must ensure that good references are available for students. Riedling (2013) states, "A good reference source is one that serves to answer questions" (p. 21). Having current, accurate, easy to read, inclusive, and easy to locate references is a key aspect of helping students become capable with information literacy. Once a good question has been formulated, students need to be taught how to find, synthesize, and summarize their findings when using print materials. An advantage with print materials is that they do not need to be evaluated by students for authenticity as the teacher librarian should ensure only quality materials are available.

    Beyond physical references as an information source, students can also use electronic references. While electronic references can be fast and easy to use, students need more guidance as to how to navigate through the references to find valid information. I recognize that I have a fair amount of bias against electronic references simply because of the high volume of misinformation and inaccurate information that exists online. However, students will undoubtedly be using online resources to find information in their personal and/or work life, so it is important we explicitly teach students how to navigate boundless information to find accuracy, otherwise known as the "recall/precision problem" (Riedling, 2013, p. 110). Information overload is a big part of information literacy, as discussed in the video below (Modern Librarian Memoirs, 2017). 

    Overall, we can have all the wonderful systems and references for students in place in our library learning commons. But we need the students to be curious information seekers for the systems and references to be utilized. We need the clientele, and we need to somehow support teachers with their overflowing plates to help them foster curiosity within their classrooms.

References

Berliner, W. (2020). Schools are Killing Curiosity: Why we need to Stop Telling Children to 

        Shut up and Learn. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/

        jan/28/schoolskilling-curiosity-learn

Canadian Teachers' Federation (2020). Teacher Mental Health Check in Survey. 

        https://vox.ctf-fce.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Doc-13-1-Pandemic-Research

        -Report-Teacher-Mental-Health-Check-in-Survey.pdf

Ekdahl, M., M. Farquharson, J. Robinson, L. Turner. 2010. The Points of Inquiry: A 

        Framework for Information Literacy and the 21st Century Learner. Vancouver, 

        BC: British Columbia Teacher Librarians’ Association.

Modern Librarian Memoirs. (2017). What is Information Literacy? [Video]. YouTube. 

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe6xBibOL4&t=231s

Reidling, A. (2013). Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist: Tools and 

        Tips. Linworth.

Sharpe, D. (2009). Information Literacy: Instruction for your Classes. 

        https://libguides.uky.edu/infolit