Changing Signature Pedagogies for IL, LILAC Talk part 1

 I gave a talk at the LILAC conference recently and asked a few questions of the participants in my short session, so I'll try and do a few posts that summarise some of the things from it. I'll post my slides, etc, later (as there might be a video later, so I'll wait for that just in case), but this first post sums up the first question I asked participants, "Write 3 words or short phrases that describe what you are trying to achieve with your teaching". This is in the context of a talk about signature pedagogies and how I felt that if there was a "Librarians teaching information literacy" type signature pedagogy that I think it's in flux between an old "tell 'em what buttons to click / turn them into mini-librarians" approach to one much more based on critical IL and supporting growth in various ways.

So I got a loooong list of words and phrases (I'll list them all below), but interestingly, if I try and group them, my top 3 groups are: 

•  “Information access” (search, find, usefulness of, etc info sources) - 10
•  Criticality – 10 
•  Confidence building (fear / comfort / etc) – 7 

So the "traditional" things that people see as most important such as information access, are balanced by things like critical thinking. Coming closely up the list though are people talking about a desire to be as inclusive as possible in their teaching, to bring curiosity and exploration to the front, and a hope that they can make any learning transferable to their learners studies / work. I might try to theme these properly at some point, but I'm aware that this was a very quick exercise in a 20 minute talk, so don't want to read too much into it!

Something else that was really interesting to me is that certain people had a clear set of things they were trying to achieve, around the learner themselves, rather than about any particular knowledge. People centring transformation, empowerment, kindness, etc., in a way that I think is growing and that we should encourage more. I'll come back to this when I've summed up the other feedback, plus my talk, so I've not finished yet :-)

Oh, and whoever wrote "Dismantling oppressive structures", I love you, let's work out how to get that front and centre in more people's underlying aims... though it's a bit upsetting that more didn't say similar things!

3 words (or phrases): What are you trying to achieve with your teaching (values, etc that underlay approach), the full list of words / phrases:

 

Independence

Interactivity

Fun

Comfort / Familiarity

Ending fear / panic

Seeing transferability of skill

Survival

Transformation

Language

Local support

Explore

Criticality

Learning to access sources

Referencing

Being Critical

Use authoritative sources

Advanced search techniques

Finding information easier

Clarity

Engagement

Be open and curious

Asking for help

Test and evaluate

Assumptions that I always have to use interactivity (abbreviate to “interactiveness”?)

Students won’t want to use games etc

We can’t use activities with PhD students!

Students take something positive from the session

Creativity

Importance of information

Everyone still learning, may be at different levels, but all can learn in different ways

Curiosity

Student as scholar

Question everything

Understanding of information

Competence to search

Importance of evaluation of sources

Kindness

Expertise

Enabling

Interesting

Fun

Informative

Learning to let go

Knowledge

Inspiring others

Making people think

Inclusiveness

Questioning

Empowerment

Encourage

Support

Motivate

Changes in understandings

Abilities to engage in any subject

Reflectiveness

Engaging

Inclusive / accessible

Useful to student needs

Collaboration

Knowledge exchange

Dismantling oppressive structures

Transformation (in IL)

Make a difference

Empower students

Connect with students

Engagement

Learning and confidence

Enjoyment

Independence

Confidence

Success

Academic achievement

Thinking outside the box

Lifelong learning

Awareness of information landscape

Applying learning to personal research project

Equitable

Critical reflective practice

Confidence in themselves

Self-reflexive learners

Demystifying

Comfort (with library stuff)

Critical thinking and application

Transferable skills

Help students navigate expectations

Improve quality of research

Increase mindful judgements about reliability

Support

Show way to access information

Inclusiveness

Contextualised

Critical

Information literate

Critical thinkers

Engaged library users