Information literacy a human right: researcher
So
much information! But how do students discern what they need to know, and what
a reliable source is? Two Massey education researchers have been awarded nearly
half a million dollars to lead a project that aims to help secondary school and
tertiary students learn to make the best use of digital information.
The
Teaching and Learning Research Initiative-funded project is led by Professor
Lisa Emerson, Director of Teaching and Learning for the College of Humanities
and Social Sciences, along with Mr Ken Kilpin (Institute of Education). The
three-year project, titled Transforming information literacy space(s) to
support student learning is one of six funded by the Teacher Leadership for
School Improvement (TLSI) programme this year.
Professor
Emerson, will help led a team of researchers from five tertiary institutions
and nine secondary schools, and says information literacy is fundamental human
right to personal development, prosperity and freedom in the modern era.
"We need to ensure our young people have the skills and insights to
intelligently navigate the increasingly complex, and constantly evolving
digital information space and to be able to sort and assess its quality and
validity - for work, education, health and to be active citizens."
She
says very little is known about how information literacy is taught across
secondary and tertiary sectors in New Zealand. "The last study in schools
was an ERO report conducted in 2005 and nothing is known about the outcomes of
that study. So, our first year is about gathering information and collating a
picture of information literacy in both the senior secondary and tertiary
sectors in this country."
Over
the next three years, the project will focus on developing partnerships with
teachers and librarians in schools and tertiary institutions to integrate
information literacy into the curriculum and to develop resources.
Information
literacy is, she says, "the ability to identify information needs, locate
and critique information, and then use it in a way that suits your needs. It
has been identified by education leaders both nationally and internationally as
essential to student achievement."
Quoting
from the Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning
(released at a World Summit on the Information Society in 2005 in Alexandria,
Egypt - the location of one of the world’s greatest libraries founded in 332
BC), she says information literacy is "one of the beacons of the
information society, illuminating the courses to development, prosperity and
freedom."
Information
literacy empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create
information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and
educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes
social inclusion in all nations."
Professor
Emerson says that in the past, information literacy "has been seen as the
domain of the library and has been narrowly described as information
searching."
In
line with current scholarship her team is taking a broader approach,
"involving the processes, strategies, skills, competencies, expertise and
ways of thinking which enable individuals to engage with information to learn
across a range of platforms, transform the known, and discover the unknown.
"Using
this definition, Information Literacy becomes the responsibility of teachers
and librarians working together to improve student learning."
Through
her previous work Professor Emerson has been a strong advocate for bridge
building between university and secondary school teaching staff, with a focus
on enabling schoolteachers to prepare their students for the option of tertiary
study. In this sphere, she led a two-year project involving conversations with
secondary school teachers in low decile schools about how they can prepare
their students for university culminated in a research report last year titled,
Smoothing the path to transition.
The
new project is in partnership with Southland Boys’ High School (Invercargill);
Aurora College (Invercargill); Central Southland College (Winton); Whanganui
City College; Waitara College; Hato PÄora
College (Feilding); Bay of Islands College (Kawakawa); Whitireia Polytechnic
(Porirua); Wellington Institute of Technology; Eastern Institute of Technology
(Napier); Victoria University of Wellington.
Bios:
Professor
Lisa Emerson’s career has been characterised by her interest in and commitment
to teaching. She was a winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Sustained
Excellence in Tertiary teaching (2008), and her teaching philosophy is
discussed in Iain Hay’s Inspiring Academics: Learning with the World’s Great
University Teachers (2011, OUP). Her research on pedagogy includes work on
literacy in students transitioning from the secondary school to the tertiary
sectors. Her investigations into the development of scientific writers have
been described as a significant bridge between the sciences and the humanities.
She is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy in Britain, a Fulbright
Senior Scholar (2013), and has represented the Ako Aotearoa Academy on the
selection committee for the national teaching awards.
Mr
Ken Kilpin comes to this research project via a 35-year career in education
initially in the secondary school sector and then in adult education as a pre-service
secondary teacher educator. He has participated in national secondary school
literacy professional development projects and, with Professor Emerson, in a
project focusing on literacy transitions from senior high school to tertiary
learning. He has co-authored articles in these areas for New Zealand journals.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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