Reecent papers: training in teaching; IL concepts; kindergarten children

Gammons, R., Inge, L. & Carroll, A. (2017). Sharing Our Success: Using a Teacher Training Program to Improve Information Literacy Instruction and Support MLIS Students. (full text paper, presented at the 2017 ACRL conference). http://hdl.handle.net/1903/19171 "A research library and an MLIS program have created a fellowship to develop future leaders in information literacy instruction. This conference paper presented at the Association of College and Research Librarians 2017 conference provides an overview of the fellowship’s curriculum and a discussion of the challenges and opportunities of working with an MLIS program. The paper concludes with results from the program’s first cohorts, including job placement rates for alumni, reflections from student participants, feedback from participating librarians, and lessons learned from fellowship directors."

Murphy, D. (2016) Dream of a common language: Developing a shared understanding of Information Literacy concepts. (full text of the paper presented at the ARL Assessment Conference). http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8fd4662m#page-1 "Librarians are an essential part of the diverse community of campus stakeholders focused on student success. Establishing a mutually understood and shared foundation of concepts is critical if we wish to collaborate successfully with these stakeholders on assessment projects and ultimately integrating information Literacy into campus learning outcomes and student success goals. The process of developing and normalizing a collectively accepted understanding of Information Literacy between librarians, faculty and institutional research partners was more of a challenge than anticipated and required research, discussion, documentation, and patience to achieve."


Chlapana, E. (2016). An intervention programme for enhancing kindergarteners' cognitive engagement and comprehension skills through reading informational texts. Literacy, 50, 125–132. doi: 10.1111/lit.12085. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.12085/full (Priced)
"The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether systematic instruction of informational texts can enhance kindergarteners' cognitive involvement in text discussion and comprehension skills. The sample consisted of 15 children aged 5–6 years old in a kindergarten classroom located in a rural area in Rethymno, Crete. A four-phase intervention programme was implemented within a 2-month period. During the first phase, activities were carried out in order to familiarise children with the features of informational texts. During the subsequent phases, reciprocal teaching, What I know - What I want to learn - What I learned (KWL) practice and dialogic reading were used to help children comprehend text information, enhance their cognitive involvement in text discussion and train them in asking literal and inferential questions. The teacher's reading-aloud sessions were recorded and transcribed. Data showed that the intervention programme helped children recognise the features of informational texts, enhanced their cognitive involvement in text discussion and motivated them to demonstrate comprehension skills that are related to information processing."
Photo by Sheila Webber: spring, March 2017