Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Fostering Lifelong Learning through

Information Literacy education: Exploring

conceptions in different disciplines and framing

pedagogies for lifelong learning

Sheila WebberUniversity of Sheffield Department of Information Studies

Bill Johnston, Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement, University of Strathclyde

June 2008

Presented at the Lifelong Conference, Yeppoon, Australia, 18 June 2008

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Outline

• Lifelong Learning: OECD & UNESCO

• Lifelong Learning & the UG curricuum:

the Candy model

• Conceptions pedagogy for IL: related

to Candy and OECD/ UNESCO

• Discussion

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Lifelong Learning:

Tensions & IssuesTwo differing approaches:

Liberation, culture and

personal growth - UNESCO

1970‟s

Global economy,

competitiveness and

individual skills - OECD

1990s

Extent of alignment

between Undergraduate

curriculum and these

positions?

Disciplinary differences?

Varying perceptions by

academics?

Institutional strategy?

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Attributes of the lifelong learner

An inquiring mind

"Helicopter vision"

Information literacy

A sense of personal agency

A repertoire of learning skills

Interpersonal skills & group membership

(Candy, 2000; Candy et al 1994)

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

(Candy et al 1994: 66)

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Our project

Stuart Boon

Bill Johnston

Sheila Webber

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

• Three-year Arts & Humanities Research Council

(AHRC) - funded project (Nov 2002- Nov 2005)

To explore UK academics’ conceptions of,

and pedagogy for, information literacy• Sheila Webber; Bill Johnston; Stuart Boon

• Phenomenographic study: interviewing 20

academics in each of 4 disciplines to identify

variation in conceptions (visited 26 universities to

collect 80 interviews)

• Marketing, English, Civil Engineering, Chemistry

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Accessing information quickly and easily to be aware of what’s going

on

Information literacy?

Using information literacy to solve real-world problemsBecoming

confident,

autonomous

learners and

critical

thinkers

Mastering a

chemist's

information skill set

An essential part of

the constitution/

construction/

creation of

knowledge

Creating, and

incorporating

information into a

professional

knowledge base

Accessing and retrieving textual

information

Some of the

conceptions in English,

Marketing, Engineering

& Chemistry that our

research discovered

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Key research questions

1. What conceptions of information literacy are held by UK academics?

2. What are academics’ conceptions and reported practice in educating students for information literacy?

3. Do differences in conception correspond to differences in discipline?

In the next slides we present the categories of pedagogy for information

literacy that we identified in our research. In the actual presentation we

identified how these related to Candy et al.‟s model for the

undergraduate curriculum and the OECD/UNESCO definitions of lifelong

learning.

For example, in Marketing, the “somebody else‟s job” category was

really to the left of Candy‟s models – just the discipline with no skills etc.

The next two conceptions also clearly have the discipline at the centre

of the curriculum, with IL seen in relation to that. With conception 4

(where the academic is explicitly encouraging students to think of skills

being relevant beyond the curriculum) we are moving more towards the

right hand diagram. The final conception is putting IL more centrally,

though probably more interwoven with the subject etc, rather than quite

so compartmentalised. In terms of Lifelong Learning – the focus is on IL

being useful professionally – so more of an OECD interpretation. See

Webber et al (2006) for more on the Marketing & English conceptions

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Marketing: Pedagogy for Information

Literacy as…

1. Someone else‟s job

2. Upgrading students‟ information toolbox at an appropriate point

3. Facilitating access to a variety of resources

4. Showing students how and when to use information skills

5. Helping students understand how information literacy is critical

to them, for marketing & life

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

English academics' conceptions of

pedagogy for IL as …

1. Someone else's job

2. An add-on or side-effect of teaching the subject

3. Introducing the students to sources of information

4. Engaging with students to show them the value of

information and information literacy

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Chemistry academics' conceptions of

pedagogy for IL as …

1. Implicit in teaching students to understand

chemistry.“we teach them to find chemical data and structures for their

assignments” (Chem 2)

2. Designing a path for students through a chemistry

course“So we do make sure that we‟ve assessed them and we introduce

them to all the different databases throughout the four years, em,

but we will always ask them to do stuff outside of that to widen their

understanding.” (Chem 4)

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Chemistry academics' conceptions of

pedagogy for IL as …

3. Challenging students to respond independently,

critically and creatively with information“… to be able to question, to disagree, to… really to have fun with

information as well.” (Chem 11)

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Civil Engineering: pedagogy for

Information literacy as…

1. Someone else‟s job e.g. “I don‟t teach it. No, mostly I assume

the students can do it.” (CEng 01)

2. Providing core/fundamental information as part of

an Engineering course. “A basic lecture will have a limited

content. So often I will give a lecture and say, „Have a look at this

website for further information.‟” “If you go for a fairly dynamic, say

developmental style of lecture where students are putting ideas in

and you develop them and talk about them, you run the risk of not

achieving the real objectives of the lecture, which may be

predefined.” (Both CEng 10)

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Civil Engineering: pedagogy for

Information literacy as…3 Encouraging independent and confident critical

thought & work e.g.“So I… um, with the internet stuff, I don‟t have to go through all that, I

can just, „Here are some things. Look at them on the internet and

discuss them. Make a judgement about them.‟” (CEng 16)

“those employers will be specifying certain competencies that they

want and undoubtedly once of the competencies that they want is

research and analysis skills, information sourcing and retrieval. And

the expectation of the employer is going to be that the graduate knows

how to do this and that they are self-reliant and don't need to be taken

by the hand…” (CEng 04)

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Discussion points included

• The conceptions mostly (apart from English) chimed in with

OECD views of Lifelong Learning – focused more on the

value of IL in future careers rather than citizenship

• This shows the variation within, as well as between,

disciplines, and anecdotal evidence indicates that

variations may very well exist within Departments. This

points to the value of discussing and agreeing

Departmental frameworks for IL and LLL: different

academics may contribute from different perspectives

• It indicates that the “model 2” of Candy et al. (1994) has not

yet been achieved

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Sheila Webber

s.webber@shef.ac.uk

http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/

Bill Johnston

b.johnston@strath.ac.uk

Second Life blog

Sheila Yoshikawa

http://adventuresofyoshikawa.blogspot.com

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

Bibliography

• Boon, S., Johnston, B. and Webber, S. (2007) "A phenomenographic study of English faculty's conceptions of information literacy." Journal of documentation, 63 (2), 204-228.

• Candy, P. (2000) “Learning and earning: graduate skills for an uncerain future.” In Appleton, K. et al. (Eds) Lifelong Lerning Conference: selected papers from the inaugural international LLC. Rockhampton: CQU. 7-19.

• Candy, P., Crebert, G. and O'Leary, J. (1994) Developing lifelong learners through undergraduate education. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. National Board of Employment, Education and Training Report; 28. http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/training_skills/publications_resources/profiles/nbeet/hec/developing_lifelong_learners_through_undergraduate.htm

Sheila Webber and

Bill Johnston, June 2008

• Webber, S., Boon, S. and Johnston, B. (2005) “A comparison of UK academics‟ conceptions of information literacy in two disciplines: English and Marketing.” Library and information research, 29 (93), 4-15. http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/bysubject/research/publications/journal/archive/lir93/article93b.htm

• Webber, S., Boon, S. and Johnston, B. (2006) "Comparaison des conceptions pédagogiques de la maîtrise de l‟information chez des universitaires britanniques de différentes disciplines.“ [British academics from different disciplines: comparing their conceptions of pedagogy for information literacy] Actes des 5èmes Rencontres Formist: Lyon: 2005. Lyon: ENSSIB. http://babel.enssib.fr/document.php?id=315 (English version at: http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/webber-FORMIST.pdf)

• Webber, S. and Johnston, B. (2005) “Information literacy in the curriculum: selected findings from a phenomenographic study of UK conceptions of, and pedagogy for, information literacy” In: Rust, C. (Ed) Improving Student Learning: Diversity and Inclusivity: Proceedings of the 11th ISL symposium, Birmingham, 6-8 September 2004. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University. pp212-224. http://dis.shef.ac.uk/sheila/literacy/webber-johnston-isl.pdf