Bricks-and-mortar Insights from morguefile.com 

Context: 21st Century 

It is generally agreed amongst those who contemplate how learning will be transformed in the 21st Century that students -- well, all citizens, really -- will need to become more adept, effective, ethical, and critical users of information.  What students learn to do with information is likely to last longer than the specifics of the information itself. 

Yet we present, measure, and expect information in a context that places less value on the processes and more value on the content.  That is, educators have been caught in a socio-cultural environment that has expected them to measure results against pre-determined standards even as they are under pressure to "cover" curriculum, an approach they undertake at the expense of the very skills that empower students to engage more effectively and more meaningfully with the learning. 

In practicing and teaching the skills of inquiry to enable students to be more information literate -- that is, access, use, communicate, and reflect upon the information as they engage in the processes of learning -- educators understand that relationships to knowledge are changing: 

• Educators move to the side and work to guide or "scaffold" the learning
• Students learn to have more authority over their own knowledge and inquiry

• Both teachers and students are actively engaged in learning and teaching

• New learning takes place in active, collaborative, and social contexts that may be real or virtual  

In BC, teacher-librarians have a long history of working for the Information Literacy Agenda:

• Developing Independent Learners -- delisted
• Achieving Information Literacy -- standards
• TLs and The Research Quest -- one of two documents that provides direction for our work

In Teacher-Librarianship, the skills-embedded approach to learning processes and content: (known as a "scope-and-sequence" that parallels grade-by-grade the formal curriculum of schools)

• has been a movement led by Kuhlthau, Stripling, and others 
• has been packaged as Big6, Research Quest, Information Power, and more
• is not and cannot be a separate "library skills" curriculum; information skills cannot be learned in isolation of the content
• is not an optional add-in as the IT curriculum was intended to be
• is not widely embraced by school communities
• has not received official status or recognition in BC, aside from the adoption of the Research Quest model 10 years ago
• is more important then ever before

The AASL Standards and Standards in Action describe learning processes as skills, attitudes, responsibilities, and strategies that are developed when students engage with inquiry in the school library program.  These processes are supported by teachers who recognize the importance of working collaboratively with teacher-librarians to prepare young people for lifelong learning. Essential to acquiring these standards are educators who are teaching for and developing their own skills in and understandings about:

• literacy -- the importance of reading, including decoding and comprehending, but also interpreting and creating new meaning, is underscored. The hub of literacy-learning is clearly located in resource-based inquiry in school libraries.  The standards broaden the understanding about what it means to be literate; “text” in different formats is decoded and understood through the multiliteracies, that is, print, digital, media, visual, and other literacies.

• inquiry and critical thinking -- to achieve goals of helping students to become lifelong learners, teacher-librarians move students along a continuum towards independence as learners, not only in being able to find and read appropriate materials but to evaluate these and use them effectively.

• technology -- unquestionably these skills for learning must be developed, practiced, and encouraged in relation to technological tools if students are to be better prepared for learning, as well as working and living, more broadly in social and global contexts; critical to seamless use of technology tools are understandings about the importance of access and equity that enable all young learners to read, become informed, and acquire skills for learning.

• assessment -- also critical to the development of skills that enable students to manage their own learning in the information-rich environments of school, life, and work are the skills of self- and peer-assessment. Students need to know what they know, what they need to know, what they need to do better, who to ask, and how to refine or revise or re-direct their own and others' inquiries. Educators, including teachers and teacher-librarians, assess students alongside these various assessment-for-learning strategies, using tools and strategies to undertake assessment-as-learning and assessment-of-learning. 
  
  

• social learning and learning social responsibility -- Not only do students move naturally to include collaborative working relationships, they now see learning as an active and process-driven experience; they expect the team to be there.  In these working and social relationships, both real and virtual, students must learn how to access, use, and create information in ways that are responsible, respectful, equitable, lawful, and appropriate.  They need to be aware of others' rights.
  

   

There are four standards. Students are able to use skills, resources and tools to –

• Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge

• Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge

• Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society

• Pursue personal and aesthetic growth
  

The AASL Standards as best taught:

• with teachers working collaboratively with teacher-librarians

• in the context of curriculum and content goals

• within a research process model

• with multiple resources

• in a supportive environment that embraces equitable access

• with guidance as required, in the form of direct instruction or scaffolding

• in conjunction with assessment rubrics for both process and product, for skills and content goals, and including self- and peer assessment as well as formative and summative approaches to assessment

The standards have moved information literacy away from the traditional notions and a list of skills or "scope and sequence" approach towards addressing the importance of the multiliteracies and the impact of technology on learning. They are benchmarked by years, as in grades 2, 5, 8, 10, and 12, with examples of how they are integrated with each other and with content learning goals to construct learning opportunities.