Chapter 12

Workplace Reflections of Information

Literacy Training: The Case of the

Agriculture and Health Sectors in Tanzania

Evans Wema

Abstract

This is a review of information literacy interventions which focused onfostering information literacy skills for agriculturalists and healthpractitioners in Tanzania. The purpose of the intervention was toimpart information literacy skills to agriculturalists and healthprofessionals based on problem-solving and collaborative approachesthrough pedagogical theories of Kolb and Vygotsky which emphasizeexperiential and reflective learning as well as mediated communication.The interventions were based on an integration of knowledge frominformation behaviour research and educational theory and currentInformation and library science perspectives of information literacy.This was preceded by a survey which collected data on informationliteracy needs of agriculturalists and health practitioners in order todetermine what should be taught in information literacy courses forboth categories of professionals. The interventions were evaluatedthrough exercises, reflective discussions and observations of activities.Diagnostic tests were also carried out before and after the interven-tions to provide an indication of knowledge changes. It was generallydiscovered that both categories of practitioners lacked informationliteracy skills and had a dire need for the same to effectively performtheir work. Work experiences of participants as well as problems

Developing People’s Information Capabilities: Fostering Information Literacy in Educational,

Workplace and Community Contexts

Library and Information Science, Volume 8, 179–201

Copyright r 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1876-0562/doi:10.1108/S1876-0562(2013)0000008016

180 Evans Wema

associated with lack of information to perform assigned tasks in theiroccupations were motivational factors for their active participation inthe courses. Judging from participants’ feedback, the courses wereeffective. Participants were able to demonstrate their abilities to solve aparticular information-related problem through collaborative learningand work experience. It is recommended that information literacycourses in work places should focus on work-related informationproblems and active participation.

Keywords: Experiential learning; active participation; problem-basedlearning information literacy; mediated communication; reflectivediscussions

12.1. Introduction

The effectiveness of information literacy training courses at work places ishighly dependent on a proper course design. Recent developments due to theinformation explosion has made it necessary for professionals in variousdisciplines to possess information skills to effectively identify, search,retrieve and use information. In addition, library and information servicesworldwide incur significant costs due to increased use of online resourcesand supporting ICT facilities, and there is a need to make the most effectiveuse of these resources. These conditions require an information literacyprogramme which is designed in a way that equips learners with lifelonglearning skills. These skills should be acquired through learning approachesthat encourage critical thinking and independent learning.

12.2. Background to the Problem

Studies that have been carried out in the information seeking and behaviourfield focused on different categories of users, such as academicians, scientists,lawyers, engineers and many others (Majid & Tan, 2002). Many of suchstudies dealt with different problems. These included the improvement of theinformation systems and information retrieval systems. There is abundantliterature on information literacy worldwide that has paid attention to peoplein specific fields. Such studies include Bruce (1999), O’Sullivan (2002), Travis(2011) and Crawford and Irving (2012), all these and other similar studiesdealt with information literacy skills in the work place. The literatureoutlined above demonstrates various initiatives that have taken place indeveloped countries. Such initiatives are, however, few in Africa, and yet the

Workplace Reflections of Information Literacy Training 181

need for professionals to acquire information literacy skills is fundamentalfor socio-economic development.

Various standards and models of information literacy have beendeveloped and widely used by higher education institutions as well as inspecific fields to support teaching, learning and executions of particularactivities in work environments. With the launch of problem-based andproject-based learning as the principal study method, group-based learning,experiential and reflective approaches to the information literacy educationprocess have been employed by various institutions in Europe, Australiaand the United States (Denis, 2001; Edward & Bruce, 2002; Oliver &McLaughlin, 1999; Skov & Skærbak, 2003). These and various otherapproaches to teaching and learning information literacy courses haveresulted in positive changes in improved work performances and there hasbeen a significant increase in the levels of confidence of the learners inperforming those skills. However, it is challenging for trainers in informationliteracy ‘‘to provide proof that the skills make a difference to short and longterm learning outcomes’’ (Bundy, 1998, p. 9).

12.3. An Overview of Agricultural and Health Information

Needs in Tanzania

The agricultural sector has been the major contributor to the Tanzanianeconomy over decades and has continued to remain so. Major foodproduction in Tanzania relies on its agricultural output, and is the mainsource of income and employment for its citizens. Most raw materials forindustries also come from agriculture and it accounts for 75% of foreignexchange earnings. In Tanzania, agriculture is dominated by small-scalefarmers, with a few larger scale farmers in a number of regions includingArusha, Iringa, Mbeya and Morogoro. Studies have revealed thatimprovements in agriculture can be achieved when practitioners are awareof information sources and are able to apply this knowledge for competitiveadvantage in the agricultural industry (Ogunlade, Oladele, & Falaki, 2006).According to Matovelo (2008), information has played a significant role inimproving agricultural practices in Tanzania, yet agriculturalists’ informa-tion illiteracy can be a barrier and there is a need for this category ofinformation users, in general, to acquire information literacy skills in orderto acquire the right information to make the right decisions.

Tanzania has achieved a considerable expansion of health services sinceindependence in 1961. The health sector reforms initiated in 1993 have maderemarkable progress in improving health services. However, concerns aboutthe quality of health services have become common in the country, specifi-cally among the public and the Ministry of Health (MoH) and health

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professionals. Tanzania does not have a comprehensive nation-wide infor-mation system that can monitor or report on the state of health care quality.Similarly, few health institutions (public or private) have established a systemof health information to inform them about the quality of health care servicesthey provide. As a result of this the MoH and other players in the healthservices have developed and implemented a countrywide initiative to improvethe quality of health care as a matter of priority (Ministry of Health andSocial Welfare, 2004). Despite the establishment of health informationsystems such as MTUHA by the MoH (Mukama, 2003), very few healthpractitioners are aware of them. This is attributed to a lack of informationliteracy skills and the ability to recognize the existence and importance ofinformation resources.

In Tanzania, health professionals include nurses, medical doctors,midwives, dentists and pharmacists to mention but a few. Apart fromproviding health services in hospitals and the related health institutions, theyperform various administrative duties. These include formulating health-related policies and guidelines and coordinating, monitoring and evaluatinghealth services delivery in the country. They also coordinate research andtraining within and outside the country; they represent the country oninternational health activities and provide decisions on health-relatednational and international matters. Studies in Tanzania’s health sectorrevealed that health practitioners in Tanzania lack information literacy skillsto effectively identify, search, evaluate and use health information. Most ofthem rely on their education and experience and what they have learnedfrom their training, from their colleagues, and from diagnosing and treatingpeople with similar problems. They sometimes, however, read medicalbooks and journals, consult with colleagues, and refer to other resources,such as authoritative health sites on the Internet, for more information onspecific problems and to keep up with new information generated by medicalresearch. They also review recommendations (practice guidelines) publishedby groups of experts (James, 2010). Most of their practice, however, is basedon their experiences and common practices; they are not necessarily a resultof an information intervention that would enable them to decide on theappropriate information and sources to help solve a particular health-related problem. Hence, there is a need for medical practitioners to acquireinformation literacy training.

12.4. Objectives of the Intervention

The purpose of the intervention was to impart information literacy skills toagriculturalists and health professionals who work at decision-making

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levels. Due to the importance of the two sectors in Tanzania, it was thoughtthat imparting information literacy skills to agriculturalists and healthpractitioners who work mostly at a decision-making levels would assist well-informed decisions in the two sectors. The importance of informationliteracy skills for agriculturalists has been realized as a result of variousstudies that revealed poor information search skills among professionals inthe field of agriculture (Angelo & Wema, 2010; Malekani, 2005). The lack ofinformation literacy skills further affects agriculturalists in failing toidentify, select and use appropriate sources of information to makedecisions on agriculture-related issues. In addition, studies have revealedthat health practitioners especially those working at decision-making levelssuch as the MoH have a limited choice of appropriate sources ofinformation to make decisions on issues such as formulating health-relatedpolicies and coordinating, monitoring and evaluating health servicesdelivery in the country and others (Haruna, 2011). It was due to thesedeficiencies that interventions were planned for the above target groups. Itwas also intended to determine whether information literacy training basedon problem-solving and collaborative approaches through pedagogicaltheories of Kolb and Vygotsky would help foster critical thinking skillsamong the trainees.

12.5. Review of Related Literature

In order to develop theoretical grounding in planning the interventions, areview of literature based on pedagogical skills that encourage experientialand reflective learning as well as mediated communication was carried out.

According to Kolb (1984), ideas are produced and reproduced incessantlythrough experience and that people bring their own ideas and notions todiffering levels of elaborations in an iterative fashion. Kolb developed afour-stage learning cycle which is being applied to work-based learning, theteaching laboratory and practical work (such as information literacy hands-on activities), action learning, role play and small group teaching. Kolb’slearning cycle consists of the following:

� Concrete experience: Learners should be fully and freely involved in thenew learning experience (doing and experiencing).� Reflective observation: Learner needs time to reflect on new learningexperiences from different perspectives (observe and reflect — closelylinked to feedback).� Abstract conceptualization: Learners are able to form and reform,process, take ownership and integrate their ideas into sound logicaltheories (understanding underlying reasons, concepts and relationships).

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� Active experimentation: Learner uses theories to make problem-solvingdecisions and tests implications in new situations (trying things to see ifthey work out).

This cycle involves the following fundamental aspects: doing, reflecting,processing, thinking and understanding, which are in accordance with thelearner’s needs and goals. This approach assumes that learners become moreskilful, notice more, make better connections, understand more and makemore informed decisions regarding what to do next, as they continuearound, and eventually complete the cycle. (Gibbs, Morgan, & Northedge,1998). The cycle assumes that learners develop concepts and learn therequisite skills as they work on a problem (learning by doing), rather thanlearning how to do it (Gibbs et al., 1998). In addition, more cyclesmay develop in the cases where people learn practical skills such asinformation searching, creating a learning spiral, with each loop moreadvanced than the previous one, which implies that the learning process islong and complex.

Reflection is considered as both a pedagogical method (Kolb, Rubin, &Osland, 1991) and a learning outcome (Mayes & de Freitas, 2004).Reflection is useful for building on previous understanding of phenomena(Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell, & Haag, 1995). It also assistslearners in a meta-cognitive process which provides a form of self-regulationthat causes the learner to internalize learning from the social to theindividual dimension (Hung & Chen, 2001). Vygotsky (1978) believes thatsocial interaction among learners enables them to construct meaning fromwhat they learn. This means that when learners interact with each otherthrough reflecting on what they learn, they realize the importance of whatthey do, which occurs and made explicit when they communicate theirexperiences and feelings with each other.

Having considered the significance of two aspects of learning throughexperience and reflections, this intervention decided to adopt the abovetheories for the purpose of making the learning process more meaningfuland enable people to deal with future similar experiences.

12.6. Information Literacy Course with Agriculturalists

and Health Practitioners

12.6.1. Selection of Participants

Two interventions were planned among agriculturalists and medicalpractitioners. While all agriculturalists were in the category of extension

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workers working at ward and village levels, medical practitioners includeddoctors, nurses, dentists, laboratory technicians and nutritionists. Thedecision to carry out the interventions with the two categories ofprofessionals was reached after considering their interests in acquiringinformation literacy skills. Agriculturalists showed interest in informationliteracy skills due to their involvement in supporting decisions at ward andvillage levels while handling agriculture and related issues with village andward executives, ward committee members, members of parliamentand district commissioners. They realized that most of the informationacquired to support decisions on aspects of agriculture was not wellresearched and lacked the required evidence to support decisions made atmeetings and during budgetary preparations prior to presenting the samein the House at parliamentary sessions. Many extension workers felt thatthey lacked the knowledge of identifying, locating, searching, accessing andevaluating appropriate sources. Their decisions were mainly based onpersonal experiences and sometimes influence. A number of comments raisedby a few extension officers when approached individually cited their inabilityto provide figures on types of diseases affecting crops in their localities,locations where infections were considered very severe or information onbasic farm implements.

On the other hand, medical practitioners showed interest in acquiringinformation literacy due to various reasons. One was the fact thatinformation literacy skills were considered important to medical students,hence their desire to incorporate the skills into a medical curriculum. Thedecision to incorporate information literacy into the medical curriculumcame as a result of various reports and comments raised by trainers inmedical institutions on cases of plagiarism and failure to use numeroussources of information by students in assignments and research projects. Inorder to set an example for other trainers in various medical institutions, itwas felt appropriate that the acquisition of such skills should start frommedical practitioners working at the ministerial and regional levels. Hence,the Directorate of Training at the Ministry proposed for an informationliteracy intervention for all those working at the above-mentioned levels soas to influence other medical practitioners the need for these capabilities tobe incorporated in the medical curriculum. Another reason for showinginterest in information literacy skills was the same observations as theagriculturalists that these skills were important in enabling a medicalpractitioner to make proper decisions based on researchable facts ratherthan relying on experience and common practice. While supportingdecisions made at the ministry level, medical practitioners realized thatinformation literacy skills played an important role in equipping medicalpractitioners with critical thinking skills which were vital in arriving atappropriate decisions.

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Apart from selecting this category of learners based on their interests ininformation literacy and their involvement in decision-making processes, itwas also considered necessary to bring the interventions to professionals whowould work on specific problems in groups. Extension workers normallyworked in teams during field operations and in meetings with villagers,ward and district officials as well as farmers in villages. They workedcollaboratively during educational programmes in villages, farm prepara-tions, harvesting seasons as well as during natural disasters and impele-mentation of pests and diseases control programmes. Medical practitionersworked similarly in teams while performing their duties. In addition, the twoprofessionals were considered important into the intervention owing to theintroduction of important national programmes in the agricultural andhealth sectors by the Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Coopera-tives (MAFSC) and theMinistry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW). Inthe effort to fight against hunger and starvation, the Tanzanian governmentthrough the MAFSC launched the ‘‘Kilimo Kwanza’’ policy (in English —Agriculture First). The main purpose of the policy was to ‘‘enable farmers tohave better access to and use of agricultural knowledge, technologies,marketing systems and infrastructure, all of which contribute to highproductivity, profitability and farm incomes; and promoting privateinvestment based on improved regulatory and policy environment’’(MAFSC, 2011, p. 2). The launching of the policy has been one of thegovernment’s national priorities and substantial amounts of funds and othersupport have been directed towards it. It was found important that in orderfor the farmers to have access to knowledge, technologies and marketingsystems, information literacy skills should be given a priority.

The MoHSW, on the other hand, had recommended and implemented anumber of policies and programmes. A malaria control programme waslaunched in 2010 under the national logo called ‘‘Zinduka — MalariaHaikubaliki’’ (in English — Wake Up — Malaria Is Unacceptable). Thiswas a malaria campaign with the aim of spreading information to citizens onthe importance of mosquito nets and other means to fight the spread ofmalaria in Tanzania (La Toile, 2010). Together with the malaria campaign,a special campaign against HIV/AIDS was also launched in 2008 and wasgiven a slogan namely ‘‘Tanzania Bila Ukimwi Inawezekana’’ (in English —Tanzania Without AIDS Is Possible). The purpose of this campaign was tospread information on ways to fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Whatwas noted was that information literacy skills would be important in makingall the above national campaigns a success through enabling agriculturalistsand medical practitioners access and use relevant information in facilitatingthese programmes. As a result of the above reasons, the lead facilitatorapproached the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO) and MoHWS to request for financial and material

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support to facilitate information literacy training for extension workers andmedical practitioners in the MAFSC and MoHWS respectively. With regardto extension workers, emphasis was put on those working at village, wardand district levels, which had direct contacts with other stakeholders such asvillage, ward and district executives, members of various local committeesand members of parliament in local constituents. Under the consultationswith officials in the Ministry, it was decided that the training for extensionworkers should take place in Dodoma region, located in the CentralTanzania where most official business was carried out at the country’scapital city. Dodoma region was also chosen due to its central location ofthe most agriculturally productive region in Tanzania. These includedTabora, Singida, Morogoro, Iringa and Mbeya. Hence, all participants inthe intervention were drawn from the above-mentioned regions. UNESCOextended an invitation to all extension workers in the regions forparticipation into the course. Fifty participants confirmed their participa-tion into the course. The training took place in March 2012 and wasfacilitated by three persons: an agricultural information specialist and seniorlecturer from Sokoine University of Agriculture, a lecturer from TumainiUniversity who was a specialist in Web 2.0 technologies and one, the author,from University of Dar es Salaam who was responsible for designing thecourse materials and the structure of the intervention.

Similarly, the MoHWS provided financial and material support tofacilitate the intervention for medical practitioners at the Ministry andregional training centres. The selection of participants was made by theAssistant Director of Continuing Education in the Department of HumanResources Development. He made a selection of 30 participants —5 participants from the Ministry’s departments and 25 from health collegesin various regions. Participants from regional centres consisted of collegeprincipals/associate principals as well as 10 librarians. The MoHWSprovided financial and material support for the intervention. The coursewas run in Morogoro region; it was chosen because it was convenient forparticipants coming from various regions in the country. The training tookplace in August 2011 and was facilitated by a facilitator from the MoHSW,a specialist in health information management and one from the Universityof Dar es Salaam who was also responsible for the course design andpreparation of course materials.

12.6.2. Course Coverage

The course assumed that participants were working on particular problemsrelated to their field of work. Hence the prerequisites for attending thecourses included the ability for participants to identify and work on

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particular problem for which information was needed. Participants wereexpected to use a range of information sources to work on their problemsthrough making choices of print and web-based resources. Both trainingcentres (Dodoma and Morogoro) had Internet connectivity and librariesfrom which some print and other information sources could be obtained.Prior to the interventions, pre-diagnostic tests were carried out to helpdesign the course and determine whether the skills learned broughtsignificant changes to learners’ understanding of information literacy atthe end of the training. The tests were, however, only carried out withextension officers only because medical practitioners failed to do so due toan administrative error. Both training courses were carried out using thefollowing structure and in the following order.

12.6.2.1. Defining the problem As stated above, participants wereexpected to attend the courses with problems/topics at hand. The purposewas to ensure the intervention was meaningful and relevant and to helpensure engagement. Topics ranged from subject-specific to general ones. Afew headings for such topics included ‘‘causes of malaria infections’’,‘‘nutritional requirements for local miners’’, ‘‘traditional medicine and itsimpact on malaria infection’’, ‘‘pest management practices of cottonwhitefly’’, ‘‘pest management of the potato tuber moth Phthorimaeaoperculella’’ and ‘‘comparisons of pure zebu cattle and other crosses’’.However, other participants had more general topics on cross-cutting issuessuch as ‘‘land management for farm use in rural districts’’, ‘‘farming systemsand effects in socio-economic development’’, ‘‘the role of the Ministry in thedevelopment of agriculture systems’’, ‘‘the impact of HIV on agriculturalproduction’’, ‘‘malaria intervention measures and reduction in rural areas’’and many others. Learners were given time to arrange themselves in groupsbased on their areas of interest.

This was followed by brief presentation on the importance of defining aninformation problem, ways to articulate information needs and the purposeof the needed information. It was considered important to give learners brieflectures on the above aspects because, as has been noted in other studies,lectures are an effective means of disseminating information to model and‘scaffold’ problem-solving, to elucidate difficult theories and to organizeconcepts (Biggs, 1999). This was followed by a hands-on activity focusing ontheir particular questions and included articulating the purpose of retrievinginformation, categories of information needed, information already known,information not known and the categories of sources they could use to findbackground knowledge about their topics. These exercises helped learners tobuild on the existing knowledge about their topics and eventually being ableto evaluate the needed information (Bruce, 1995; Fitzgerald, 1999; Irving,1985). This enabled them to expand, reframe or create new knowledge by

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integrating what they knew before and develop new understandings (CAUL,2001; Halttunen, 2003). Presentations of the tasks assigned were made at theend of the session in order to encourage the spirit of learning from eachother, engage learners through discussions and help them reflect on whatthey learned. Reflective questions were asked at the end of the session. Thisalso occurred throughout the training in order to help the facilitatorsdetermine what went well, and whether modifications were needed in orderto make the intervention more effective.

12.6.2.2. Locate and access sources This event took place on the secondday of training. Its purpose was to introduce to learners to a wide range ofsources of information, the ways search tools worked and different ways ofutilizing the available tools to facilitate information searching. This wasdone by providing learners with hands-on activities to identify differentways by which information in their areas of expertise was produced, sourcesfrom which they could find information needed and methods they could useto search for information either in print or from Internet resources. Thisgave learners time to reflect on sources of information and methods ofsearching for it. The exercise helped learners to be aware of the challengesassociated with the feelings of confusion and uncertainties caused byexposure to too many categories of sources and complicated methods ofsearching and retrieving information from the sources (Kuhlthau, 1993).Short demonstrations were then carried out by facilitators to demonstrateeffective information search and retrieval methods.

Unlike previous intervention with librarians and students (Hepworth &Wema, 2006), the course with agriculturalists and medical practitioners wasdifferent in terms of learners prior knowledge on sources of informationrelevant to their fields. A number of learners came to the course already withideas of resources commonly used at their work places. For example severalextension officers were aware of electronic databases such as Agora,OARE and Agricola. Medical practitioners indicated prior knowledge ofelectronic databases such as Medline, Pubmed, Hinari and CAB Abstracts,epidemiology lectures Supercourse and Scopus. They also indicated theirknowledge of several print sources in the form of books and journals.Building on this prior knowledge on information sources reinforced theimportance of of experiential and self-directed learning concepts in relationto problem-solving skills of learners (Butcher & Sumner, 2011). During thetwo interventions, it was observed that learners used their prior knowledgeto consult familiar sources they considered relevant in answering questionsrelated to their topics/problems. This enabled facilitators to introduce othernew sources to learners who were interested in these new resources and wereable to incorporate them into their knowledge bases of the already known

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resources. This helped to further arouse interest among learners who treatedthe entire exercise as useful and engaging.

12.6.2.3. Synthesizing and evaluating information Many participants intothe interventions were quite familiar with a number of techniques used tocapture information from sources. These included summarizing material innotebooks, capturing snapshots of species and specimens on screens andusing video/audiovisual tools and equipment. However, learners wereimpressed by other techniques used to capture and store informationthrough the use of tools such as social bookmarks (Delicious, Stumble upon,Flickr and Library thing). They applied this new knowledge to search andstore important URLs, pictures and lecture notes from various Internetresources.

Learners were provided with articles which were drawn from varioussources including chapters of books, journal articles, newspaper articles anddocuments from websites in order to evaluate them based on criteria forevaluating information and sources like authority, content, relevance,timeliness, reliability and validity. The topics to be evaluated were onenvironmental pollution (extension officers) and the origins of AIDS andHIV and the first cases of AIDS in Africa (medical practitioners).

Presentations from groups helped to engage learners who demonstratedtheir ability to apply their knowledge in terms of identifying the mostauthentic sources such as books to less authentic like newspapers articlesand Internet websites. This exercise helped to engage the learners andencouraged them to learn from each others’ experiences. As was the casewith other stages of the course, reflective questions were asked to learners tofurther identify what was learned and where more efforts should be put toimprove their learning.

12.6.2.4. Communicating and using information Participants were wellversed with various methods of communicating information to others.Quick exercises on different ways for presenting information revealed this.To a larger extent, this was based on the nature of their jobs whereagriculturalists would present various issues to farmers and otherstakeholders at village, district and regional levels. Medical practitionerswould do the same to patients and other stakeholders. Research incommunication studies reveals that practitioners in the medical field needto be well equipped with requisite skills to communicate with patients inorder to establish dialogue between the two parties (Dyche, 2007).Therefore, more emphasis was put on ways of presenting and sharinginformation. Brief presentations on various techniques to communicate andshare information were demonstrated to learners. These included the useof Social Book marking tools such as Delicious, Library Thing, Flickr and

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a brief introduction of Google Documents and Sites was also done. Thesemethods seemed new to participants, who were very interested in learningways of sharing information to colleagues and other stakeholders in theform of URLs, files and pictures.

Participants were given hands-on activities to identify text that wasplagiarized. The purpose was to find out whether or not they were aware ofdifferent acts of plagiarism. This exercise helped participants to findcommon mistakes that are committed while using information withoutacknowledging sources. This was followed by brief presentations on citationstyles and other aspects of copyright and intellectual property.

Finally a post-diagnostic text was carried out to find out whether therewere any significant changes in learners knowledge as a result of theintervention. Reflective questions were asked on all aspects learned duringthe training. Questions were centred on the usefulness of the skills acquired,problems encountered during the interventions, major achievements afterattending the courses and future plans in utilizing the acquired knowledge.

12.6.3. Results of the Interventions

The outcome of the interventions was determined through evaluation of thedata gathered through the pre/post-diagnostic tests, reflective questions,hands-on activities, presentations and discussions.

Results from reflective questions revealed different comments as follows.

12.6.3.1. Defining the problem

‘I gained an understanding about narrowing a topic and the importance of

determining the purpose of the information needed’. (Extension Officer,

Morogoro District Council)

‘It was very important for me to work in a group to discuss our understanding of

the topic chosen. This helped me to realize the importance of sharing ideas with

each other when defining an information problem’. (Tutor, Pharmacology,

Mbeya Referral Hospital)

12.6.3.2. Locate and access information

‘It was very important for me to discuss about how information is generated in

the society. This is important because it helped me to figure out where to go to

find information’. (Extension Officer, Mufindi District, Iringa)

‘I was always aware of sources such as PuMed and Hinari databases. Today I

have learned [about other] important sources which will be relevant to me and my

students’. (Medical Officer, Monduli District Hospital, Arusha)

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‘Primary sources are very important during decision-making processes. People

make a rich source of information that can be useful in providing a direction of

what decisions to make because they are the ones who are eventually affected by

decisions made’. (Personnel Officer — MoHSW — Dar es Salaam)

12.6.3.3. Synthesis and evaluation of information

‘It was my first time to evaluate informational materials by looking at the aspect

of viewpoint as I always considered the relevance of a document by looking at the

time when it was written and who wrote it only. These other evaluation criteria

were just news to me’. (Senior Tutor, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre)

‘The sources we were given to evaluate on environmental pollution consisted of a

book chapter, journal article, a newspaper article and information from a website.

It was a bit tricky to realize that the newspaper article represented the views of the

writer although information in it was very persuasive to someone who might not

look at other criteria of evaluating information’. (Extension Officer, Kilolo

District Council, Iringa)

‘The evaluation about the history of HIV/AIDS in Africa revealed that the book

chapter and article from a journal had met more criteria than the newspaper

article and Internet web page. This taught me a very important lesson to evaluate

information based on a number of criteria, not just timeliness, relevance and who

created this information’. (Nursing Officer, MoHSW, Dar es Salaam)

12.6.3.4. Communicating and using information

‘The exercise on plagiarism was very important to me because this is exactly what

students in our medical colleges do to fool us’. (Senior Tutor, Bugando Hospital,

Mwanza)

‘The use of Google Sites to share information with each other is very important. I

will implement this once I go back to my regional library’. (Librarian, Maweni

Hospital, Kigoma)

‘I liked very much Flickr as it will be a very useful tool to share photographs with

my fellow Extension Officers especially on taking and sharing pictures about

drought and diseases affecting crops in villages and show this as evidence to our

Member of Parliament’. (Extension Officer, Singida District Council)

12.7. Results from Hands-On Activities, Diagnostic Tests

Presentations and Discussions

Presentations and discussions helped learners to demonstrate what theyknew prior to attending the courses as well as their application of the newlyacquired knowledge. For example, medical practitioners demonstrated theirskills of using Google Maps to locate their work stations as well as areas

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infected by particular diseases such as malaria and measles (in certain partsof Morogoro region). These skills became more important to them whenthey later demonstrated ways of sharing maps with each other, somethingthat they seemed not to know before. Also presentations helpedparticipants to successfully demonstrate the knowledge they acquired inthe course and their levels of engagement in information-seeking activities.This was stimulated to some extent by the competitive nature of thepresentation where each group aimed to make a better presentation thanothers; therefore, each learner was prompted to work hard to achieve thisobjective. Eventually it also helped to facilitate peer-to-peer sharedlearning. Presentations also helped learners to feel obliged to supportgroup work by providing answers to the questions raised by the trainersand fellow participants. In addition, new skills of presenting informationthrough tools such as social media motivated participants to learn newways of presenting and sharing information, which they perceived asgenerally useful. In general, presentations and discussions helped toimprove the learning process.

Hands-on activities were important in demonstrating whether learnerscould apply what was taught/discussed in the course. For example,participants from the medical field demonstrated ways by which they couldapply certain search techniques such as Boolean logic, truncation and otherways to narrow or broaden search within medical databases such asPubMed Central and Hinari. On the other hand, extension officers utilizedsocial media tools to demonstrate different methods of sharing informationin the form of pictures and files through Flickr and Google Documents.Hands-on activities further helped facilitators to plan modifications of theapproaches used to demonstrate certain aspects. For example, facilitatorslearned that some participants went ahead and searched for informationrather than familiarizing with an information problem first. Thus they hadto demonstrate to participants on sources to familiarize with their topics.Following these observations, facilitators learned to plan well in advance thetype of activities that participants would be assigned as part of hands-onexercises.

Diagnostic tests (pre/post) demonstrated an increase in extension officers’information literacy skills. Diagnostic tests were used to compare pre- andpost-training results as a way of evaluating a training course to identify thestrengths or weaknesses of students in order to make improvements onprograms, a fact that is also echoed by Miller, Imrie, and Cox (1998).Results from the pre-diagnostic test revealed that more than half of thelearners provided incorrect answers to questions provided. However, thepost-diagnostic test results registered improvements in learners’ skills sincethe majority of them provided the right results to most questions. Below is asummary of learners’ performance in the tests.

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Summary of participants’ performances in diagnostic tests by average

IL skills

Pre-diagnostic test Post-diagnostic test

Correct

answers

Incorrect

answers

Correct

answers

Incorrect

answers

Defining a problem

10 40 44 6 Information sources 18 32 35 15 Internet and databases 11 39 41 9 Information search 13 37 42 8 Synthesizing andevaluating information

9

41 39 11

Informationpresentation

22

28 45 5

Source: IL survey, 2012.

Diagnostic tests revealed that some participants had possessed certainskills such as presentation and information sources. However, at the end ofthe post-diagnostic test it was generally felt that information literacy skillsfor most participants showed some remarkable improvements.

12.7.1. Challenges and Lessons Learnt

The interventions with agriculturalists and medical practitioners did nothappen without challenges. The most difficult challenges was setting up theinterventions. Much as the MAFIS as well as the MoHSW showed the needfor their employees to acquire information literacy skills, the initiatives tocarry out the interventions came mainly from the lead facilitator with thesupport from the country coordinator for UNESCO and librarians workingin the two ministries. However, this initiative did not stem from theauthorities in the two ministries. Although a lot of advocacy work wascarried out to convince the authorities to allow extension officers attend thetraining. This made it difficult for authorities, in particular MAFIS, torecognize the need for information literacy interventions for their respectiveemployees. Because of the advocacy the MoHSW realized the need forinformation literacy skills and championed its introduction into the ClinicalMedicine Diploma and First Degree courses. It was later learned that theMoHSW officers including the Assistant Director of Continuing Education

Workplace Reflections of Information Literacy Training 195

in the Department of Human Resources Development with a few moreprincipals in various colleges had realized the need for medical practitionersto acquire such skills, hence their support contributed towards the success ofthe intervention.

The initiative to carry out the interventions among the agriculturalistscame mainly from UNESCO with very little support from the MAFIS.There was therefore no guarantee of the continuation of such interventionswith other agriculturalists throughout the country. This was not the casewith MoHSW who planned several information literacy programmes withmedical practitioners throughout the country; some of them were to becarried out in August and September 2012. Moreover, as was the case withmany of such programmes carried out in developing countries (such asSaleh, 2012), the organization of interventions was hampered by problemsof poor Internet connectivity and insufficient computers and other trainingfacilities. In this case, trainers had to utilize morning hours for Internet-related activities, leaving afternoons for activities that did not need much useof the Internet.

Despite the challenges encountered, the interventions seemed to work asexpected, and were highly appreciated by participants. A few commentscaptured from extension officers highlighted a number of ways of applyingthe acquired skills such as:

‘I am a Radio Extension Officer in Ulanga District. What I got out of this course

is very important to me as an information person whose work is to inform rural

populations on issues associated with agriculture. I will use radio to promote the

importance of information literacy skills to rural farmers’. (Extensions Officer,

Ulanga District — Morogoro)

‘I will make use of the skills I got about search engines to download information

materials on aspects such as prices or varieties of different commodities and

disseminate it to farmers’. (Extensions Officer, Kondoa District — Dodoma)

‘The skills I have acquired from this training are very important in my job. I will

use it to meet information needs of farmers who want to know about certain

things for example diseases or pests affecting sorghum; I will be in a better

position to tell them what it is by searching from ask.com or Google images and

show them how sorghum disease and pests look like’. (Extensions Officer, Singida

District Council)

‘I am happy to be here and acquire these skills. I will be able to search for reliable

information about prevailing crop prices and outbreak of diseases and disse-

minate it to researchers I work with and bosses at the Council for supporting

decisions’. (Extensions Officer, Dodoma Municipal Council)

196 Evans Wema

A few extensions officers indicated the extent to which their futureexpectations would be met after attending the course:

‘This course has really changed my future work routine. Immediately after this

course I will get a laptop and modem and every morning before going to work

I will spend some time surfing the Internet to find out new information on

agriculture as well as familiarizing myself with more search engines’.

(Extension Officer, Iringa Municipal Council)

‘I always intended to become a teacher in agriculture in secondary schools

but could not have relevant information materials. Now with the new skills

I have acquired, I will confidently go to teach and demonstrate to students the

power of information literacy skills’. (Extension Officer, Kilombero District,

Morogoro)

‘My plans were to convince the District Commissioner in Singida to equip our

resource centre with modern computers but this has been in vain since people

do not see why computers should be brought there. Now after this course, I

will purchase my personal laptop and go to carry out a demonstration that will

hopefully change their mindsets and decide to buy the computers for our

centre’. (Extension Officer, Singida Municipal Council)

From the comments above, there was an indication that the course wasbeneficial to participants.

12.8. Discussions, Conclusion and Recommendations

Results from the two interventions help to demonstrate the need to designinformation literacy interventions for people at work places, and thatproblem-solving and collaborative approaches building on the pedagogicaltheories of Kolb and Vygotsky which put emphasis on experiential andreflective learning as well as mediated communication do seem to beeffective. This was true in the sense that the training among medicalpractitioners were stimulated by the need to introduce information literacyas a course in the medical curriculum. This motivated participants toseriously follow what was taught in order to be able to teach it to studentswhen it became a full-fledged course. Therefore, most topics or problemspresented by them reflected specific aspects that were expected to beincluded into their curriculum including ways by which information onforensic medicine is generated, disseminated and shared, designing mind-maps for gathering information on counselling and case management forSTIs and HIV screening and several others. Information search techniquesfocused on finding relevant information focusing on salient topical issuesincluding maternal deaths, malaria, HIV/AIDS, cancer and other chronicdiseases. The importance of problem-based learning was further reflected by

Workplace Reflections of Information Literacy Training 197

the Assistant Director of Continuing Education in the Department ofHuman Resources Development during his workshop opening remarks. Thedirector argued that information literacy skills were important to medicalpractitioners as it enables learners to develop critical thinking skills whichare important in the medical field. The director gave a reference to a researchby Eskola (2005) in Finland who discovered that students who learnedinformation literacy well were those who had used a problem-basedapproach to learning, hence the need to introduce information literacycourses into the medical curriculum that encouraged group work andsharing of experiences.

On the other hand, extension officers realized the need to acquireinformation literacy skills using a problem-based approach due to theirinvolvement in supporting decisions while working with village, ward anddistrict executive officers at council levels. They encountered challengesassociated with acquiring relevant agricultural information to supportdecisions on farm statistics, farm implements, pests and diseases and others.Many participants came into the course with specific information problemsat hand. During the reflective exercises one participant from MvomeroDistrict (Dodoma) commented as follows:

I very much appreciate for the skills I acquired especially on how to use

Wikimapia. I always wanted to know how to locate areas infected with

diseases and pests that attack sunflowers and sorghum. Now with Wikimapia I

can mark and show it to Executive Officers during meetings the areas infected

in order for them to determine the magnitude of the problem and find

appropriate solutions.

Teaching extension officers information literacy using an experientiallearning approach helped to make the course more focused and meaningful.Many participants seemed experienced with a number of search tools anddatabases such as HINARI, Agricola and OARE. They helped to makefacilitators more focused on specific examples based on particularproblems. These included searching for information on topics such as sisalwaste (Agave sisalana) for farmers based in Morogoro region, issues ofpyrethrins toxicity for pyrethrum producers in Singida region, crossing ofZebu cattle with their hybrids for pastoralists in Dodoma region, pestmanagement on Irish potatoes for farmers in Iringa region as well as ruralbanking schemes to local populations in Mbeya region. The learningexercise to them was more practical-based because most problems theypresented were met with the appropriate informational solutions. As such,problem-based learning through experience and reflection helped learners togain an understanding of contemporary issues in crop production andanimal husbandry in Tanzania. It gave them the opportunity to gain

198 Evans Wema

experience based on shared knowledge in their field of expertise (Bethel &Morgan, 2011).

In addition to the above, the combination of reflective exercises, grouppresentations and reflections, together with brief lecture presentations,improved the teaching/learning process. Lectures, for example, assumed thatcertain skills needed to be taught and demonstrated. Much as participantswere aware of a number of search tools and databases, aspects such as theimportance of articulating information problems, mind-mapping andpsychological feelings associated with too many results or irrelevantinformation needed to be stressed through brief lecture presentations. Thisrecognizes that even in a working environment, short lecture presentationsare important when conducting information literacy interventions. Lecturesare an effective means of disseminating information; they help to modelproblem-solving, to elucidate difficult theories and to organize concepts.Therefore lectures not only helped to disseminate information and clarifydifficult aspects, they assisted in making learners aware of what they weredoing and the importance of knowing what they did, that is scaffolding(Biggs, 1999).

The interventions among agriculturalists and medical practitionersbrought new challenge on how to teach these and other professionals inthe work places. These interventions received special funding; it was notclear as to how other professionals in other fields would learn informationliteracy skills. Of course one approach as planned by medical practitionerswas to integrate information literacy skills into the medical curriculum. Thechallenge remains however as to how those who had already passed formalcollege education would learn these important skills. On one hand studentswho undertook agriculture and related studies mainly at Sokoine Universityof Agriculture would learn information literacy skills while at the university(Sife, 2005). However, this might not be the case for others who never wentthrough such a training system.

To help ensure that information literacy skills would be taught todifferent professionals in work places, the Tanzania Public Services Collegeinitiated a pilot programme on teaching information literacy skills fordecision-makers/influencers. This was expected to be a training programmeinvolving civil servants who were trained at the college for variouscertificate, ordinary diploma and postgraduate diploma courses. The pilotprogramme would result into an integrated information literacy course intothe college’s curriculum. The pilot was launched in June 2012 and wasexpected to last for one semester (until December 2012). Perhaps this andother similar efforts would help to promote the teaching of informationliteracy courses to professionals at work places. Therefore, owing to theimportance of this kind of information literacy training, it is highlyrecommended that mechanisms be put in place to ensure that courses such

Workplace Reflections of Information Literacy Training 199

as the ones outlined in this study be initiated to various professionals inorder to instil critical thinking and independent learning among peopleworking at decision-making/influencing levels.

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