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Sara BirdEducation Officer
Newcastle University Library
Bridging the Gap between Secondary and Tertiary Education: the role of Information Literacy
Education Outreach at Newcastle University
Why bother?
If I hadn’t decided to come to Uni already this library would have made the decision for me.
Year 12 student visiting the Robinson Library
Background
• http://archivesalive.ncl.ac.uk– Cholera
– Authors alive
– Mining
– Sustainability
– Science
– ITT
– conferences
Background
• Request for research session from one teacher– Trial of new EPQ
– Awareness of lack of Information Literacy in Secondary Schools
– Growing problems with transition from Year 13 to undergraduate
– Newcastle University mission statement
Background
• Over 5000 visits in just over 3 years
• Geographically from Berwick, Keswick and local area
• Predominantly EPQ, History, English and Geography
• Use traffic light system to ensure resources not over‐stretched.
Advertising: Teachers Talk!
Repeat visit 48.6%
Word of mouth 16.2%
LEA 2.7%
Website (archivesalive.ncl.ac.uk)
16.2%
Other 16.2%
Get them thinking!
• Politely suggest that Google is not the straight forward answer to everything
– Student response system
• Safe
• Anonymous
• Easy
• Thought provoking…hopefully!
Where would you look to find out about One Direction?
1. Journal
2. Facebook
3. Google
4. Websites
5. Reference book
6. You Tube
Where would you look to find out about penguins?
1. Reference books
2. Journals
3. Wikipedia
4. Websites
5. Google
6. documentaries
Where would you look to find images of Renaissance art?
1. Google
2. Wikipedia
3. Facebook
4. You Tube
5. Reference books
6. Journal
Research skills• Can you trust everything you see
• Consider pro’s and con’s of what is available
Reflection through…..
• Thinking skills
– Forced to stop and think
– Have to come to a decision• Collaborative
• Be able to justify decision
• No right or wrong answer
– Great for debrief
Thinking skills
Plagiarism
• Highlight what they don’t know as well as what they do know
• Keep it light‐hearted
• Emphasise the seriousness
• Interactive
“…was surprised about some forms of plagiarism”
A level student
Plagiarism
Review
• What do they know?
• Re‐inforce learning in fun way
• Competition
• Pride in school
• Confidence in their abilities
• Enjoyable!
“…the whole session was useful at every point…”
teacher
Libguides
• Keep up to date
• Easily accessible
• For use in sessions
• Adaptable
• Be careful: youtube, facebook, etc.
Feedback
• Bristol Online Survey
– Ask all teachers to fill in online feedback (not all do)
– Mix of quantitative and qualitative feedback
• Have started to try to capture feedback on the day
Feedback (teachers)
•“An excellent way in which to bridge the school/university gap.”
•“The chance to use the university library was extremely useful not only from an EPQ point of view but also from the experience itself for a group who are applying to university this year.”
Feedback (students)
• “It’s so easy to find things now!”
• “I feel like I’m in heaven”
• “…I now like penguins!! Oh and can reference.”
• “Decent day, actually managed to get some work done!”
Research ‐ EQUATE
“If children know there is someone standing over them who knows all the answers, they are less inclined to find the answers for themselves.”
(Mitra, 2010)
Research ‐ EQUATE
• Stage 1 – Year 10 GCSE History (mixed ability)
– Mantle of the expert
– Research Renaissance medicine
– Write and present presentation
– We would research their research techniques
– pre‐questionnaire, snowboard, drawing of a library, turning point, observation
Research – What does a University Library Offer?
Speaks for itself
Pre‐visit Post‐visit
Research: preferred resources to use for research
•Have to accept that students will always use google….but• raised awareness of reliability• raised awareness of other resources and their reliability, e.g.encyclopaedias
Research ‐ EQUATE
• Stage two – Year 12 EPQ students
– Taught information literacy session as described earlier
– less detailed study to see if their research habits change through our intervention
Research – most used resources for research
Pre‐visit Post‐visit
• Pre‐visit: internet was the most popular, with google being the most favoured, followed by reputable websites and wikipedia• The most notable change was the increase in value of the library• Surprisingly people dropped in popularity – this may be due to the students being more information literate and not feeling they needed the support of people as much.• Post‐visit: other than google there appeared to be a general raised awareness of the usefulness of all the resources
Impact: general
• Harder to show– “This visit is now incorporated into the International Relations A2 course” (History A level teacher)
– “….Hearing Uni staff reinforcing what we’ve said is invaluable and forces students to start taking their research seriously.” (school librarian)
– “It’s always great and we will be back for next year. It’s essential for our EPQ students.” (teacher)
Impact: research
• Treating them as university students introduced them to a new learning environment, which for some was aspirational.
• We can never stop them using Google and Wikipedia, but we can raise awareness of the need for reliability, cross‐referencing and trustworthiness.
• It is never too early or too late to intervene in developing students' research skills.
Impact: research
• The visit to our university library had a huge impact on students' awareness of what resources a university library can offer
• Students' raised awareness of the need to use reliable and trustworthy resources when carrying out research
• Being given the opportunity to do independent research helped make them into independent learners (we hope!)
INFORMATION
LITERACY
THE FORGOTTEN LINK
Our Purpose
• Develop Information Literacy skills in school from an early age.
• Encourage the sharing of good teaching practice between library staff in the school and Higher Education sectors.
• Produce an online teaching toolkit.
Bridging the Divide
Onlinesurveys
Focus Groups
Shadowing schemes in the local area to promote the
differences across the sector.
User perception of Information
Literacy through sessions taught and observed
Contact Detail
• Newcastle University Education Outreach– [email protected]
• Bridging the Divide project– [email protected]
