Conference Agenda

The basis of all learning is information. The notion of learning lies at the heart of information literacy. For example, information literacy is sometimes promoted as an approach to learning, or a way of learning. Very often the exercise for children in early school age is to investigate beyond the textbook about an item or subject, a phenomenon or a term. They are usually aware that they are unable to fulfil the exercise by themselves and ask their parents or siblings for help. Children learn through experiences and in the preschool age they begin to develop their independence, but they are aware they still need the parents’ help when they want to know or do something, especially when they obtain information about something from unknown or new sources (Shenton & Dixon, 2004). The idea of informed learning was developed to direct attention toward those interpretations of information literacy that involve using information to learn (Bruce, Hughes & Somerville, 2012, p. 524). Therefore, in order for an individual to be able to participate promptly and actively in a world saturated with information, it is necessary to work from an early age on the development of information skills that deal with proper procedures in the sea of information. However, the authors mostly focus on the development of information skills in adults or older children, but very few authors decide to explore information skills in young children through library services (Barriage, 2021). It is suggested that children can engage in evaluation and application of knowledge which influences their academic outcomes (Greene, Cartiff & Duke, 2018). Eisenberg and Berkowitz (1999) dedicated part of their work to the youngest users of the library, including preschool children. In their work, they designed the Super3 program specially for information literacy of preschool and early school age children. Eisenberg and Berkowitz in the extended version of Big6 single out the skills that need to be acquired in order for an individual to be an information literate person, but for children these skills are simplified to: plan, do and review, also called as Super3 (https://thebig6.org). The aim of this research is to investigate the basic knowledge of children, age 5 to 8 years old in Croatia, about information and sources of information and about their basic information literacy skills. The research questions are: 1. What does the concept of information mean to early school-age children?; 2. What kind of sources of information do early school-age children use?; 3. How do early school-age children actively seek information by themselves?; and 4. Are workshops based on Super 3 an appropriate method to teach information literacy skills of early school-age children? Methods applied in this research are survey, in-depth interviews and action research – with carefully designed materials and workshop for teaching information skills using Super 3. Results of this research show that children in the early school years have poorly developed information literacy skills, due to their age, this was to be expected. Furthermore, they hardly understand the meaning of the term information, where the information came from and how one can find them. The problem lies in the fact that children are expected to already be familiar with the concept of information at the entering school and know how to handle it for the purpose of completing school assignments, without prior training in this field. After this workshop we can conclude children’s knowledge and skills are improved. The workshops within this action research serve as a kind of guidelines for the organization and implementation of such workshops for intentional teaching information skills of children in the early school years. Furthermore, it plays on a basic approach to supporting planning and implementation school library programs for developing and improvement of information literacy skills of children from early school age.

References

Barriage, S. (2021). Young children’s information-seeking practices in center-based childcare. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 54(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000620962164

Bruce, C., Hughes, H. & Somerville, M. M. (2012). Supporting informed learners in the twenty-first century library. Trends, 60(3), 522–554.

Shenton, A., & Dixon, P (2004). The development of young people’s information-seeking behaviour. Library and Information Research, 28(90). https://doi.org/10.29173/lirg172

Eisenberg, M. B., & Berkowitz, R. E. (1999). Teaching information & technology skills. Worthington, OH: Linworth.

Greene, J. A., Cartiff, B. M., & Duke, R. F. (2018). A meta-analytic review of the relationship between epistemic cognition and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110(8), 1084–1111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000263

Nelson, A.C.H., & Du Puis, D. N. (2010). The adventures of Super3. Linworth.

Bartow, C. et al. (2018). The Big6. Retrieved from https://thebig6.org

There is a growing need to design creative teaching methods early in the school curriculum to empower children with information literacy (IL) skills. This will prepare them for battling mis/disinformation, so that they can be safe, understand the value of critical engagement with online information, and express their perspectives while opening dialogue about their experiences. Previous research in the U.K. has found that children lack the critical IL skills for identifying fake information and are least likely to speak to their teachers (National Literacy Trust, 2018, p. 4). Connecting online happens at an increasingly younger age, with UK research estimating that up to half of children 8-12 years have set up their own online profile, while a third include a false date of birth (Ofcom, 2022). After surveying 25, 101 children, the EU Kids Online project identified a significant increase in screen time, which had almost doubled in some EU countries (Smahel et al., 2020). This project empowered young people with IL skills by means of opening dialogue around the phenomenon of mis/disinformation and the ethics of online connectivity. We followed the principles of the United Nations Convention of the ‘Rights of the Child’ that extend to the online environment where digital technologies should “adopt the principles of privacy, resilience and harm reduction” (Scottish Government, 2022) and where programmes should incorporate children’s “rights to seek, receive and impart information” (OHCHR, 2021, p. 3). The project took the form of a collaboration between the educational project, ‘Maddie is Online,’ and the Modiano Elementary Library of Anatolia College (a private non-for-profit organisation in Greece). ‘Maddie is Online’ is an innovative community-led project, funded by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC). Ituses creative storytelling, with an emphasis on opening dialogue around experiences of online connectivity, using video animated stories with children’s voice overs, digital lesson plans, and reflective exercises. We incorporated ‘Maddie is Online’ resources into the library IL program, aimed at Year 5 students (10 years old), with a total of 90 pupils from 3 classes. The lessons were delivered by the Elementary Librarian in collaboration with teachers. We collected qualitative data from pupils who, after watching the video stories and completing the toolkit exercises engaged in discussion in small groups, reflecting on their own experiences and exploring how they would address the challenges that Maddie encountered. This allowed opportunities for dialogue and exploring skills for information searching, evaluation, and critical judgement. Pupils submitted anonymous data via question-and-answer home quizzes that tested their comprehension. We explored the learning experiences of pupils and their perceptions of misinformation through an online survey while we collected qualitative feedback on experiences around delivering the sessions from staff.

References

National Literacy Trust. (2018). Fake news and critical literacy: The final report of the commission on fake news and the teaching of critical literacy in schools. Retrieved March 7, 2023 from https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/Fake_news_and_critical_literacy_-_final_report.pdf

Ofcom. (2022). Children’s online user ages. Retrieved from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/245004/children-user-ages-chart-pack.pdf

OHCHR. (2021). General comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment. Retrieved March 7, 2023 from https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-25-2021-childrens-rights-relation

Scottish Government. (2022). Building trust in the digital era: achieving Scotland’s aspirations as an ethical digital nation. Retrieved March 7, 2023 from https://www.gov.scot/publications/building-trust-digital-era-achieving-scotlands-aspirations-ethical-digital-nation/pages/2/

Smahel, D. Machackova, H., Mascheroni, G., Dedkova, L., Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., Livingstone , S. & Hasebrin Smahel, U. D. et al. (2020). EU kids online 2020-international report. Retrieved March 7, 2023 from https://www.eukidsonline.ch/files/Eu-kids-online-2020-international-report.pdf

In my dissertation (Alamettälä, 2022), I investigated how lower secondary school teachers (n=3) developed their instruction practices of online research skills after having been introduced to a pedagogical framework, Guided Inquiry Design (Kuhlthau, Manioites & Caspari, 2015), and examined the short- and long-term effects of the intervention on students (n=58). It was a longitudinal study: I followed the same students from 7th to 8th grade. During these two years, the students participated three teaching intervention courses that focused on different subtasks of online research: information search, evaluation, and use. The control group received standard instruction based on the curriculum. The results showed that the intervention had a positive effect immediately after the intervention, but this effect did not last until the following year (Alamettälä, 2022). Therefore, it is important to investigate how the students themselves experienced the intervention and how they reflected on their own working and learning after the intervention courses.

There are only a few intervention studies related to teaching of online research skills or information literacy skillsin lower secondary schools and even fewer investigated students’ experiences. My study provided students’ perspective on the topic. In this paper, I focused on how the students themselves experienced the intervention and their own actions during the intervention courses.

The research questions are:

1. What kind of new competencies did the students feel they achieved during the intervention?

2. How did the students indicate they worked during the intervention?

3. What kind of challenges did the students report that they had during the intervention?

4. How do students’ learning experiences, classwork, and challenges correlate?

I collected the data between 2015 and 2017. Through the questionnaire I surveyed students’ learning experiences, classwork, and challenges during the intervention courses. I analysed the data using quantitative methods.

The results showed that, concerning online research skills, the students reported most learning during the first intervention course. However, , the students reported learning more than online research skills in that they also learned subject content and working practices. According to the students, their classwork was quite exemplary; they felt that they had followed teacher’s instructions. The students did not report about any major problems. Most challenging for them was planning the work and using the inquiry log.

Correlation analysis show that good classwork was linked to positive learning experiences. A negative correlation was found between classwork and perceived challenges: the better the classwork, the fewer the challenges. There was no significant correlation between learning experiences and challenges in either direction. The same results were observed after each intervention course.

References

Alamettälä, T. (2022). Development of online research skills among lower secondary school students: The roles of formal instruction and personal factors. [Doctoral dissertation]. Tampere University. Retrieved from https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-2248-9

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

In 1974, Paul Zurowski coined the term “information literacy” (IL) (Badke, 2010, p. 48) and brought attention to the burgeoning production and complexity of information and the need to study and understand it, given its power and possibilities for shaping/influencing daily life. Writing in 2013, Zurkowski made clear that “[w]ays must be found to enable ordinary[,] every day citizens [to] produce and wield countervailing power to effectively restrain” “special interest money” (p. 2). For Zurkowski, “a combination of IL and a Direct Democracy movement, offer the library community such an opportunity to remodel itself while building, along what [he called] “The Direct Democracy Coalition for Citizen Rights and Responsibilities,” the power to address … [the] “issues” he identified then. Quite clearly, Zurkowski had deep ethical concerns about the socio-economic and political life of citizens around the world. He identified IL and information professionals including librarians, as significant to creating a more just and equitable world for all. My paper is embedded in critical, sociocultural/sociohistorical perspectives (Freire, 1970) and informed by Zurkowski’s vision, and Lloyd’s (2012) “people-in-practice” perspective about IL. I highlight contemporary examples of children and youth in the practice of “generating” (Zurkowski, 1974), and simultaneously using informational texts and literacies to agentically ‘speak truth to police power,’ thereby alerting society of their lived realties of fear and injustice. The Canadian information landscape is characterized by “a range of state statistics and figures related to the disappearance and death of Indigenous women and girls…” (Scribe, 2018, p. 48). Jonnie et al.’s (2019) compelling work of youth advocacy is provoked by fear of going missing and winding up dead through misrepresentation/dehumanization, absence, and need for information, and desire for safety. This takes place in the face of what Amnesty International (2021) describes as “appalling statistics … consistent with previous estimates from sources such as Statistics Canada that have long pointed to a greatly disproportionate level of violence against First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and girls” (para. 4) in Canada. My presentation employs “description, analysis, and understanding of experiences” to illustrate their value in understanding the “life worlds” of those we serve as information professionals (Bruce, p. 12), in places marked by ongoing colonial oppression. I was guided by theory of phenomenography (1981) and Bruce’s (2013) application of it to IL research. I feature epistolary writing of adolescents along with relevant interpretive/theoretical frameworks, such as Indigenous feminism (Joyce, 2020) and reader response theory (Rosenblatt, 1978). This work instantiates critical youth agency/IL practices through centering multimodal literature produced by youth for the purposes of sharing information about life-threatening phenomena characterizing their life-worlds. Thereby, illustrating youths’ critical awareness of, and need for the “transformative and empowering” possibilities of IL itself, in and beyond their contexts (Bruce, 2013). Furthermore, my presentation offers insights about IL practices for youth in underserved populations and their resistance to indifference and argues for, and contributes to scholarship about the phenomenographic, “experiential [and relational] perspective” (Ibid).

References

Amnesty International. (2021). Missing and murdered indigenous women and girls: The facts. Retrieved from https://amnesty.ca/blog/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-facts/

Badke, W. (2010). Foundations of information literacy: Learning from Paul Zurkowski. Online, 34(1), 48–50.

Bruce, C. S. (2013). Information literary research practice: An experiential perspective. In S. Kurbanoğlu et al. (Eds.), European Conference on Information Literacy: Proceedings, ECIL 2013, CCIS 397 (pp. 11–30). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.

Jonnie, B., Shannacappo, N., & Shingoose, N. (2019). If I go missing. James Lorimer & Company.

Lloyd, A. (2012). Information literacy as a socially enacted practice. Journal of Documentation, 68(6).

Marton, F. (1981). Describing conceptions of the world around us. Instructional Science, 10(2), 177–220.

Mithlo, A. M. (2020). “A Real Feminine Journey”: Locating Indigenous feminisms in the arts. Meridians, 19(1).

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem. Southern Illinois University Press.

Scribe, M. (2018). Pedagogy of indifference. Canadian Woman Studies, 32(1/2), 47–57.

Zurkowski, P. (2013). Information literacy is dead …. Long live information literacy. In S. Kurbanoğlu et al. (Eds.), European Conference on Information Literacy: Proceedings, ECIL 2013, CCIS 397. Cham: Springer International Publishing.