Be still and listen to the voices: From research to practice

1. Be still and listen to the voices:From research to practice Dr Ross J Todd Associate Professor Director of Research CISSL Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey rtodd@scils.rutgers.edu cissl.scils.rutgers.edu www.scils.rutgers.edu/~rtodd

2. Plutarch “The mind is not a container to be filled, but a fire to be ignited” INFORMATION VS KNOWLEDGE DEBATE

3. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge Now I am really confused!

4. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge No Wonder I am lost!

5. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge A knowledge society? Such insight!!!

6. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge McDeath, I guess

7. The Information-to-Knowledge Challenge Any one you might recommend for the job?

8. Why do we need school libraries? Food for the Mind?

9. School Libraries and Learning: 3 Core Beliefs • Information makes a difference to people. • Making a difference does not happen by chance: Teaching-learning role is the central dimension of the professional role of teacher-librarians INSTRUCTIONAL INTERVENTION • Learning outcomes matter: belief that all students can learn, and develop new understandings through the school library, and demonstrate outcomes

10. What is an Effective School Library? • Research tells us: • It has a qualified teacher-librarian: both a leading teacher and a credentialed librarian: Learning Activist not a Classroom Escapee • It has an explicit and tangible library policy focusing on learning outcomes • It actively supports the curriculum through provision of up-to-date adequate resources (print & electronic) • It provides individual and group instruction in information and critical literacies (teachers and students)

11. What is an Effective School Library? • Research tells us: • It has a vibrant literature / reading program for academic achievement and personal enjoyment and enrichment • It collaborates with other libraries: public, government, community resources • It provides leadership to students and staff in the use of electronic resources and integrating information technology into learning

12. How do effective school libraries help kids? Are school libraries a class act? 13000 students tell us!

14. “Student learning through Ohio School Libraries” • identify how students benefit from school libraries – state wide though exploring the “help” construct • provide statewide data on best practices and promising practices in school librarianship • identify pedagogy for teaching and learning in information based schools • encourage continuous improvement in effective library services which support academic content • confirm for school librarians that their role impacts student achievement and life long learning • identify professional development opportunities for reflective practice in order to build effective school library programs • provide a framework for dialog among parent communities, school boards, administrators, school librarians, and teachers on the value of effective school libraries • help school librarians develop evidence-based practice for their own school library

15. “Student Learning Through Ohio School Libraries” • 39 school libraries participated from list selected by the Ohio Experts Panel using criteria of “effectiveness” validated by the International Panel • Grades 3 – 12 • Funded by State Library of Ohio • Web-based data collection with security and ethical protocols built into process (Rutgers – 3 backup sites) • Data collected from 28th April to early June 2003 • 13,123 valid student responses (13,328 logged) • 879 teacher / administrator responses (935 logged) • Data “cleaned” - unable to match some to IRNs • Analysis using SPSS (“Statistical Package for the Social Sciences”) Version 10.0 for Windows.

16. Getting The Data • 2 InstrumentsImpacts on Learning Survey (Students) Perceptions of Learning Impacts (Faculty) • “helps” measure of 48 statements of learning outcomes: (13,123 students) • Critical Incident response to capture voice of students: to write about a time when school library helped them recently: what was the help and what did it enable them to do (10,316 responses) • Evidence-based response to capture voice of faculty “how they know the library helps students”

17. 7 Constructs of “help” • how helpful the school library is with getting information you need • how helpful the school library is with using the information to complete your school work (l.L skills) • How helpful the school library is with your school work in general (knowledge building, knowledge outcomes) • How helpful the school library is with using computers in the library, at school, and at home • How helpful the school library is to you with your general reading interests • How helpful the school library is to you when you are not at school (independent learning) • General school aspects –Academic Achievement

22. Critical Incident • “Now, remember one time when the school library really helped you. Write about the help that you got, and what you were able to do because of it” • To validate – “witness” quantitative data; to elucidate “helps” not identified in 48 statements; to provide the “voice” of the students • 10,328 written statements were received, and these were cleaned to 10,316 valid statements • “it help me sell my body for fruit snacks” • “I am black and I like fried chicken” “zfzswdegegegeeeee”

23. Sample Characteristics Boys 48.0% Girls 51.1% Ages 7 – 20 Grades 3 –5 17% Grades 6 – 9 45% Grades 10 – 12 38% White 78.5%, African-American 5% Urban/Suburban 81%, Rural 10 %

24. Some Findings “Yeah, the school library rocks”

25. Celebrate School Libraries • Only 73 respondents out of 13,123 indicated that none of the 48 statements applied to them – that the perceived helps, as listed, of the school library with their schooling and learning at home did not apply to them. ( 0.56% of the total sample) • In other words, 99.44% of the sample (13,050 students) has indicated that the school library and its services, including roles of school librarians, have helped them in some way, regardless of how much, with their learning in and out of school as it relates to the 48 statements. • 1n a total of 106 students in the 3 categories where the respondents said “does not apply” in 48, 47 or 46 of the statements, 72 (68%) are boys and 34 (32%) are girls. More than 60% of them are in grade 9, 10, and 12.

26. Celebrate School Libraries • I’m in Grade 8. I don’t get it. Why do I need to do this survey? Isn’t it obvious to everyone that we have to have our school library to do all our school work. It’s impossible to do it without it, that’s for sure. (male) • We all know that school libraries help students. Why must we have a survey about it? All schools need libraries, so let’s not worry about the surveys. (Grade 11 female) • I do most of my school work at home, and not at school, but I do use the school library quite often when we need hard book references for things such as reports and Hyperstudio projects. Thank you for taking the time to read the answers to my survey, whoever you are. Your time, patience, and effort is greatly appreciated as we need good libraries. (Grade 10 male)

27. T O P L E V E L S O F H E L P

29. L O W E S T L E V E L S O F H E L P

30. M O S T H E L P F U L

31. Additional “Help” Constructs 1. The school library saves me time with doing my school work 2. The school library enables me to complete my work on time 3. The school library helps me by providing a study environment for me to work 4. The school library helps me take stress out of learning 5. The school library helps me know my strengths and weaknesses with information use 6. The school library helps me think about the world around me 7. The school library helps me do my work more efficiently 8. The school library provides me with a safe environment for ideas investigation 9. The library helps me set my goals and plan for things.

32. Validation through Triangulation • Triangulation: use of multiple data sources with similar foci to obtain diverse views • Student quantitative responses • Student qualitative responses • Faculty quantitative responses • Faculty qualitative responses

33. Comparison of Mean Scores

34. Means of Reading Qs by Grade

35. The Students’ Voices When I was working on a project about science I had no idea what I was doing I asked my library teachers for help they helped and by the end of the day I felt so much better!!! And from that day on I knew what I was doing on that project and I got a A I was so proud of myself and my confidence went up a whole lot and now when ever I do a project I know I have a lot of power now to do well on projects!!! (Respondent 777 )

36. The Students’ Voices • 1532 The school librarians don’t help me at all like they make me do all the stuff myself and wont tell me where the things are even when I already looked – they show me and make me learn how to find the stuff myself and its hard work!!!! You gotta use your brain, they say

37. Students’ Voices • 1015 I I would have never have found the sources I needed for the paper if not for the school library, the public library, and the helpful people who staff those places. They even showed me steps to work through to do the research and complete it. They ran some classes specifically for us and they were very very very helpful • 1075 Well one time was when we had to do a report on Animals and I had no clue how to find information about my animal. So Mrs. X helped me find the information on the computer. On the internet if its true or false – to learn that is very important at school.

38. Students’ Voices • 3532 I was working on History project and we had to have several sources (primary documents) and the librarians instructed the students on how to go about finding the information we needed and compiling it into something worthwhile. I was able to combine everything together and earn a good grade. • 100 I needed help doing a project for government that had to do with presidents and they had so many books and then the librarian helped me find web sites. But then they gave me ways of sorting through all the ideas to extract the key points so I could get my head around it all

39. Students’ Voices • 66 I needed to write a paper and I went to the Library where I was ultimately able to write a paper successfully. My ideas were a mess and talking to the librarian gave me a way to organize my ideas and present the argument. I did really well!! I’ve never forgotten that – used it to do many other assignments. • 4155 I remember when I came up to the school library for math. We turned the library into a co-ordinate grid. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!! And I could know about grids in my tests

40. 433 It helped me find info on racism for a 10th grade project, and made me really think about that, especially I didn’t realize how racist some of my ideas were • 6256 Sometimes I argue with my parents about things and use the library to check if my opinions are true • 1408 One time, I wanted books on Teen Suicide and they were able to get some for me. It was helpful of them as my cousin died that way and I could figure it out a bit more for me. • 6110 I guess I’ve discovered one thing. When I do my research well, and do the proper thing with note cards and writing in my own words, I seem to just get to know the stuff and that makes a big help when I talk about the stuff in class.

41. School Library as Dynamic Agent of Learning • Providing access to information resources - both print collections within the library and resources through databases and the World Wide web • Providing access to multiple viewpoints • Engaging students in an active process of building their own understanding and knowledge. Understanding how to do research effectively, understanding how to identify key ideas, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information, testing their own ideas, developing personal conclusions are fundamental to students constructing their own understanding of a topic.

42. School Library as Dynamic Agent of Learning • Instructional intervention: Students appear to indicate that the school library – not as a passive supply agency, but as an instructional agency – helps them substantially in their learning • effective school library not just as an INFORMATION PLACE, but also as a KNOWLEDGE SPACE

43. Agent for Information Inquiry: Key to Knowledge Construction • Engaging students in an active and meaningful search process contextualized by specific learning tasks, enabling them to explore, formulate and focus their searches, and providing a supportive environment (personal, physical and instructional) for students to success in their research. • Instructional intervention focuses on the development of an understanding of what good research is about, how you undertake good research, and knowing what the outcomes of doing good research will be in terms of academic success in research projects.

44. ESSENTIAL LEARNINGS: Skills and values that underpin learning across the curriculum • Knowledge creation: Students achieve through being able to define problems, frame questions, explore ideas, formulates focus, investigate, analyze and synthesize ideas to create own views, evaluate solutions and reflect on new understandings. • Knowledge production: Students can use technology and information tools to produce new knowledge and demonstrate achievement. They create information products that accurately represent their newly developed understanding. • Knowledge use: Students develop transferable skills for sustaining knowledge creation across and beyond the classroom. • Knowledge dissemination: Students can communicate ideas using oral, written, visual and technological modes of expression – individually or in teams. • Knowledge values: Students are ethical, responsible users of information who accept responsibility for personal decisions and information actions. They demonstrate concern for quality information and value different modes of thought • Reading literacy: Students have high levels of reading literacy. They become independent, lifelong sustained readers.

46. ISSUESHow School Libraries Don’t Help? • The problematic nature of library instruction • Playing psychologist? Moral high ground? • Personality issues • Infringement of perceived rights / BESS • Library systems and rules – who do they benefit? Who do they serve? • What do we convey to students that is important?

47. The problematic nature of library instruction • 3935 The school library has helped me find the information I need for my research papers. Other than that I don't see I do much of a use for it. Most of the stuff they talk about, I already know how to do. • 9364 If anyone says, "Be careful what you read on the Internet" one more time, I'm going to die. We know how to judge the accuracy of information! Anyway, that's the end of my tirade - hopefully change will come out of this....we need drastic reform here. • 3764 I have not really received ANY help at all from the library. We just hear the same speech about 100 times in a row.. I don’t need to hear it again • learning Dewey yet again – year after year – for God’s sake, get off it and teach us something valuable, we all know how to do Dewey since Grade 3

48. Playing psychologist? Moral High Ground? • 3046 When I was young, I like to read Goosebump books and the librarian told me not to read these books because they were a bad influence on me. I now hate to read because I stopped reading after that. I feel if I would have continued to read when I was young then I would enjoy reading now.

49. Personality Issues • 1771 Well, they help me with about all of my projects, especially Social Studies and science. The science ones they helped me much on were my Kite project (helped me find the "how to make kites" books) and my Iron project (i was in deep doo-doo on that one until they helped me find a lotta books on Iron) Then in Social Studies they helped me find books on a lot of my projects (King Tut, Roman Catholic Church, etc.) It was pretty easy too, Very helpful to me! And then they just helped me find books....and loaned the book carts to my classrooms, to help us out. I just think they need to be nicer sometimes. • 9793 I can't remember the last time the librarians helped me. The Librarians are mean and I am too afraid to talk to them because they intimidate me. They have unjustly yelled at me in the past so I am not going to them for help when I could go to the public library or use my own computer at home.

50. Infringement of perceived rights / Bess • 2583 All the censorship issues the student encounter really hold back much of the possible research we can do. IT is really annoying that I can vote, be sent to war, and I cant even look at any pages on the internet. Bess the dog really holds the students back from their full potential. • 3890 They should have a place were people could go and look up what they want instead of something school related. You should be able to look up non-school related. This should be important but Bessy babe puts an end to that