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The Library & Information Science Professional's Career Development Center |
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Teaching Tips from the Instruction Front: Insights of a New Librarian |
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You Know It … Now Teach It! For many librarians, particularly those of us working in academic libraries, instruction is an important part of our jobs. The form of instruction varies, from “one shot” information sessions to workshops and orientations to for-credit courses within departments. Graduate programs in library and information science do not always prepare us adequately for this sometimes exciting and often daunting responsibility. While new librarians are eager to share their passion for research and information literacy, becoming a successful instructor can be a time-consuming endeavor. Information Strategies Within several months of beginning my first job after finishing graduate school, I was presented with the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course entitled Information Strategies. The one-credit course is offered every fall at Purdue University, and the faculty librarians share the responsibility of teaching it by rotating every semester. As I agreed to teach this course, I began to question my abilities. After being in school for what seemed like ages, how could I suddenly transform from student to teacher? Could I stand in front of a classroom full of students without my knees buckling? Would students take me seriously? Jumping In Despite my initial hesitation, I accepted the challenge, and it proved to be an outstanding learning experience. During the twelve weeks I spent planning and teaching this course, I learned more about undergraduate students, information literacy, and instruction than I thought possible. The successes and blunders of my fledgling teaching career have taught me a few things about undergraduate instruction that might benefit any librarian facing his or her first teaching experience. 1. Put your plan in writing. The teaching process involves more than standing in front of students and talking. Preparing for instruction often involves doing research, designing visual aids, creating assignments and activities, and possibly keeping track of attendance and student progress. Create a course outline to conquer any false feelings of impending doom and to manage your time and stress level. Tips for creating a class outline: At least a few days before your class, ponder what you hope to accomplish, set goals, and determine learning objectives for your students. Settle on the main ideas and skills you want students to learn in your class. Then, begin your outline by listing the goals and learning objectives you defined, and arrange them in an order that makes sense to you. Fill in the blanks by adding examples, illustrations, and discussion questions for each theme or section, and conclude by jotting down ideas for an introduction and conclusion. This process will provide you with a substantive outline to guide you through your class, ease your nerves, and keep you on track. The outline can also serve as a handy guide for creating visual components, such as presentation slides. 2. Mix it up. Given that students typically have an attention span of 15 to 20 minutes, you may sense some tuning you out well before class time is over. To tackle this common challenge, engage your students by including elements in your class that encourage active learning. Though planning these activities can be time-consuming, they provide an effective way to break up the monotony of lecture and give students the opportunity to put into practice the ideas, concepts, and skills you are striving to teach. A few ideas: Create an activity addressing a concept or skill that you covered. For example, design a worksheet that guides students through a database or catalog search to find articles or books on an interesting topic, or have students compare two websites based on a list of evaluation criteria you covered during your lecture. You could also present students with a “real life” problem and tell them they need to find information using a particular list of resources to solve it. Whether you ask students to work individually or in small groups, it can be helpful to leave time for “mini presentations” at the end of the class, which gives them the opportunity to learn from one another. Effective demonstrations: If at all possible, host your class in a computer lab or a wired classroom. You are then able to encourage students to follow along on their own computers while you demonstrate how to use the library catalog or databases. To enable more interactive and effective demonstrations, allow a few minutes for students to try searches themselves after you highlight important features of a system or search engine. Give them the opportunity to search using their own topics or offer a few interesting topics as suggestions. If you allow students to try searching a variety of databases, ask individuals or small groups to demonstrate for the group a search they tried or to talk about what they learned or found challenging. This allows students to learn from the experiences of their peers and to see demonstrations of several different databases while you interject with tips and comments. Both you and your students will appreciate this method of peer instruction. By enabling students to informally teach one another, you increase interactivity while decreasing monotony. Everyone wins! 3. Dare to ask. Whether you gather feedback formally or informally, it can be very useful to find out what students think about your class. To encourage your development as an instructor, seek frequent feedback from your students and colleagues about your classes, including the content you cover, the in-class activities you create, your teaching style, and, if applicable, any assignments you require. For one-shot sessions: Hand out a quick two-question survey after your session, asking the following questions: “What is something new you learned today and/or something you liked about the session?” and “What is something about the session you would change or do differently?” If your schedule does not allow for a written survey, casually approach lingering students after class while they are putting away their things. Ask them if they feel like they learned something new, if they thought the activities were effective, or if they have questions you left unanswered. You may be surprised how open students will be when you take the time to let them you know that you care both about your teaching and their success. For extended sessions: If you are meeting with the same group of students for more than a few sessions, design a short survey to hand-out mid-semester or halfway through your workshop series. The comments and suggestions can help you to improve remaining sessions and to tailor your content to the needs of the particular group of students. 4. What? No iPods? Communicate your expectations to your students. Whether or not being in a position of authority comes naturally to you, there are ways of conveying rules and expectations that will save yourself and your students grief. For extended sessions: Create a clear and detailed syllabus outlining class policies, including expectations for participation and attendance, grading criteria, and requirements for assignments and any substantial projects. On the first day of class, go over the policies and expectations matter-of-factly and offer to answer any questions to clarify. Open communication about these issues alleviates frustration for both you and students, particularly when deadlines approach and grades are handed out. For any session: If you expect students to listen attentively, make the expectation clear from the beginning. Otherwise, you may find more than a few spending time in class checking email, messaging friends, surfing the internet, or listening to music on their mp3 players. Undergraduate students today are constantly connected – to classmates on Facebook, to family members on their cell phones, and maybe even to a friend sitting a row in front of them. These ceaseless multitaskers may be capable of listening to you with one ear while listening to music through a headphone in the other, but if you find this distracting or offensive, be up front about it. For a compromise that avoids confrontation, allow students to use computers before you begin class. When you are ready to begin, kindly request that everyone turn off monitors (and any other potentially distracting technologies) while you teach, noting they will have the opportunity later in class to turn them back on and try hands-on the research techniques you will be covering. 5. Make it relevant! Many of your students may not be as excited about research and information literacy as you are when they walk through the door to your classroom, but refuse to let blank stares or silences discourage you. If you are excited about the information you’re covering, your students will notice. Make it your personal mission to convince them that the content is relevant and useful to them. Even if they leave your class unconvinced that research is a thrilling process (sometimes a shock to us librarians!), hopefully they will have an appreciation for what you do and a realization that the information you shared is important and useful. For revealing relevance: Resist the temptation to show students merely “how to” use the catalog and databases. While these demonstrations are frequently an important element in library instruction, strive to frame the resources and tools in a bigger picture. Begin instead by telling students why they should care about how to use these tools and why it is important to know how to evaluate websites and search for information effectively. For instance, let them know these skills are necessary “because we all live in an increasingly overwhelming digital information world, and in order to be informed citizens, we need to be able to find information we can trust.” Even starting with “this information will help you get an ‘A’ on your research paper” or “impress your professors” will pique their interest. If you enthusiastically advocate what you are talking about, students will realize that listening to what you have to say is worth their time and attention. 6. Show up to class early. Arriving to the classroom a few minutes before you begin lecturing will enable you to build rapport with your students and to create a warmer, more open environment. Chat casually with students before class; ask them how their semesters are going, if they are looking forward to Spring Break, or if they have any questions about assignments they are working on. Even asking if it’s stopped raining is better than nothing. Encouraging students to talk before class often results in great student participation during class. You may find they are more open to answering questions and participating in class discussion. Teacher … or Student? One of the strangest phenomena about instruction is that we instructors often assume we do all the teaching. During my first instruction experiences, however, I realized that I was learning at least as much as I was teaching. Experience is truly the best teacher, and “jumping in” will teach you far more about instruction than reading this article. Happy teaching! Catherine Fraser Riehle is the Instructional Outreach Librarian at Purdue University. During her first six months at Purdue, she lead over 30 library research and information literacy classes and workshops with undergraduate students. She is pleased to report that her knees no longer buckle while she teaches. Article published May 2007 Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.
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Page last updated
04/25/2007
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