Developing learning experiences is an important part of library work. From developing programming that will be able to appeal to specifically targeted audiences to educating one’s fellow colleagues on new practices or procedures, understanding and developing appropriate and effective learning strategies is critical for information professionals. As such, study of the various theories of learning and why they are effective, as well as specific strategies to enable the gathering of knowledge is extremely useful.
There are several different schools of learning that propose different methods of learning. It’s long been understood that no two individuals learn the same way – and so exploring the different schools of thought will better allow us as librarians to engage with and educate our patrons and fellow staff members. Two of these schools of thought that I considered to have particular merit were constructivism and behaviorism – especially when discussed within the context of libraries.
The constructivist theory of learning is one that is based in the idea that individuals assemble their own understanding of the world based on the experiences and interactions that they have had in the past, and those presently available to them (Doychinova, 2023). They assemble frameworks, or constructs, that allow them to understand new situations. By recalling and reusing aspects of solutions or systems experienced previously, individuals can apply those concepts to current problems – though if a challenge is significantly alien, a constructivist can have trouble finding a way past it. Constructivism plays into library programming and learning experiences especially well with recurring events, such as storytimes. By employing consistent elements and deploying them in roughly the same order, patrons are easily able to build their own mental constructs of ‘what a storytime is,’ and therefore be more easily able to learn in such an environment.
Behaviorism is another framework that works well within the learning experiences that the library seeks to develop – though unlike constructivism, which offers that responding to external stimuli allows an individual to build frameworks, behaviorism proposes that the responses to stimuli themselves are learning. According to behaviorism, stimuli result in specific responses – when one happens, the next is sure to follow (Clark, 2018). Behaviorists would claim that this conditioning, this predisposed response, gets stronger and stronger with repetition – and especially with rewards. While this theory does not address the ability of individuals to retain and learn, it does give us a method by which we can entice people to come back to the library. By designing our reference interviews to reward individuals with the information they are looking for, they will be more likely to return with other questions they may have in the future.
Understanding learning theories such as behaviorism and constructivism is a good start to designing learning experiences. However, there are other factors that must be considered when creating library learning environments – such as the age of the audience. Different strategies must be used for different age groups, especially children and teenagers. Children, and preschool children in particular, have specific goals that we can attune our learning experiences towards. Encouraging literacy from an early age becomes much more possible when we focus our learning experiences on print motivation, phonological awareness, vocabulary, narrative skills, print awareness, and letter knowledge (Albright, Delecki, & Hinkle, 2009). Meanwhile, when considering how to create an environment where teenagers are willing and interested in learning, specific principles of respect must be observed. Unlike adults, teenagers do not assume that they are being afforded respect when engaging in a learning environment – such a premise must be directly established before they will reciprocate (Dowd, 2020). Without this knowledge, both for young adults and preschoolers, the learning experiences that the library may wish to put on will not be as effective. Identifying specific strategies for learning is key when developing learning experiences overall.
This competency is one where I had a non-zero amount of experience going into the MLIS program. Prior to my career at the library, I worked as a high school tutor. I worked with students in groups of up to thirty and one-on-one, and taught almost every high school subject that wasn’t Calculus, Physics, or French. This experience provided me with an excellent background for fulfilling this competency. I had been trained on specific strategies to teach teenagers, knew how to interact with them on their level, and I knew how to design lessons that would effectively educate them on what they needed to know. This position also afforded me the opportunity to practice designing learning experiences, as I created the Exam Cram packets for a such subjects as AP Environmental Science and AP US History. After creating these packets, I also ran the sessions, presenting the information to my audience in digestible two-hour blocks.
My coursework also helped me to develop this competency, especially INFO 250: Instructional Design. Over the course of this class, I created several educational plans that would work be ideal for a teacher-librarian team, utilizing the educational expertise of the teacher and the propensity for research of the librarian.
Finally, my skills in developing educational programs have only been furthered with my ability to design my own programming during my time at Crockett – and find success with both my Game Nights and Storytimes! In my role as a Library Assistant Advanced, I have been able to plan, execute, evaluate, and adapt my programming events to ensure that they provide both educational and entertaining opportunities for the library’s community.
In order to demonstrate my competency with creating collaborative and individual learning experiences, I have assembled a collection of three documents from across my coursework. Two of them have been (unsurprisingly) sourced from INFO 250: Instructional Design. The first of these is a Quick Write that was created after discussing the models of inquiry – and our predictions of how children at a public library would go about investigating a question they had. By identifying how they would go about trying to find a solution, I can better design future learning experiences – like the one created in my second piece of evidence. My second piece of evidence is the Exploring Climate Change Solutions website, on which I worked with a partner to create. Our goal was to create a semester-long lesson plan that incorporated the strengths of a teacher-librarian partnership, and would educate high school students on a topic both relevant and modern. Our website included rubrics for grading papers, resources to assist students in completing their work, and an aside explaining the jigsaw method we used to develop this lesson plan. The last document that I feel appropriately displays my ability to design learning experiences is my annotation of a group storytime created in INFO 281: Early Literacy Storytime. In this document, my groupmates and I planned and put on a storytime on the letter A. We made sure to focus on developing early literacy skills, and this annotation explains why each element was included, and how it aided the learning experience as a whole.
In this quick write, I analyzed how inquiry occurs for young patrons, and how I could better design a framework for future learning experiences. After working with my groupmate, we came up with a six-step framework for learning at the library: The Big Question, Base Level Tools, Exploration Tools, Accuracy and Evaluation, Expression and Absorption, and finally Where Do We Go From Here? These six steps were selected to adequately display how inquiry can be addressed at a public library. First, patrons - especially young patrons - arrive with a question. They then examine the tools that are available to them, such as library staff, and any base knowledge that they have come into the branch with. If, they then find that they still have questions, they can explore further with such tools as book collections, computer resources, or live tutorials. After this step, it is important to review the information they have found thus far, evaluating it for accuracy. This can be accomplished through social interactions with peers and authorities, and utilizing information-assessing strategies that have been previously developed. Once information has been confirmed as accurate and/or useful, it is time to share one's knowledge. Teaching others is one of the best ways to solidify learning - and so arts and crafts, creative play, music, and games make up this section. However, it is likely that the act of teaching others will lead to new questions - and so the cycle begins again.
By examining this model of inquiry, I feel that I have been able to gain a better understanding of how to design learning experiences at the library. Our expertise and resources places library staff right at the 'Tools for Exploration' and 'Accuracy and Evaluation' steps, and our programming will engage audiences at 'Expression and Absorption.' When taken in full, and incorporated into a library setting, we can both sate the curiosity of children with a responsive learning environment, and prepare them to design learning experiences of their own.
On this website, I collaboratively created a lesson plan for a semester-long course with one of my fellow graduate students. As stated above, we selected the topic of Exploring Climate Change Solutions to ensure that high school students this class was designed for remained engaged and interested. However, we also utilized the jigsaw method, a learning strategy that we had discussed in class, that encourages collaborative learning. By assigning each student a small part of a larger assignment, and requiring them to come together to complete a larger project, they will end up with a better understanding of the overall topic than they would have been able to if they had been working on their own. We also incorporated a capstone element to our semester-long research project - an interaction with an expert. According to the Big Think model (Loertscher, Koechlin, & Zwaan, 2011), by including such an interaction, we can emphasize the importance of the subject at hand, demonstrating to students that climate science would be a feasible career path, and answering any lingering questions that they might still have.
This project was one where I worked collaboratively to create a long-term learning experience, establish fair grading rubrics, and determine what resources would need to be provided to allow learners to succeed. I believe that it effectively accomplished the goals of the assignment, and clearly demonstrates my ability to design learning experiences.
This assignment was one that was not only fun, but also immediately applicable to my library work. Running storytimes each week is a part of my duties at the library. However, this assignment (and INFO 281 as a whole) allowed me to make more targeted and effective storytimes. I learned specific ways to enable early literacy learning, and in this assignment, incorporated that learning. For this project, I worked with two groupmates to create a storytime around the letter A. I conducted a feltboard story, an interactive song, and a special Mystery Box guessing game. While these were all elements of my usual storytimes, the annotations provided in this report are able to clarify the importance and rationale behind each included element. Albert's Tree, my first story, discusses complex emotions, and as the main character tries to get a tree to stop crying, he emulates how children might seek to help their friends: offerings of food, of play, and eventually, quiet companionship. My song, The Ants Go Marching, builds number skills and rhyming abilities. Rhyming is a key early literacy skill, and pairing it with fine motor practice allows for unconscious learning. Finally, my Mystery Box offers the ideal opportunity for dialogic questions. I can describe the aspects of a mystery item, and as children try to guess it, they are challenged to think critically.
The process of creating informative, engaging, and effective learning environments is one that is difficult, yet inherently tied to libraries. Individuals come to branches to seek specific information, to formulate and answer questions, and to explore new ideas. The ways that we design our programs and events should reflect this desire. In order to ensure that the learning experiences that I facilitate at my libraries are able to educate and inform, I have ensured that I have a solid understanding of learning theory, and I have practiced implementation of these theories. In future programming, I will ensure to attune my learning experiences so as to suit my audiences, so that they will be most effective, whether they be children, teenagers, or adults. I believe that the library has always been a place for learning – and that by keeping up to date with learning behaviors, strategies, and principles, we can keep it that way.
Albright, M., Delecki, K., & Hinkle, S. (2009). The Evolution of Early Literacy. Children & Libraries, 7(1), 13-.
Clark, K. R. (2018). Learning theories: Behaviorism. Radiologic Technology, 90(2), 172–175.
Doychinova, K. (2023). Teaching methods based on constructivism in environmental education. Acta Scientifica Naturalis, 10(2), 97–108. https://doi.org/10.2478/asn-2023-0017
Dowd, R. (2020). Ornery Teenagers: How to compassionately and effectively manage their problem behaviors. [Video] Niche Academy. Homeless Training Institute. https://my.nicheacademy.com/ccclstaff/course/22202
Loertscher, D. V., Koechlin, C., & Zwaan, S. (2011). Beyond bird units : 18 models for teaching and learning in information-rich and technology-rich environments (Refresh edition.). Hi Willow Research & Publishing.