Design instructional programs based on learning principles and theories.
Information literacy instruction or ILI is one area that I would like to become involved in as a librarian. As Grassian and Kaplowitz (2009) argued “[l]ibrarians have always taught people how to use library and information sources” (p. xix). It is important, however, to look at how learners learn from their side of the table, or lecture hall, or computer screen, because effectiveness in our teaching methods will be determined in part by the way that the students we teach will learn, and that is determined in part, by learning the psychological theories of learning (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, p. 27). The first theory I will discuss is the behaviorist model, which arose in the eighteenth century, and which is considered a “doing” model of education, and believes that environment and stimuli influence learning, and that learners learn “through a process of trial and error.” As such, the behaviorist model of learning emphasizes learning through “interacting with the material itself,” rather than watching a demonstration or sitting through a lecture. Over time, the behaviorist hopes, the learner will master clearly specified learning objectives through interacting with material and through successive trial-and-error attempts to solve a problem (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, p. 29). However, a new school of learning arose, called the cognitive or “thinking” model, and this model emphasized insight and perception of a solution rather than trial and error as a way of learning. The cognitive research looks at how learners use patterns in the environment to make assumptions based on those patterns. The learner will reconstruct the mental model based on new information or new experiences, in the cognitive view. This model was examined and further developed by psychologist Jean Piaget, from the perspective of child development stages, and argued that each person’s “stage of cognitive development sets limits for the type of learning that can take place,” and that during the process of learning, certain divergences or “ambiguities” (as Piaget termed it) took place, and as the learner develops newer mental models to account for new information, they develop “assimilation framework[s]” to assist them in new stages of learning where new ambiguities arise between what the learner knows and new information they are receiving (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, pp. 30-32). The most recent model is the humanist or “feeling” model. The model emphasizes a holistic model in which emotions influence learners in the learning process. The model is highly individualistic, in that it argues that “material must have personal meaning or it will not be learned,” in other words, the individual makes personal choices about what they will learn rather than simply relying upon environmental stimuli or patterns in their environment, as the behaviorist and cognitive models argue, respectively. The model relies on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which argues that once basic survival needs are met, then the learner moves towards the need for love and belonging, and then when the basic survival needs and the need for belonging are met, then the learner will want to “maximize his or her potential” through the learning process (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, pp. 36-37). Taking these theories into account, and using bits of all of them, the instructor will develop an instruction design plan that defines the learner’s needs, looks at how the present library environment is helping or hampering the ability of learners to learn, develop instructional goals, objectives and expected learning outcomes, look at how to instruct the pupils using extant materials and teaching methods, decide how the learners will be assessed to ascertain that they have actually learned the material, and finally using the available assessment data, determine whether the instructional plan, as implemented, was effective, and if not, revising it to better meet the needs of the learners and the goals and objectives of the instructional plan (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2009, pp. 112-113). I am submitting for my first piece of evidence, a project which I completed for INFO 244, in which I created class materials for grandparents raising grandchildren to teach them how to install Google Chrome and how to search for information on the MedlinePlus database. This project was an informal instructional plan (it was not formatted exactly like the instructional plan I completed for LIBR 250), but which emphasized learning theories and had me create user materials for the instruction. The project was completed with a partner, whose name I have removed and replaced with initials to protect her privacy. I completed the section describing the user group, the learning environment, and shared responsibility on the learning environment section. For the actual user materials, I created the section dealing with Google Chrome, whereas my partner created the MedlinePlus section, and she finished the reflection section of the instructional plan. Also, all institutional names have been removed from the project. The second piece of evidence I am submitting is a completed instructional plan which I created for INFO 250, in which I designed an instructional design plan for in-library classes to teach grandparents raising grandchildren to create resumes using the resume builder function on the job searching website Indeed.com.
I have completed instructional plans as coursework for at least two courses, which were INFO 244 and INFO 250. The INFO 244 project involved to a lesser degree the trial and error process of behaviorism (in that in conducting successive searches on the Medline database, the user would eventually narrow the search down to the most relevant data). For the most part, I attempted to model my project for LIBR 250 (and 244 to a lesser degree) on the humanist model, which emphasizes the hierarchy of needs. Although writing a resume and getting a job may seem to some like the highest step of self-actualization in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need for economic self-sufficiency is a basic survival need in that grandparents need a job to provide the necessary financial resources to provide for the wants and needs of their grandchildren and themselves. The grandparents would be motivated to learn about things not based on environmental patterns or trial and error, but by their economic and social needs.
References
Grassian, E.S. & Kaplowitz, J.R. (2009). Information literacy instruction: Theory and practice (2nd edition). New York : Neal-Schuman Publisher