WikiInfoLit Unit 6 Page 2
Integrating Evaluating Sources Into Your Curriculum
It's generally acknowledged that students learn the principles of information literacy best in the context of their own interests and their regular academic pursuits rather than in the relative vacuum of a one-shot library class or even a term-length information literacy course. In an ideal world, faculty librarians and school library media specialists could co-teach or be involved in instructional design of writing-intensive and gen ed courses, but we do not currently have the resources to bring that to most of our students. But hopefully this mini-course will give you not only the ability, but also the motivation and confidence to build these key concepts into short research assignments and term papers.
Some best practices for emphasizing critical evaluation of sources in research assignments:
- Construct term-length assignments that call for creativity and individual choice of topic (within reasonable bounds.) This makes it difficult for students to plagiarize; gives you something more interesting to grade; and is more likely to be motivating for the student.
- Provide several opportunities for formative assessment and revision throughout the project. For instance, in addition to an outline, have students hand in a preliminary bibliography with evaluative annotations, then later a rough draft, then later a final draft.
- Facilitate group and class discussion about topics like cognitive authority, objectivity, neutrality, reliability of sources, and the "genealogy" of knowledge traced back through citations, in relation to the information sources that you assign as required readings, and even to information sources that students are considering using for their research.
- Arrange to go over key library resources (important databases, reference resources, etc.) with your students. If you have a library class, have a talk with the librarian beforehand so that she or he can make it as relevant as possible to your students' needs. If the librarian is not sure what you want your students to get out of the class, your students may have to sit through the same "standard" library class that they've sat through several times before, rather than learning something new and specific to your course.
- Ask your library liaison, bibliographer, or just the librarian at the reference desk for resources like subject guides and tutorials that may save your students time and frustration in their information search process. While it is important for students to become proficient with selecting databases and searching them with Boolean Operators, it is preferable for them to do so with the help of a handout and be able to move on to higher order cognitive skills - like evaluating sources.