INLS 210-36: USER EDUCATION

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT DURING YOUR READING

July 27, 1998 - AUDIENCE ANALYSIS, LEARNING STYLES & MOTIVATION

1. What motivates people to want to learn? What factors may cause people to lose that motivation? See ERIC Digest on Motivation on web site in addition to other readings)

2. Today in class we will examine a number of ways of categorizing learning styles --
   • Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (Handout)
   • Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (Handout)
   • Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (Power Point presentation on G:\Courses\Gardner Multiple Intelligences.ppt plus Handout)
   • Mann's Taxonomy of Undergraduate Student Types (See Web Site)
   • Perry's Developmental Model (Discussed in Daragan & Stevens reading)

   As a group (although perhaps a nominal group) consider one of the learner populations someone in your group has selected and either apply one of the category systems above (or another from your reading or background knowledge) or create your own 3-4 categories that seem to usefully group your learners according to their expected approach to learning and their preferences for instructional activities.

3. Based on the category system you have selected, estimate the percent of learners in each group.

4. Describe the instructional approach (e.g., lecture, discussion, experiment, group activity, inquiry method, etc. or combination) that you think will best fit the dominant group (the one with the highest percentage of learners). Describe the kinds of assignment/activity that this group might find satisfying (e.g., reading, writing short papers, writing a long paper, doing an independent project, working with others on a project, doing in-class exercises, etc.).

5. Consider the other two groups. How might the learning situation and assignments/activities you describe in 5 affect their motivation to learn the material? Provide some reasons for your answer.

6. A Challenge: Design a lesson (or a course) to accomodate all the learners whatever their learning style.

July 23 and 24, 1998 - INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN -- NEEDS ASSESSMENT

There are many 'step' models for insructional design. For example, LaGuardia uses a 12 step model (see text, p.34); Turner (on reading list) uses an 8 step model. All the models, however, begin with a needs assessment step. Here are some thought questions and mental exercises relating to needs assessment:

• In needs assessment, Turner asserts that three different needs should be considered:
  1. the needs of the learner
  2. the needs of the community or organization (the context)
  3. the intrinsic importance of the subject matter (what everyone ought to know)
  For a population of your choice (e.g., undergraduates, English TAs, MBA students, Law students, law firm staff, NIEHS researchers, humanities scholars, graduate students in a particular discipline, etc.) state some of the needs of the learners, the needs of the community in which they are a member (You may need to define how you see this community), and the LIS subject matter that you think these folks should know. How do these three groups of needs differ?

• Turner lists five sources of information to help the course designer determine needs:
  1. established standards
  2. what is being taught elsewhere
  3. what folks are predicting future needs will be
  4. what representatives of the learner population say when asked
  5. what the learners request
  Which of these sources do you think would be the most valid or the most useful for the population you identified above? Why?

• Pick a couple of these sources and show how you could use them as a source of information about needs. For example, what relevant knowledge or skills (or attitude) standards exist for your population? Another example, what other agencies are offering user education to a group of learners similar to yours? What are they doing and how are they doing it? Another example, write a short survey that you might use with a sample of your learners.

• Looking at the LIS skills area, Eisenberg suggests that what we need to teach is a process. He calls his approach "the Big 6." The six skills he identifies as necessary for every educated person are:
  1. Task Definition -- the ability to define a problem and to identify the information needed
  2. Information Seeking Strategies -- the knowledge of a variety of possible sources and the knowledge of how to select the best one(s)
  3. Location and Access -- the ability to locate sources and to find information within the sources
  4. Use of Information -- the ability to gather information through reading, listening, viewing, etc. and to extract relevant information
  5. Synthesis -- the ability to organize information from multiple sources and to present the result
  6. Evaluation -- the ability to judge the result (effectiveness) and to judge the process (efficiency)
  Do you think every educated person ought to be competent in each of these LIS skills? Are there other skills or knowledge that you think are important?

• Based on your (admittedly incomplete) examination of the needs of your learner population, identify 2-4 goals (the "ought to know" statements).

• Rank the list of goals you created in order of importance.

• To what extent do you think any of these goals are currently already being achieved? If you don't know, how could you find out?

July 22, 1998 - PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION SUPPORT

• Which of the professional sites that you examined do you think is the most useful?

• Do these sites provide good support for someone engaged in planning and implementing a training/education program?

• What aspects of these sites did you find most personally useful?

• What uses do you think standards or guidelines for user education might have?

• Examine the Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libaries (1996). How generalizable are these guidelines to user education programs outside the academic library milieu? Are there any aspects of a program that are not addressed?

• Examine the Model Statement of Objectives for Academic Bibliographic Instruction (1997). How generalizable are these objectives to user education programs outside the academic library milieu? The objectives are organized into 4 main categories:
  1. How information is identified and defined by experts
  2. How information sources are structured
  3. How information sources are intellectually accessed by users
  4. How information sources are physically organized and accessed
  What other categories might be included in a training/education program?

• If you were to create a set of standards for an education program in a different environment, would you follow a similar format? If not, what changes would you make and why?

July 21, 1998 - LEARNING THEORY

One way to think about learning theories is to group them as models. One such grouping is the following:

• Constructionist or Inductive Model
  A view of learning that says that learners develop their own understanding of the way the world works rather than having it delivered to them by others (i.e., teachers) in an already-organized form. (Sometimes called "active learning")

• Direct Instruction Model
  A teacher-centered strategy that uses teacher explanation and modeling combined with student practice and feedback to teach concepts and skills. (Often termed a behavioral approach to learning)

• General Inquiry Model
  a teaching strategy designed to teach students how to investigate problems and questions with facts. The Inquiry Model is implemented in five steps:
  1. Identifying a question or problem
  2. Making hypotheses
  3. Gathering data
  4. Assessing hypotheses
  5. Generalizing
  (This model is sometimes called the scientific approach or information processing model)

• Cooperative Learning Model
  A cluster of instructional strategies that actively involve students in group work towards a common goal. With this model a lot of attention is paid to the characteristics of the classroom environment and the roles of the teacher and students in the environment. (Sometimes called social learning)

• How do these definitions of models match the descriptions (and names) of learning theories you encountered in your reading?

• On what basis (bases) would you select one learning theoretic approach over another?

• How would you design an instructional session based on each one of these approaches?

• What motivates a student to learn?

• Is there a relationship between your beliefs about motivation and your embrace of one learning theory approach over another?

July 20, 1998 - HISTORY AND CONTEXT

• Why does an organization initiate a user education program?

• Does the reason for the program change over time?

• Is there an explicit mission or goal statement included in the description of a particular education program?

• What are the alternatives to a formal education program?