Friday, June 13, 2014

Information Literacy: in legal education/practice; in Inquiry Based Learning: new articles

If you have a subscription to Journal of Librarianship and Information Science you can access two new articles about infolit, one of them by my colleague here in the Sheffield iSchool, Pamela McKinney.

McKinney, P. (2014) Information literacy and inquiry-based learning: Evaluation of a five-year programme of curriculum development. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 46(2) 148–166.
"Inquiry-based learning describes a range of learner-centred pedagogies increasingly employed in higher education where students learn through engaging in open-ended research and inquiry. It is acknowledged that this type of pedagogical approach requires advanced information literacy capabilities in students, and that there is a need to support the development of information literacy in inquiry-based learning curricula. This paper reports on the evaluation of a selection of curriculum development projects undertaken at a UK university that implemented inquiry-based learning and information literacy development. Data was collected using a ‘Theory of Change’ evaluation methodology and analysed using a qualitative thematic approach. It was found that educators need to make explicit to students the need to develop information literacy to support their inquiries, and that dedicated approaches to facilitation from peers, librarians and academics are helpful when designing inquiry-based learning."

Lawal, V. et al. (2014) Information literacy-related practices in the legal workplace: The applicability of Kuhlthau's model to the legal profession. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. [early online release)
"This article examines evidence of information literacy in the context of legal education and legal practice in Nigeria. It seeks to explore the application of Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model as the dominant framework used in investigating issues of uncertainty and task complexity in a study conducted among graduate lawyers in Nigeria. The article provides an analysis of the empirical validity of the model in investigating the connection between learning, experience and the  development of expertise among novice practitioners in the legal workplace in Nigeria. Data were obtained using quantitative and qualitative approaches while a case study method was employed for the study. Based on the findings of the study, the article offers insight into the role of the cognitive and affective dimensions in information seeking and the implications they have on issues of curriculum design, teaching methods and learning experiences in the context of legal education and practice in Nigeria."
The home page of the journal is at: http://lis.sagepub.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Snails in the rain, 4, June 2014

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