91´«Ã½ Midwinter 2006 Current Topics
91´«Ã½
Meeting the Instructional Needs of Today’s Education Student
Moderated by Kathy Dobda, Instruction for Educators Committee
Recorded by Laura Koltutsky, Instruction for Educators Committee
Print Resources introduced:
• EBSS Current Topics Discussion Handout – Lesson Planning websites and general bibliography.
• ERIC handout
• Education Research – Statistics
What resources do our students use/need?
Lesson Planning Websites
Initial list from Kathy – EBSS Current Topics Discussion Handout
Question: Do professors encourage the use of lesson plans found on the web?
Responses:
• Professors ask students to take lesson plans and revise them to meet the applicable state standards. Common activity.
• Grade levels are frequently rough estimates, New York Times website uses grades 6-8 and 9-12 on almost every lesson. This may be more important with the earlier grades as students are still in developmental learning stages.
• Evaluation of the websites should be done – prescreening process? Rubrics could be used to evaluate information on websites.
• ENC.org now a subscription, is it worth the price. Some schools have purchased it as it is used by students. Faculty have also requested the product.
Resources:
goENC.com
now available as a subscription
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education
Educators Desk Reference
Information Institute of Syracuse
GEM – Gateway to 21st Century Skills
National Library of Education – there were reports that access is patchy and that it was not accessible several times.
Yale-New Haven Teacher’s Institute
Yale University/New Haven Public Schools Collaboration
IDEAS – Interactive Dialogue with Educators from Across the State
University of Wisconsin-System/University of Wisconsin – Extension
Marco Polo
MCI Foundation
Teacher Certification
Question: How many schools work with the No Child Left Behind Highly Qualified Teacher Program?
Responses:
• Ohio uses a proficiency test
• Texas uses subject proficiency exams
• National Board Certification – costly for students to gain on their own
Some schools use it in coordination with their Masters programs
• Other states use graduation and praxis tests
• Some faculty ask that certification materials be addressed in library instruction.
Resources:
Learning Express Library
Test materials, GRE, Teacher Certification (CBEST and Praxis 1)
Achieve.org
Translates state standards
McREL - Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning
McREL by Topic
Statistics
Question: How are education students using statistics for their research? What statistics resources do you use with students?
Responses:
• How do we help students who are less sophisticated (sometimes) users of statistical information?
• How far do we go in assisting them? Personal knowledge is a limit/boundary.
• Are there other resources on campus that deal with statistical information (ie. Institutional Research, Quantitative Skills Center)
• Statistical software like SPSS may require assistance of information technology groups on campus.
• Information Commons model has technology support/experts available to help students.
• One institution had to develop boundaries related to assistance with related technology. Did receive faculty support in doing so.
• Developed a wiki that gave information about statistical software.
• Having specialists or trained librarians very helpful but burden shouldn’t fall to them whenever technology looms.
• Imperative to build collaborative relationships with other campus units.
Resources:
Handout - Education Research – Statistics
Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Project
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
NCES
Learning Objects
Question: Do you use learning objects? If so, how?
Responses:
• When collaborating with faculty.
• Use Camtasia, developed basic tutorial in two hours, easy to learn.
• Helps when faculty incorporate library instruction into assessment scheme.
• Having all students use online tutorials before coming for library instruction enables the library instructor to teach higher level skills.
• Helps to involve people with instructional design (ie. just because we can doesn’t mean we should) to ensure that tutorial is effective.
• Faculty can allow librarians to log-in to courseware and participate at the course instructor level.
• Many schools have some sort of Teaching Center for faculty, use their expertise.
• Take care to ensure that online tutorials address different learning styles.
• Online tutorials need to be ADA compliant.
• Frequent changes to electronic products by vendors make it difficult to develop projects that will exist long-term.
• Courseware allows for assessment tools to be built into the research process. (Pre-tests, post-tests)
• Can create a presence in the courseware by being available for chat sessions or as a guest instructor.
• There is sometimes resistance from Information Technology or Instructional Designers in allowing librarians to become participants.
• Some schools provide online training like Computer Based Training (CBT’s) courses for staff, students, and faculty. Raise awareness of these tools.
Resources:
Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online Database (PRIMO)
Includes quick sections on scholarly journals, search strategies, etc…
Camtasia
Free 30 day trial available
Literature Reviews
Question: How do you approach teaching graduate students about literature reviews?
Responses:
• Need to define the librarian’s role in process by talking to faculty.
• Is it universally understood what is expected in an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral level literature review? Who defines this?
• Must have faculty input into the level/depth of instruction in using citation searching, more advanced techniques for it to be effective.
Resources:
Boote, D.N. & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3-15.