Decoding information literacy ways of thinking in student learning: Influencing pedagogic methods

Abstract

University students often experience hidden challenges in various courses across all levels of their academic careers. These difficulties often serve to deter student learning and academic progress which may end in high student failure rates. In some instances, this may be attributed to tacit assumptions that academic teachers make about their learners when preparing lesson plans, course content and learning assessments. It is often mistakenly assumed that students already possess the necessary information literacy ways of thinking to overcome bottlenecks within their respective disciplines. To this end, the Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Library, collaborated with an academic teacher to decode specific disciplinary difficulties and to subsequently enhance the required information literacy knowledge practices in student learning. Using a qualitative research approach, this study reports on how an Economics and Management Science (EMS) lecturer and the librarian used the Decoding the Disciplines Paradigm (DtD) to identify and deconstruct troublesome concepts in the Business and Finance module. The DtD model provides a clearly delineated, seven-step process for identifying and analysing disciplinary challenges and provides guidelines for designing instructional, motivational and assessment strategies that support deep learning. Through the DtD Paradigm, the study identified specific information literacy proficiencies that should be developed or enhanced in student learning. Moreover, the article describes how, as one of the paradigm's steps, pedagogic methods were transformed to develop information literacy ways of thinking.

Evaluating the Decoding the Disciplines paradigm that is used for developing disciplinary habits of mind: A systematic literature review

“…This particular epistemological bottleneck is prevalent in 16 case studies (Grim et al 2004;Grim, Pace, and Shopkow 2004, 57 -65;Diaz 2008Diaz , 1211Diaz -1224Pace 2004, 13-21;Pace 2011, 107-119;Yeo 2017, 87-96;Sundt 2010, 267-284;Fischer 2018, 149-159;Miller-Young 2015, 32-57;Pettit 2017, 75-85;Kurz 2004, 85-94;Attas 2018, 1-23;Ardizzone 2004, 45-56;Zolan et al 2004, 23-32;Riegler 2019, 685-691;Durisen 2004, 33-43;Tingerthal 2013). The remaining articles expand on epistemological bottlenecks detailing students' difficulty to align abstract ideas or models to specific evidence in the discipline (Mohamed 2020;Cameron 2019); their inability to connect facts to a coherent whole instead of committing it to memory (Khomokhoana and Nel 2020;Schlegel 2004;Zolan et al 2004); and the challenge experienced when learners are asked to measure time and space (Zhu et al 2012).…”

“…Of the 33 studies, 17 articles (Zolan et al 2004 to question and to "move beyond memorisation" in Genetics and Molecular Biology (Zolan et al 2004), to organise information in meaningful ways in Business and Finance, Criminal Justice and Library and Information Science (Sundt 2010;Mohamed 2020;Miller 2018) including the ability to recognise main complex ideas and filter these into manageable chunks (Sundt 2010;Miller 2018). Moreover, the iterativeness of problem-solving was discussed, suggesting that a hermeneutic approach (Yeo 2017) could lead to the development of a questioning attitude towards research.…”

“…Learners often reach a bottleneck where they are unable to distinguish between various formats of information (Mohamed 2020;Attas 2018;Riegler 2019;Cameron 2019;Miller 2018 andTingerthal 2013). For instance, the failure to recognise that information may be perceived differently based on the format in which it is packaged is discussed in detail in Tingerthal (2013) and Mohamed (2020).…”

“…Twenty-five studies of the shortlisted cases (Mohamed 2020;Tingerthal 2013;Young This is an attempt to unearth ingrained knowledge that has become submerged beneath the lecturer's teaching practices and needs to be made explicit in the classroom.…”

“…Three studies (Mohamed 2020;Miller 2018;Burkholder 2011) found that expert habits of mind may be directly aligned with information literacy ways of thinking and practices. Mohamed's (2020) study suggests that by integrating an additional step into the decoding model, critical literacies could be enhanced. The interview in Mohamed's (2020) study revealed that a strong synergy exists between expert habits of mind and the threshold concepts of the ACRL…”