Disciplines

Education

Document Status

Restricted Report

Abstract

Problem statement: During the regular work year, I need more time than is available to do focused scholarship, and I felt a lack of knowledge in the particular qualitative research methods used by “informed learning” scholars. Therefore, I queried Dr. Christine Bruce of Queensland University of Technology’s School of Information Systems, Information Science, about the possibility of doing a project under her mentorship, as she is a respected leader in this field. This report summarizes the goals and outcomes of the sabbatical leave.

Results: I received a gracious welcome and achieved a congenial relationship with members of QUT’s Information Science team; guest-lectured for three hybrid Master of Information Science (Library and Information Practice) classes; gained a broader and deeper understanding of my field, information literacy, and created a new model called “radical informed learning;” negotiated a book contract with Emerald Publishing; wrote two double-blind peer-reviewed chapters; recruited, coordinated, and encouraged the other authors. Ranger, Kim L., editor. Informed Learning Applications: Insights from Research and Practice. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, [2019].

Conclusions: The sabbatical leave benefitted me by providing mentors, a distinctive environment which was conducive to concentrated study and writing, and an enhanced understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning. GVSU will benefit from the publication of a scholarly book aimed at educators from elementary to post-graduate levels, a higher profile in a new field, and a renewed faculty librarian.

Recommendations: The library and classroom faculty should embrace collaboration to guide student learning in the disciplines by: coming to understand the various forms of information in their fields, selecting and providing access to disciplinary information, guiding and studying the creation of information and its meaning, facilitating the process of creating learning outcomes and goals, assessing outcomes, and mapping information literacy across the curricula. We must give students authentic learning experiences that allow them to shape their lives, their professions and their societies by becoming active citizens who negotiate for and maintain their intellectual and creative rights when they take their place in the workforce. Classroom faculty must engage in cross-disciplinary partnership with library faculty for the purpose of scholarship to achieve these goals. What is more, those who demonstrate radical information literacy by disseminating their scholarly products via open access and disclosing their decision trees as a form of social action exemplify radical informed learning.

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