Topic 4 - Information Literacy and Transfer

Information Literacy and Transfer

Herring’s article ‘Assumptions, Information Literacy and Transfer in High School.’ indicates that teachers including the teacher librarian generally make many incorrect assumptions about IL. These are as follows:
1. Information literacy is developed across the school
2. There is a common understanding in the school of information literacy
3. All students understand the concepts that lie behind information literacy teaching
4. Transfer of knowledge and skills is a key element of high school education
5. Students will transfer knowledge and skills across time and across the curriculum as a matter of course
6. Students and school staff will view information literacy teaching in a similar way
Teachers often assume that the information literacy practice is being taught by other staff. These assumptions can then lead to teachers relying on other teachers or the students themselves learning some of these skills themselves without any specific teaching or guidance( via osmosis). For effective transfer of information literacy to other KLA’s requires all staff not just the TL to have a responsibility to teach IL as part of the research process.
Herring’s recommendations (2011)– Teacher-librarians and teachers may be able to improve both learning and teaching in their schools if they : revise the way they teach, encourage and reinforce information literacy practices across the school.
• Teacher-librarians and teachers initiate a discussion of the transfer of knowledge, skills, and practices across the school, particularly in relation to information literacy.
• School senior management explore the ways in which a culture of transfer might be created in the school, taking both a top-down and bottom-up approach.
• Teacher-librarians and teachers seek the views of students across all school levels on developing and transferring information literacy practices.
This research was carried out in secondary schools and it has me wondering at what age should we really be expecting students to show IL transfer? Herring’s recommendations should also be taking place in primary schools. The foundations for IL must be set in the early years of school. Maybe it needs to become part of programming practice. There appears to be a need for an Information Literacy policy with a clear definition of what information literacy is and this would be the start providing a culture that encourages IL and it’s transfer into all KLA’s. Teachers have to consider Aboriginal Ed perspectives, multiculturalism etc , so maybe we need to start including information literacy as a component to be considered as part of programming also.