SCIL Works Assessment

Critical Incident Survey as part of wrap-up for SCIL Works
Look at the article "Assessing learning, critical reflection, and quality educational outcomes: The Critical Incident Questionnaire" by Gilstrap and Dupree in C&RL, Sep 2008.

See Mezirow and Swanson and also look for other examples.

BSI Grant Project

Interview ENG 1A and 1B faculty (and other Info Comp classes) about what they expect their students to be able to do with information when they enter their classes. "What do you expect students already know about information/research/evaluation/citation?" "How can I help students in your classes if they don't already have the skills you're expecting?"

Look at Deb's model at Pierce College for her rubric for college-wide Information Competency and review how they do their assessment and maintain their database of assessment results from various courses. Does the database also facilitate the scaffolding of skills through the levels of the program? For example, showing what's being assessed at each level so that the participants in the program can see what link they constitute in the chain.

The Neurotic Librarian

Based on the Kersten article: a conference presentation called the Neurotic Librarian or Neurosis in Academic Libraries. Extending Kersten's application of critical theory, what unquestioned structures in our profession rely on systemic inequalities that are creating pathologies. Why do we talk so much about what we can't do? Why is it our default stance that we support instruction rather than providing it or shaping it? What myths and fantasies are we holding on to (e.g. classroom faculty have all the control over what gets valued on our campuses)? What does the belief about the typical librarian personality discourage us from changing?

Ethics in Organizations -- Implications for Anti-Plagiarism Education

Astrid Kersten's article, "Organizing for Powerlessness", in Journal of Organizational Change Management refers to the organizational barriers to ethics. "authentic ethical conduct in organizations requires the creation of a 'holding environment'; a space that is safe enough to share negative feelings, contain aggression and fantasies, and allow workers to explore and process errors and problems. Many organizations, however, contain a prosecutory organizational identity that rigidly and narcissistically separates good from bad, thereby promoting blaming, scapegoating, a false sense of security and dimished anxiety.[...]Authentic ethical conduct, the authors conclude, only emerges out of authentic human relationships." This comes from Diamond, M. and Adams, G. (1999). "The psychodynamics of ethical behavior in organizations", American Behavioral Scientist, 43(2), 245-264.

There's definitely something here to contribute to my understanding of plagiarism by students and the approaches that professors take to the issue of student plagiarism.

Hegemony v Authority

Through a discussion with Hal, I have a better understanding of the distinction I want to make between authority and hegemony. Librarians often teach authority in a hegemonic way, but the new/accelerating degredation of authority actually strengthens hegemony. Authority can oppose hegemony if we can reclaim it from the wisdom of the masses. We lose a powerful force we could marshal for social justice and transformative learning when we eschew authority. Adult education has a position on hegemony that sometimes also gets wound up with authority. If information literacy has a strong position on the uses of authority and can make a positive case for it, we could extend or clarify the definition used by adult educators. More likely, the application of adult education principles to the professional development of librarians would deepen and contextualize our understanding of authority, our role in promoting various views of authority, and our beliefs about the future of authority. It could influence some of our decisions about the uses of new information technologies and change what we recommend when we collaborate with classroom faculty.

Maybe for Adult Education Quarterly or Journal of Tranformative Education.

Look into joining this organization: http://www.aaace.org/mc/page.do