Inquiry-based learning and information literacy development: a CETL approach

1. Introduction

The Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) is a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) based at the University of Sheffield. CETL funding was awarded by HEFCE to the University in April 2005 for a period of five years, in recognition of existing excellence in inquiry-based learning (IBL) in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and Law. CILASS is committed to supporting further development and innovation in IBL both locally within the University and more widely across higher education (HE) nationally and internationally. In particular, CILASS promotes approaches to IBL that involve students in collaborative discipline-based and inter-disciplinary inquiries, develop their information literacy capabilities, and use information and communications technologies imaginatively to enhance the learning experience.

In order to provide suitable spaces for students and staff undertaking IBL, CILASS is establishing new learning and teaching spaces within its hub in the University’s new Information Commons (Centre for Learning Resources), which is scheduled to open in 2006–7. These spaces are being purpose-built to support collaborative IBL in an information- and technology-rich environment, and will offer flexibility in terms of configuring space differently for different learning activities combined with access to a range of advanced learning technologies. Additional funding for capital investment awarded to CILASS in January 2006 will allow for the creation of a further CILASS learning and teaching ‘collaboratory’ in a central satellite location within the University.

This paper focuses in particular on the strategic approach being taken by CILASS to promoting the development of information literacy within the context of IBL.

2. Inquiry-based learning

IBL encompasses a broad spectrum of pedagogical approaches that ground the learning experience in a process of self-directed scholarly investigation and research. IBL approaches may be more or less structured, encompassing case- and problem-based methods as well as small- or large-scale research projects (Khan and O’Rourke, 2003). However, a key consideration in pedagogical design for IBL is that learning activities need to be open-ended enough to allow for students to engage in genuine exploration and investigation in relation to authentic questions and issues — questions and issues to which there might well be alternative responses and solutions. Traditionally, inquiry projects have tended to be seen as activities that students will be ready to engage in only when they have already acquired a certain body of knowledge in their discipline through other means. CILASS is exploring the use of appropriately scaled inquiry activities from Level 1 upwards, with the aim of embedding inquiry at the heart of the learning experience at the University of Sheffield.

CILASS’s commitment to IBL reflects the widespread move in HE over recent years from a teacher-centred conception of the learning process towards an increasingly student-centred model. Pedagogic research has demonstrated that students are more likely to adopt ‘deep’ learning strategies when they are both challenged and supported to engage actively with the questions and problems of their discipline (e.g. Marton, et al. 1997; Prosser and Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden 2003). Seeing learning as a process of knowledge construction means that teaching moves away from transmission of information towards the design of learning tasks and environments that will support students’ active engagement with their subject (e.g. Biggs, 1999). Learning through inquiry in its many forms is, increasingly, recognised as a powerful pedagogical strategy in this respect, and one that can be applied successfully to lower as well as to higher levels of study in HE (Elton, 2001; Jenkins et al. 2003). Its further benefits include the development of a wide range of meta-cognitive and other learning skills, and the enhancement of student motivation and commitment in relation to both the process of studying and the discipline itself (Brew, 2001; Jenkins, et al. 2003; Khan and O’Rourke, 2003). At the same time, learning through inquiry is a strategy that, in making the links between research and learning more explicit, has the potential to strengthen the ‘teaching-research nexus’ within universities (Elton, 2001; Marsh and Hattie, 2002; Neumann, 1994). From this perspective, the work of CILASS engages with Boyer’s (1987; 1990) critique of the relationship between research and teaching in the US system and with the international reform movement that, stemming from this critique, aims to make student inquiry central to the undergraduate and taught postgraduate learning experience.

The University of Sheffield was awarded a CETL on the grounds that IBL was already a pedagogical strategy that had been employed successfully in the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and Law. CILASS is building initially upon excellence in IBL in seven ‘core’ academic departments/schools: Education, English, History, Human Communication Sciences, Information Studies, Law, Modern Languages (French, Germanic Studies, Hispanic Studies, Russian and Slavonic Studies). These have already displayed high-quality engagement with IBL, exploring its specific discipline-based applications through innovation in curriculum design and through the scholarship of teaching.

An example from the School of English is Kiddult Fiction, a module in which students design interactive workshop activities for local primary school pupils. Students also produce research essays, present at seminars and contribute to WebCT and the Kiddult Fiction website. Student feedback indicates that they respond particularly well to this combination of research with the practical workshop activity, and from the opportunity to share their research interests with their peers. They also perceive a direct benefit in terms of the development of employability skills. Similarly, Students in Education attest to the value of an inquiry-based, action-oriented approach to learning. In recent feedback students praised the collaborative and “dynamic” nature of an e-Research Methods module and its direct application to work practice. CILASS is using these and many other excellent examples of learning through inquiry to develop new and innovative IBL approaches that also incorporate a clear focus on embedding information literacy development within the process of inquiry.

3. Information literacy

The CILASS vision is to develop graduates who, through their involvement as inquirers in their discipline-based communities of practice, gain a wide range of transferable capabilities applicable not only to academic work but also to their future employment and lifelong learning. These include information literacy capabilities that are essential to living and working in the ‘network society’ (Castells, 2000). There is growing international recognition of information literacy as a far-reaching educational, economic and democratic issue (e.g. Candy, 2004; Johnston and Webber, 2003; Virkus, 2003). With its thematic focus on information literacy, CILASS aims to respond in particular to the rapid technological changes that are taking place in the environment for scholarly practice, and to the implications of these changes for student-inquirers and researchers. New digital technologies and resources that are affecting the creation, organisation and sharing of knowledge challenge academic staff to think afresh about disciplinary inquiry and the information-related capabilities that students need. Recent research has revealed significant limitations in students’ general level of information literacy (e.g. Armstrong et al, 2001; McDowell, 2002). CILASS is strongly committed to addressing this, especially in relation to higher-order capabilities of relevance to discipline-based inquiry.

Information access and processing skills such as those involved in using electronic resources to search for information are a pre-requisite for students undertaking an IBL curriculum. However for CILASS, it is the higher-order capabilities associated with new conceptions of information literacy (e.g. Bruce, 1997, SCONUL, 1999) - including critical thinking, evaluation, synthesis, communication and knowledge-creation - that provide a key focus for development activity. These new conceptions also recognise the role of values, ethics and creativity in the use of information, and situate information literacy explicitly within particular contexts of social practice. CILASS aims to explore the synergies, arguably yet to be fully harnessed in HE, between these expanded conceptions and IBL (e.g. Macklin, 2003).

In integrating information literacy education more closely with the subject curriculum, CILASS will be informed by, and aims to contribute to, leading-edge developments in the pedagogy of information literacy. CILASS is especially committed to developing an inquiry-based pedagogy for information literacy, drawing for example on constructivist and relational approaches that invite exploration of information literacy, and development of information literacy skills, through processes of experiential learning, critical reflection and research. This work will be underpinned by relevant research and pedagogical practice in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield (e.g., Webber and Johnston, 2000, 2004; Levy, 2000), and by the pedagogical collaborations between information professionals and subject experts at the University (e.g. Freeman and Parker, 2004).

4. Strategic development

CILASS’s focus on IBL and information literacy has already impacted strongly on strategic thinking and development at an institutional level, as reflected in the explicit commitment to both of these areas in the University’s new Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy (2005–10). Thus, in setting out a number of key characteristics of ‘the Sheffield Graduate’, the Strategy highlights the capacity to:

• carry out extended independent inquiry, formulating relevant questions and engaging critically with a wide range of evidence; and,

• demonstrate the core capabilities and skills of information literacy, interacting confidently with the nature and structure of information in their subject and handling information in a professional and ethical manner.

This establishes an institution-wide agenda to provide opportunities for students to engage with IBL and information literacy development, and provides the strategic framework for CILASS to make a significant impact on the culture of learning and teaching within the institution. For example, at the same time as academic departments are being required to formulate departmental-level learning and teaching strategies in response to the new Strategy, CILASS is engaging with the University in a number of ways, including provision of focused funding for development and innovation projects at a number of levels and the establishment of professional networks both within the University and externally. The following sections highlight key strands of the CETL’s strategic approach to information literacy development within the context of IBL.

4.1 Departmental-level curriculum development and innovation

The main plank of CILASS’s development strategy is at the level of academic departments, the aim being to maximize impact by encouraging strategic thinking and supporting diverse disciplinary practice and priorities. Departments are invited to bid for funds to take forward innovation programmes that align with CILASS’s thematic priorities, including information literacy. During the planning and development stages of proposals, guidance on embedding information literacy into programmes is available from a CILASS Learning Development and Research (LDR) Associate who has a specific remit to support pedagogical enhancement and innovation in information literacy. As part of this process, proposers are invited to consider:

• their conceptions of information literacy in relation to their approach to IBL, their discipline area, and the broad conceptual framework adopted by CILASS;

• supporting student inquiry through the development of the seven headline areas in the SCONUL (1999) model of information literacy;

• incorporating explicit assessment of information literacy outcomes within proposed programmes.

For example, a project being taken forward as part of the Department of Psychology’s CILASS programme aims to build student’s information literacy through engagement with the popular and scholarly literature in inquiry-based activities within a first year module. The project is called “Critical Appraisal of the Public Presentation of Psychology”. Students will be asked to identify from the print media a report that is based upon an original psychological source (e.g., a paper in journal, a conference presentation, a research press release). The Department considers that because of its intrinsic ‘human interest’ content, psychology is often misrepresented or trivialized within the popular media. Students will be asked to engage with the Lexis-Nexis Executive database of newspaper material in a structured tutorial environment. Trained Postgraduate tutors will provide advice and guidance on search skills and strategies, and students will have the opportunity to explore the resource in a mediated workshop environment. The activity will be supported by WebCT chat groups/discussion boards, and students will work collaboratively to discuss the story and build their evaluation skills. They will then present their interpretations of the media story to their tutor. A follow-up activity will be devoted to finding the original source of the story via the Web of Knowledge database and this activity will be supported by an online tutorial on using the Web of Knowledge developed by the Library. Students will be introduced to the strategies that are useful for following up and locating original sources, potentially using citation searching, and will be encouraged to think critically about the reasons why scientific inquiry can be can be misinterpreted in the popular media (e.g. through a focus upon empirical phenomena rather than the hypotheses under investigation). The results of their investigations will be discussed with the tutor and peers, with students reflecting on the process of the search and investigation and discussing the evaluation of the authority of the contrasting information sources. (Jones and May, 2006)

4.2 Partnership with the Library

A further feature of the LDR Associate role is to provide a link between academics involved in CILASS projects and the Library, specifically to broker information literacy expertise that the Library can provide through its own activities. The Library is a key partner for CILASS in this respect and is taking forward a CILASS-funded project entitled SEIL: Student Engagement with Information Literacy. Through this project, librarians are working to support the particular information literacy needs of departmental CILASS-funded projects. This includes, for example, the development of an interactive model of on-line resource list creation that aims to facilitate dynamic building of information ‘environments’ for IBL, within WebCT Vista, through the lifetime of taught modules. Another strand of the SEIL project is furthering the development and use of the Library’s existing on-line Information Skills module, also based on the use of WebCT Vista, which offers a set of generic resources that can be adapted to meet the IBL needs of specific subject areas and will also offer a vehicle for assessing students’ information literacy development.

4.3 Information Literacy Audit

There are close synergies between the information literacy focus of CILASS and the research and teaching interests of members of the academic staff in the Department of Information Studies at the University. The Department is taking forward a CILASS funded project to conduct an audit (review) of the information literacy teaching that is currently delivered to students across all its undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. The SCONUL (1999) model will provide the framework for the investigation and the project aims to identify those aspects (“pillars”) of information literacy which can be further developed in the Department. The intention is to identify good practice and develop a toolkit that other departments may wish to use to carry out a similar exercise, for example as they review their programmes against the aspirations in the LTA Strategy and further their information literacy activities over the strategic planning and development period established by the new Strategy.

4.4 Information Literacy Network

CILASS is planning to facilitate a number of Special Interest Groups and networks, including in the areas of information literacy, networked learning and the scholarship of teaching. An information literacy network project has recently been established, led by the Department of Information Studies in collaboration with the Library, and funded and coordinated by CILASS. The aim is to provide a framework for raising the profile of information literacy within CILASS’s IBL community, and to create an on-going forum for discussion of strategic, pedagogical and research issues. The first event was a workshop for academic staff who are involved in the development of departmental LTA strategies, to generate and exchange ideas for ways in which departments might respond to the information literacy aspirations of the University’s LTA Strategy in the context of IBL.

4.5 Evaluation and research

CILASS is adopting an inquiry-based approach to developing pedagogical practice and knowledge in IBL, through an extensive programme of evaluation and research. The evaluation approach is impact-focused and participatory, the fundamental purpose being to involve academic staff in exploring the impact of their CILASS-supported initiatives on the student learning experience, and to assess the achievement of CILASS’s over-arching programme objectives. Theories of Change programme evaluation methodology (Connell and Kubisch, 1996) combined with the use of EPO (enabling, process and outcome) Performance Indicators (Helsby and Saunders, 1993) is the approach that has been adopted, thereby aligning with the evaluation of learning and teaching development more generally at the University from 2006. Alongside the evaluation of development and innovation projects, CILASS will also be carrying out pedagogical research into IBL, including an exploration of conceptions of, and approaches to, IBL in different disciplinary contexts. The third strand of the evaluation and research strategy focuses on encouraging the scholarship of teaching in relation to IBL, including through action research. Evaluation and research activities will include a focus on information literacy, since this is integral to the CILASS perspective on IBL. For example, there will be a focus on exploring students’ experiences of information literacy development within the context of IBL, the effectiveness of new pedagogical approaches, and the nature and pedagogical implications of different disciplinary conceptions of information literacy.

5. Concluding remarks

Information literacy is gaining recognition in UK HE as a key area of capability for graduates within a world characterised by ‘supercomplexity’ (Barnett, 2000). This is reflected, for example, in the Higher Education Academy’s recent commissioning of an in-depth review of the literature on the relationship between information literacy and learning. Alongside the on-going shift from traditional delivery learning and teaching modes to more student-centered approaches, information literacy is moving up some institutional agendas as a focus for strategic and pedagogical development. For CILASS, the commitment to IBL goes hand in hand with a commitment to information literacy. While it is still early days, CILASS will be providing strong impetus and significant resource over a sustained period to further information literacy development at the University of Sheffield within the context of discipline-sensitive approaches to IBL. The aim is to position the University at the forefront of innovative teaching that empowers students as inquiring people who are able to engage effectively and critically with a rich, and rapidly evolving, information environment.