Adapting Evidence-Based Practices to Improve Library Instruction: Using Customized Tools to Support Peer Mentoring and Observation

Abstract

To improve the quality of our instruction, and to contribute to student success, we designed an instructional development program using peer mentoring and observation grounded in evidence-based practices. We identified three methods of peer observation and mentoring to create an innovative progressively in-depth program that helps librarians understand what is happening in the classroom, and works within a community of practice to identify ways to improve the quality of our instruction. These tools, used in higher education, were then customized to work for information literacy instruction: Teaching Squares, the Teaching Practices Inventory-Information Literacy Instruction, and the Classroom Observation Protocol for Information Literacy. These tools help librarians identify evidence-based practices, understand what occurred in their classrooms, and lead to student-focused teaching. This article discusses the development of these tools and initial findings. teaching (Handelsman, Miller, & Pfund, 2007), increased course structure (Eddy & Hogan, 2014), active learning (Freeman et al., 2014) and flipped classrooms (Arnold-Garza, 2014; Gross et al., 2015) to name a few of the most prevalent terms. For purposes of this paper, we will call all of these methods evidence-based practices. We are not alone in needing to learn how to integrate these approaches into our teaching practice. Many faculty and instructors also need to change to accommodate new evidence about student learning and effective teaching. To help them with these changes, full time faculty and instructors have a culture of peer observation and evaluation that librarians typically do not. We suggest that we adopt programs that build communities of practice, and tools that articulate best practices for effective teaching, so we can form a culture of observation that is responsive to the needs of librarians and students. We can use mentoring and reflection to integrate new teaching methods, and to improve the effectiveness of our

Teaching strategies for library instruction: directions from the literature

“…The learning strategy goes with the cognitive approach such as dividing learning material into small portions (chunking), promote repletion to build certain thoughts, and explaining in detail with the intention of increasing memory and understanding. Several strategies that related to cognitive skills in library instruction include conducting online discussions (Tewell 2018;Budai and Williams 2021), critical library instruction (Whitver and Lo 2017;Tewell 2018;Azadbakht, 2019;Tomaszweski 2021), and cognitive apprenticeship (Tomkins 2016;Oberlies, Buxton and Karpinski 2020).…”

The use of OPAC query logs to support evidence-informed information literacy (IL) training at The University of Dar es Salaam

“…The results indicated that the use of students’ self-reported IL needs is critical for developing IL courses which are relevant to learners. Oberlies, Buxton and Zeidman-Karpinski (2020) tested Teaching Squares (TS), the Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI) and the Classroom Observation Protocol (COP) to inform improvement of IL instructions offered to the undergraduate students. The tools were found to be effective in helping instructors to refine and develop IL instructions to learners.…”