Lessons from the academy: actuating active mass‐class information literacy instruction

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to mitigate the dearth in the library literature of large‐class, active learning pedagogies, by providing examples of these instructional approaches used in mega‐classes within the science, humanities, and education fields, for application within the library environment, specifically in large information literacy instruction sessions.

Design/methodology/approach

The author surveys both the library and science and education literatures, comparing coverage of active learning approaches in the professional literatures of each.

Findings

Although the library literature enthusiastically supports active learning approaches to teaching information literacy in theory, there are statistically few librarians who employ these learning modalities in their teaching. There are hardly any examples in the library literature of librarians using large‐class, active‐learning pedagogies. This article discusses some of the reasons behind librarians' reluctance to use active learning techniques and offers pragmatic suggestions from the literature of the sciences and education to alleviate this reticence.

Originality/value

This paper helps fill in the gap in the library literature discussing large‐class, active pedagogies for information literacy instruction. It offers some practical solutions from within the non‐library literature to some of the pedagogical obstacles inherent in mass classes, making explicit applications to information literacy instruction.

Citation

Chalmers, M. (2008), "Lessons from the academy: actuating active mass‐class information literacy instruction", Reference Services Review, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320810852005