ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


484 IC& RL News ■ M ay 2001

In t h e  wNse

Before teachers can begin to convey the content 
of their classes, they first have to grab their stu­
dents’ attention and motivate them. Students are 
more willing to learn if they have a big-picture 
context of why this material is important to them.

Sarah Kaip addresses this issue in, “It’s not just 
for term papers,” (page 496). While many of us 
are happy if we can tailor an instruction session to 
a class assignment rather than a shotgun overview 
of the library, Sarah takes this idea a step farther. 
She asks students in her two-credit, “Information 
Literacy” class to “solve” a personal problem. Stu­
dents selected problems such as how to sell a home, 
coach hockey, and deal with prostate cancer.

With this assignment, students were meaning­
fully involved with identifying, selecting, and criti­
cally evaluating information. They should have de­
veloped skills that will serve them well long after 
they graduate.

Kenneth Fink’s experience as a corporate 
trainer further reinforces the notion that adult 
learners want to know “why what we teach them 
is worth learning” and that “learning often hap­
pens in direct relationship to the amount of intel­
lectual excitement created by the materials— and 
the instructor” (page 526).

Recognizing the importance of the instruc­
tor, Prisca Moore and Eugene Engeldinger de­
scribe a program at Carthage College whereby 
education majors are exposed to collaborative 
learning and ideas for integrating technology 
into the curriculum (page 522).

I hope these articles give you some ideas 
about teaching so that you can ensure that 
the teaching happening in your library is a 
meaningful learning experience that will stay 
with students past graduation.

— Mary Ellen K. Davis 
Editor-in-chief, medavis@ala.org

mailto:medavis@ala.org