1st Edition

Learner-centred Pedagogy Principles and practice

    216 Pages
    by Facet Publishing

    Today’s emphasis on metrics and personalization make evidence-based instruction an imperative. This book offers librarians concrete, empirically-based strategies to connect with learners at all levels.

    More than ever, librarians are required to possess pedagogical expertise and are being called upon to design, implement, and assess robust evidence-based reference and instructional practices that contribute to student success. In order to achieve these goals, librarians must know how to teach information literacy skills that go far beyond one particular library context, in order to facilitate lifelong learning. In addition to the traditional information expertise of the library professional, today’s librarian must also master evidence-based pedagogical practices that can help make learning stick.

    Offering plentiful examples of pedagogy in action, this book covers:

    • six cognitive principles for organizing information literacy instruction, with sample worksheets and organization tools for instruction planning
    • how to establish rapport and build learners’ motivation
    • educational evidence debunking the mythical perception that because students are skilled at computers and mobile technology, they already know how to do research
    • questions to keep in mind for inspiring autonomous learning
    • the power of story, as described by Joan Didion, Brené Brown’s Ted Talk, and educational psychology research
    • the science behind information overload
    • a balanced framework for evaluating specific educational technology tools.

    Acknowledgments

    Introduction

    1. What is Learner-Centered Pedagogy?

    2. Curiosity and Learning: The Importance of Authenticity and Autonomy

    3. Empathy and the Science of Learning: Lessons from the Cognitive Literature

    4. Relationships: The Heart of Learner-Centered Pedagogy

    5. Cultivating a Growth Mindset

    6. The Learner-Centered Library Technologist: Applying Learner-Centered Pedagogy

    Conclusion: The Timelessness of Learner-Centered Pedagogy

    Directions for Further Reading

    About the Authors

    Index

    Biography

    Kevin Michael Klipfel received his master’s degree in philosophy from Virginia Tech. He received his M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his master’s research on authenticity, motivation, and information literacy learning won the Dean’s Achievement Award for the Best Master’s paper of 2013 in the School of Information in Library Science. He has presented nationally on student motivation and learning both in and outside the library profession, and has published articles on the application of humanistic and existential psychology to learner-centred information literacy learning in journals such as College and Research Libraries and Reference Services Review. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

    Dani Brecher Cook is Director of Teaching and Learning at University of California, Riverside. She holds an MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an A.B. in English Literature from the University of Chicago. She has published on information literacy pedagogy and learning technologies in College & Research Libraries News, Reference & User Services Quarterly, and Communications in Information Literacy. Dani has presented on the intersection of these two topics nationally at conferences such as ACRL, LITA, LOEX, and the Library Technology Conference.