Four Pedagogical Approaches in Helping Students Learn Information Literacy Skills

In spring 2012, Rider University librarians heightened their collaboration with classroom faculty to teach students in core writing classes information literacy (IL) skills during IL instruction (ILI) sessions. This quasi-experimental study assessed four pedagogical approaches for single or multi-session ILI. The conventional approach, which involves lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on time, was used in both the control and the experimental groups. The three experimental groups involved: (a) assigning students to preview the class Research Guide and take a graded quiz (Preview group), (b) engaging interactively with students during the ILI session (Active Learning group), and (c) providing multiple instruction and follow-up sessions (Multi-session group). A different pretest and posttest based on the first two ACRL Information Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) were developed for assessment. The results showed that student knowledge of concepts included in the training improved significantly in both the control and the experimental groups, but no differences were found among the teaching methods employed. The qualitative analysis revealed that the professor in the Preview group who integrated IL cohesively in her assignments experienced more satisfactory learning outcomes. The overall low scores suggest that more powerful instruction strategies besides diversified pedagogies are needed to significantly enhance long-term retention.