xviii Preface We used National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries (American Association of School Librarians 2018) and “Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education” (Association of College and Research Libraries 2016) to establish the foundational knowledge of IL. These sources identify the many dimensions of IL, its depth and scope, and its core concepts and practices. They give us an enlarged understanding that connects IL with all academic subjects and any information needs. They help us validate the importance of IL. Teaching and Learning One of the more effective ways to teach basic IL skills, like how to search, is having students locate information to support assignments in their classes. This gives us a great opportunity to use our students’ curiosity to help them learn within a relevant context. “[I]f educators induce some level of uncertainty in their lessons rather than simply providing facts, they can create an environment that begets motivated, curious learners. More broadly, this work suggests that open-ended and exploratory learning activities, such as discovery or problem-based learning, which are inherently uncertain, may raise learners’ curiosity, which in turn, may facilitate the development of transferable knowl- edge” (Lamnina and Chase 2019, 11). We need to not only teach our students the mechanics of searching but also the importance of explo- ration to find that topic that sparks their interest and improves their learning. How Humans Learn (Eyler 2018) helped us understand how we all connect with information and incorporate it into our lives and our very being. Eyler’s work, along with What the Best College Teachers Do (Bain 2004) and Small Teaching (Lang 2016) gave us evidence- informed methods to help students learn the information we consider so vital. Their works are reflected in the layout of each chapter. The questions at the beginning of the chapters are designed to preview the topics to be covered, activate background knowledge, and get students thinking about the material and what they want to know. It is the K and W pieces of a KWL (Know, Want to know, Learned) chart. The questions for reflection and the vocabulary at the end of the chapters are designed to summarize and reinforce learning, encourage deeper thinking, and highlight what students have learned from the reading while previewing the assignments. It also closes the KWL chart. Assignments are designed to be low stakes, developmental, and scaffolding in nature. The intent is to give students a chance to practice
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