Information
Competence Proposal
In December, 1998 the CSUS Library
was awarded a grant of $4,940.00 from the CSU Information
Competence Work Group to provide information competence (IC)
skills to future K-12 teachers and to stimulate the teaching
of these skills at the K-12 level. This project will be in
development during Spring and Fall 1999 and will be
implemented during the Spring 2000 term.
For detailed information about
Information Competence at CSUS, click on the link to the
CSUS Information Competence Home Page (left).
A copy of the grant proposal follows:
INFORMATION COMPETENCE FOR FUTURE
TEACHERS
Project Directors
Roz Van Auker, Education
Librarian
California State University, Sacramento
2000 State University Drive, Sacramento, CA 95819-6039
(916) 278-6776, Fax: (916) 278-7089 email: vanaukerr@csus.edu
Linda J. Goff, Library Instruction
Librarian
California State University, Sacramento
2000 State University Drive, Sacramento, CA 95819-6039
(916) 278-5981, Fax: (916) 278-7089 email: ljgoff@csus.edu
Total Funds
Requested $4,940.00
Name of Campus or Campuses
Participating
California State University,
Sacramento
Abstract of the
Project
The purpose of this project is to
provide information competence (IC) skills to future K-12
teachers and to stimulate the teaching of these skills at
the K-12 level. This will in turn raise the IC skill levels
of incoming college freshmen. A second purpose is to
determine whether delivery of IC instruction via web
tutorial is as effective or more effective than in-person
instruction by a librarian.
This project will use an existing
assessment instrument developed on another CSU campus (i.e.,
Pomona) to establish a baseline information competence level
for students in a pre-credential education research course.
We will modify existing IC tutorials (i. e., SLO) to include
education content materials and deliver this to the students
in half of the sections of the course. We will develop
additional tutorials for the ERIC database and other
educational research tools. We will then compare student
outcomes in different sections of the course, contrasting
web-based IC instruction with traditional delivery
methods.
Project Description including
Goals and Objectives
Background:
California faces a severe teacher
shortage in coming years. Projections indicate that the
state will need as many as 300,000 new teachers in less than
a decade. The CSU has identified preparation of teachers as
a priority.
In July the Statewide Academic
Senate issued a policy statement reaffirming "CSU's
Commitment to Prepare High Quality Teachers." CSU,
Sacramento, with one of the largest teacher education
programs in the state, will play a prominent role in facing
this challenge. In fall 1997, CSUS had 1,397 students
enrolled in teacher education programs, up from 1,173 the
previous fall. During 1997/98 1,026 students earned teaching
credentials at CSUS, while in the 23-campus systems 12,000
students did so. With extreme pressure both to produce more
teachers and to get well-prepared students in front of the
classroom, the CSUS College of Education began year-round
operations this summer. The CSUS Library's role in this
endeavor is being enhanced from both the perspectives of
distance education support and recognition of the importance
of information competence.
On the Sacramento campus the
Faculty Senate adopted a policy on Computer and Information
Competence that identifies those skills that students are
expected to arrive with, those they will be taught in GE and
those they will learn in their majors. Details of this
policy appear on the CSUS Information Competence web
page:
/services/inst/indiv/libinst/infocomp.htm.
Given CSUS's major role in the
preparation of California teachers, we have a unique set of
responsibilities to make certain that those teachers we
produce have IC skills. These include how to formulate a
research question; determine their information requirements;
develop search strategy; and locate, retrieve and organize
information so they can communicate it effectively. We will
prepare future teachers with Information Competence
instruction and place value on it. If we stress the
competencies which we want teachers to model to their own
students, the result will be better prepared students coming
to us from California schools. Over time, we will see raised
skill levels and awareness of the importance of IC in all
students and teacher practitioners.
This project will target the
students in Child Development 133, Research in Human
Development, which is the required research class for
students in the Academic Pre Credential Preparation program
at CSUS. This class emphasizes "increasing student's ability
to locate understand, critique and report on research
findings." There are usually at least 6 sections of the
class offered each term. Several of the professors who teach
it already take advantage of the Education Librarian's offer
to instruct their classes. The Chair of the Department of
Teacher Education, in which this class is housed, supports
whatever efforts we are willing to make to improve the
research skills of these students.
We will administer the Pomona
pretest of IC skills to all sections of CHDV 133 to
establish base-line IC knowledge level of the students. We
will develop web-based curriculum specific to the course
content in Human Development research using the SLO model.
Additional modules on specific education resources will be
added. We will then use these web-based modules with
selected sections, providing traditional library instruction
to those in the other sections as a control group. A
post-test (an exit test) will be given to all sections, thus
providing a basis for comparison in the delivery
methods.
Goals:
- To ensure that students in the
credential program develop a high level of information
competence skills before they begin their student
teaching.
- To create flexible means to
deliver IC instruction.
Objectives:
- Students will be able to
identify appropriate resources for their research needs
in education.
- Students will be able to search
for relevant education research materials in both CD-ROM
and online versions of ERIC as well as other educational
resources.
- Students will have access to IC
instruction via alternative delivery methods that can be
used with both on-site and remote users.
Deliverables
- Information on the
effectiveness of both IC tutorials and IC assessment
instruments on a campus other than where
developed.
- Comparative analysis of
effectiveness of delivery methods (web-based instruction
versus in-person.)
- Web-based IC tutorials for
teacher education, with emphasis on critical evaluation
of sources and modules for the use of ERIC and other
education research tools.
Project Time Line
Fall 1998/Spring 1999
Meetings with College of
Education decision-makers.
Cooperative arrangements made with SLO and Pomona.
Spring 1999/Fall 1999
Develop education content
for tutorials.
Adapted programs to CSUS environment (probably WebCT)
Spring 2000
Administer pretest to all
sections of CHDV.
Use web-based education IC tutorial with selected sections
of CHDV 133.
Use post-test with all sections of CHDV 133.
Other Project Associates
Cooperative arrangements
have been made with SLO and initial contact has been made
with Pomona that will allow us to use their IC assessment
instrument and IC tutorials.
Preliminary arrangements have been
made with College of Education to modify/ adapt their
library instruction components within the targeted
course.
Dr. Edward Arnsdorf, Chair, CSUS
Teacher Education Department
6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819-6979
(916) 278-6680 email: arnsdorf@csus.edu
Project Category
This project addresses both
assessment and discipline-based categories. We will provide
assessment of student outcomes, contrasting those who use
the web tutorials to those who receive instruction from an
education librarian. Our project is discipline-based,
focusing on education students in a pre-credential core
class.
Project Budget $4,940.00
To accomplish this project we
need:
Library Systems Office staff time
and technical expertise needed to help mount IC modules.
Although Graphic Artist assistance is provided by UMS as
part of their instructional development services, related
student assistant hours are charged back to project. The
project will also fund release time for the two project
directors by hiring part-time reference librarians to cover
reference desk hours.
30 hours for Systems office support
@ $20 = $600
80 hours each for 2 librarians @$20 = $3,200
100 student assistant hours @ $9.50 = $950
Zip drive =$150
miscellaneous supplies= $40
Proposal prepared by Linda
J. Goff and Fred Batt, November 23, 1998
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