Publish for ETL401 Profile Assessment - CRITICAL SYNTHESIS & REFLECTION OF TL ROLE.

My professional learning journey has been an ongoing process of integrating professional practice at school with the professional standards and constructs learnt through this course and through professional training and collaboration with colleagues. I began this year full of optimism and eagerness to learn new skills in the library. My initial view of the Teacher Librarian role was a stereotypic one - a person who assisted students to find and borrow books, who helped to develop a love of reading and choose quality reading books and someone who created a great place to come to for quiet reading and other activities.

I began to see the role of the teacher librarian as a multi-faceted one after reading Herring (2007); Learning for the future (2001) and looking at other models. The Teacher Librarian role expanded to include - an information media specialist, an information services manager and an information literacy leader - a teacher librarian could hold up an information umbrella for the whole school community to utilise!!! The teacher librarian became the hub of the information wheel and could hold up an information umbrella as well. My image of a Teacher Librarian was changing – a visual analogy was developing - the TL could drive a big wheel from the hub and hold up a big umbrella!! The information could spin out into the school community as the spokes (resources) of the wheel were turning and the teacher librarian could use the umbrella (ISP) to control information overload through the information search process. After doing the second assignment my analogy was making more sense - the umbrella would need six parts to represent the 6 stages of an ISP. The rain would represent the anarchic storm of 21st century global information and with the protection of the umbrella, the teacher librarian could access, navigate, discriminate, share and disseminate this information to the school community. This is my visual way of synthesising what I have learnt about the role of the teacher librarian - it represents important understanding gained, essential learning along the way and a critical AHHA moment!


My engagement with subject forums, blogs and interactions with others within and beyond the subject have been another learning curve. Distance education has changed since the 1980s. When I did my teaching degree by correspondence there was no on - line communication and interaction. So this has been an extra element to consider in terms of input and time. The demand of the course in regards readings and assignments was more of a priority. However, I have been getting more familiar with forums, blogging and chatting on line and can see some value when there is time. There is value in the sharing of ideas and sometimes there is some good advice when a problem is encountered such as how to deal with technological glitches. Some blogs have been readable - others have been too wordy for me but I have had little time to engage with them. Interactions with others beyond the subject have had more practical and critical value for me. Dealing with the everyday running of a library was new and the supports of the school, especially the clerical staff and assistant principals, have been invaluable. There were many things I was learning about as administrator, manager and service provider.

I have gained a better understanding of Teacher and Librarian Collaboration (Montiel-Overall, 2005). There needs to be time set aside so that planning units of work can meet specific student outcomes. It was good to read Professor's Hartzell's(2003) comment about the two key assets to a great library - a skilled and enterprising librarian and a principal who gives "the librarian time, resources, and encouragement to collaborate with other teachers, attend curriculum committees, and provide staff development" (Hartzell, G. 2003 ,p. 5).

Other turning points came when I read Moore’s (1997) description of us untrained librarians as Teachers with Librarian responsibilities (TLR) and looking at other research on evidence based data (Hay, 2005 & 2006; Todd, 2007) ). The librarian is not just a resource provider for resource based learning (Haycock, 1991) but can gather evidence - gathering data about the impact of library programs on student learning outcomes. The focus of school librarianship is more to do with student learning outcomes rather than “information infrastructure” (Todd, 2007).

My recent readings on Kulthau(1995) and Information Process systems (Eisenberg, 2008) have been most helpful in seeing the teacher librarian’s role as developing information literacy skills through process. Kulthau, in particular, has impressed me with the acknowledgement of the affective domain as this is very evident in students but often just not acknowledged.

In conclusion, there have been many insights and much knowledge gained from numerous sources – too many to acknowledge here – consequently, my skills and understandings have been developing in my future role as Teacher Librarian.

REFERENCES

Australian School Library Association (ASLA) & Australian Library and Information
Association (ALIA). (2001). Learning for the Future: Developing Information
Services in Schools (2nd ed.) Carlton Sth, Vic., Curriculum Corporation.

Eisenberg, M.B. (2008). “Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information
Age”. In DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology,
Vol. 28, No. 2, March 2008, pp39-47


Hartzell, G. (2003). “The Essential Link”: In NW Education- Nexus of Knowledge:
The School Library in the 21st century, no.1


Hay, L. (2006). “Student learning through Australian school libraries. Part 2: What students
define and value as school library support.” Synergy, 4(2), 27-38

Hay, L (2005). “Student learning through Australian school libraries. Part 1: A statistical
analysis of student perceptions?” , Synergy, 3(2), 17-30.

Haycock, Carol-Ann. “Resource-Based Learning: A Shift in the Roles of Teacher, Learner”
NASSP Bulletin, May 1991.


Herring, J.E. (2007). “Teacher librarians and the school library”. In Ferguson, S (Ed.),
Libraries in the twenty-first Century: Charting new directions in
information services. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information
Studies, Charles Sturt University.


Kuhlthau, C. (1995). The Process of Learning from Information. In School Libraries
Worldwide. Volume 1, Number 1, pp1-12.
Kuhlthau, C. (2004). Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and
Information Services. Westport, London: Libraries Unlimited.


Moore, P. (1997) “Teaching Information Problem solving in primary schools:
an information literacy survey”, IFLANET retrieved from
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla63/63moop,htm

Todd, R.J. (2007). “Evidence-based practice and school libraries: from advocacy
to action”. In S. Hughes-Hassell & V.H. Harada School reform
and the school library media specialist (pp.57-78). Westport,CY:
Libraries Unlimited.

IL and the affective element

Am very impressed with Kuhlthau's ISP model's consideration of the affective domain. In myself I experience a continuum of emotions as i deal with the information seeking process - just in relation to these assignment tasks. However - i don't see a linear progression but a continuum that is dynamic and can move you forward or backward or nowhere depending on how this emotional energy is utilised. The uncertainty of what is expected of me at postgraduate level and what the markers want to see is there constantly - playing at the back of my mind propelling me to ask questions and constantly referring to the prescriptors for clarification. Optimism with a sense of anticipation and hope keeps me writing and seeking the required information. Confusion and frustration and doubt keeps me re-reading, analysing, selecting the pieces of the puzzle that may fit to give me some sense of clarity. Confidence is experienced as the assignment seems to come together but i may go through the whole gamut of emotions again and again as i evaluate, proofread and re read prescriptors. I have experienced disappointment in the evaluation of my assignment by the marker - maybe my own sense of satisfaction at trying to do this difficult course and getting through to the best of my ability and learning the ropes of academic writing as i go - the satisfaction of applying some of this knowledge to the practical tasks of teaching etc should be acknowledged if we were able to self evaluate before handing in the assignment. The disappointment element has tempted me to ditch the course but it is the satisfaction element that keeps me going - i hang on to that to see me through this semester and depending on my results- to keep me going into the next semester. The satisfaction element comes from the hope within myself that i will improve and get the academic side of things sorted out. I haven't had much positive feedback from my assignments yet just critical thinking. I live in hope!!! The affective domain is important to consider that's why we are taught to encourage children's efforts but focusing on the positive as much as possible to keep them inspired to keep going.

assignment writing & TLC

At last i found an example of a High Distinction assignment from a work colleague - a different masters degree to this one - so i can't plagiarise. I think it is important to see models of writing that is expected at post graduate level otherwise i feel like i've been floundering and not getting anywhere but not getting help to get on track with academic writing. This sink or swim attitude of some is not fair to the older novice. Now i realise that i have to do more in text referencing and acknowledge as much as i can from the sources - even though i have said it my way. Academic writing doesn't come easily to me - apparently it comes easily to some! It is not like getting on a bike again and riding to success. I have had to learn a different style of writing and also juggling this with forums, blogs and on line communication - on top of all the readings - impossible if you work 5 days a week for 2 subjects. I am now looking forward to easing my load next semester.

Just read about TLC (Montiel-Overall) - Teacher Librarian Collaboration - much of the success for this depends on the Principal giving teachers time to make this happen on a regular basis. At our school teachers are so busy - it's hard to get them aside to talk about planning a unit of work together. Some teachers are happy that they can send their class away to a competent teacher who can organise library related activities without too much input on their part. The ideal is to have a collaborative culture where social interaction is creating educational experiences but this is not easy in an hierarchical culture where power play and authority games become the order of the day. "Collaboration is a trusting, working relationship between two or more equal participants involved in shared thinking, shared planning and shared creation of innovative integrated instruction" - this can happen if time is allocated by the Principal - so much hinges on the Principal's support due to the hierarchical nature of schools.