Reflective learning

1(b) Propose a teaching strategy (300 words) Week 3 Step 3.10

Activity 1(b)

Propose a teaching strategy for a subject you teach (or will teach) or for one which you support with design/development, considering your experience of FULT peer observation, ideas introduced in this course and in the FULT program in general. (Approximately 300 words)

Teaching students about database searching could enable a strategy that incorporates online and blended learning. Students should understand how a database differs from searching Google, should be able to locate appropriate databases and understand how to effectively search them. These skills will help them to operate effectively as learners at university, enabling them to efficiently find appropriate information, and have the skills to evaluate the resources and information that they find and use.

The Library designed the ELISE tutorial as both a mandatory introduction for commencing students, but also as a continual reference point for students as they progress through their academic learning. Resources in ELISE such as guides, videos, links to external information sources can be used at any time by students, who can refer back to these resources for guidance in context of the questions they are working on.

Resources such as scholarly databases require a certain level of understanding of how to best interrogate them, so a teaching strategy that used an inverted model would be useful, where students were asked to view a video about database searching as a prerequisite for attending a face to face session incorporated into a class tutorial.

Students could then come to a session with their tutor/lecturer and a librarian where they work on specific searching problems related to their topics of study, using the session to explore issues, ask questions and request further clarification of searching methods and database tools. Collaboration between the students and the librarian on searching strategies and tips and tricks would provide them with further motivation to use the methods they had worked on to improve efficiency in finding and using information.

Students could be asked to reflect on their ability to successfully find and use information for their assignments. Tutors and Librarians could communicate to students in a class wiki or discussion space about their success after the face to face session. This space could be used by students if they had immediate follow-up questions about their topic or searching techniques - this could also be a good reference point for other students in the course. 

By inverting the learning, enabling the students to utilise the face-to face time most effectively with focused searching related to their topics, students would be encouraged to focus on the task in a way that would help them develop their skills but also enable them to find information for their current assignments. 

Providing a space where the students, tutor and librarian can interact after the session, would help students feel that their learning experience has been more personalised with real-time responses.