What Works Volume 31,
Number 4, April 2004
Ken Haycock
The Student Perspective
Research Finding:
When effective school libraries are in place, students
do learn.
Comment:
In a study of 13,000 students in Grades 3–12 in
Ohio, “constructs of help” were identified
as how helpful the school library is:
- with getting information
students need;
- with using the information to complete
their school work (information literacy skills);
- with their school work in general (knowledge building,
knowledge outcomes);
- with using computers in the
library, at school, and at home;
- to students with
their general reading interests;
- to students when
they are not at school; and
- in encouraging students
to work better and get better grades.
The effective school library provides access to
information resources necessary for students to complete
their work
successfully, including information technology in providing
access to both print collections within the library
andresources through databases and the World Wide Web.
What
is clearly perceived to be of help is the library’s
part in engaging students in an active process of
building their own understanding and knowledge – the
library as an agency for active learning. Understanding
how to
do research effectively, how to identify key ideas,
analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information,
testing their
own ideas and developing personal conclusions are
fundamental to students constructing their own understanding
of a
topic.
An effective school library, led by a credentialed
school librarian, one who is particularly engaged in
an instructional
process centering on the development of students’ intellectual
scaffolds for engaging with and using information for
building knowledge, clearly plays a vital role in facilitating
student learning.
An effective school library is not just
as an information place, but also as a knowledge space
where students develop
the appropriate information literacy scaffolds to enable
them to engage with information, make decisions about
the information they encounter in terms of its worth
and appropriateness, and build their own understanding.
An effective school library is not just informational,
but formational. Source:
Student learning through Ohio school libraries: The Ohio
research study. (2003). Prepared by Ross Todd and Carol
Kuhlthau. Ohio Educational Library Media Association
(OELMA). For additional information: http://www.oelma.org/studentlearning.htm.
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