PSYC 1730
In Summer 2006, librarians and three Information Literacy Fellows* worked together to create a library instruction curriculum for PSYC 1730, Strategies for Academic Success. We developed the following statement of purpose and learning outcomes to guide our work. In Spring 2007, the original lessons created by the Fellows were adapted to address the new 8-week model for PSYC 1730.
Statement of Purpose:
Students often enter college viewing themselves as students doing required assignments in required courses, rather than as individual learners ready to enter a conversation. Students are working for the teacher and waiting for real life. This might be especially true of at-risk or struggling students, who have a tendency to seek omniscient authorities, see knowledge as certain and simple, and believe that learning should be fast and easy. Our goal, as librarians and teachers, is to help prepare students to enter more fully into the academic conversation, as learners and curious inquirers.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Students will have a robust mental model of the research process, the information world, and the production of knowledge. They will see that research is a conversation, in which they are active participants. They will learn that there is often no “right answer.”
2. Students will develop strategies of metacognition, so that they can think more critically about what works for them in terms of information seeking, critical thinking (including integrating and synthesizing information), and managing and applying information to college assignments and their lives.
3. Students will know when and how to get help from librarians, instructors and peers, including learning how to ask good questions.
Lesson Plans
1. Research as a Conversation: Developing Questions pdf / Word
A short visit by the librarian to the regular PSYC 1730 class to model the process of developing research questions.
2. Lab: Hands-On Research pdf / Word
Students will research their questions with the librarians' help.
Archived Lessons
1. Getting acquainted with a librarian and the research process pdf / Word
2. Daily life to academic research: Research as conversation pdf / Word
3. Asking questions / Ask a librarian pdf / Word
*Melissa Bowles, Julie Pelletier, and Carol Rosenthal
Instructional materials on this page are covered by a Creative Commons copyright.
Sample Attribution: Adapted from materials created by Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University.
For more information, contact Wendy Holliday, Coordinator of Library Instruction, 797-0731.