DS Bish LIS 688

Dawn Bish LIS 688: Information Literacy Teaching Philosophy A talkative class is a learning class (Chodock, 2009).

My teaching philosophy stems from several different areas of my life and my work experience. The first is that I have worked with children and adults with developmental disabilities for the last 25 years. More specifically, I have worked with children with autism and their families. The other aspects comes from the way I learn myself, how I have taught my son and the information and knowledge I have gained through my short time as a reference intern. My style combines several schools of thought in reference to teaching but the most significant teaching style for me is behavior modification. Behavior modification is a learning system used extensively in the teaching of children and adults with autism. Autism is a developmental disability that involves how children communicate, socialize and interact with the world around them. Developing a skill requires structured teaching or breaking down a task into smaller, easier to learn components and reinforcement of appropriate behavior. One must know where the child is functioning in order to better understand what skills need to be taught and in what order the teaching should occur. Lets take a look at an example. When teaching a child to request something to drink, the teacher needs to determine how the child communicates expressively (verbal, pointing, etc.) and at what point in the process of requesting the child is at. Such information as whether the child talks, is able to point or somehow indicate want and what is motivating to the child is very important. When teaching a child to ask for something to drink, choosing a potent reinforcement (something the child would love to drink) is just as important as how teaching occurs. A child is much more likely to request an item that he enjoys drinking than something he does not care anything about. In other words, it is important to determine what is important to the child, the childs likes and dislikes and at where in the task he is. Okay, so you may be asking yourself how this would relate to teaching someone information literacy, especially when working with young college students or adult learners. Lets take a look at an example of a task related to information literacy, such as choosing a scholarly article for a paper. The first thing that needs to be done is to determine where in the process the student is. For example, does the student have an understanding of what a scholarly article is, understand how to access the library database, know how to use search terms or even know that the library has databases. Finding out the answers to these questions would determine where you would start teaching a student. For example, if the student is familiar with using search terms but is not acquainted with specific databases appropriate for the subject, you would start with teaching which databases are the most appropriate for the topic they have chosen. If you start out too simply, then you will have a student that is bored and not paying

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DS Bish LIS 688

attention. If you start out thinking that the student knows more than what he does, he will be overwhelmed and unable to develop the skill. So, how do you reinforce skill acquisition when working with college students or adult learners? You must know your student and determine what is most reinforcing for the student. I believe that you should know what is reinforcing to the student or group you are teaching and use that to your advantage. If you are teaching students that are into social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, you can use this information in your teaching process. Instead of lecturing on how to search a particular database, you may want to start with how to search on Facebook and then transfer that knowledge to searching a database. And as far as reinforcement is concerned, CHOCOLATE ALWAYS WORKS! I believe that food can be a good way to keep a student interested in what is being taught. You can start handing out candy for answering questions correctly, asking appropriate questions or problem solving. This may seem simplistic but it makes learning fun! This brings me to my next teaching philosophy, have fun while teaching and students will have fun learning. Have you ever sat through a lecture where the professor just read from the textbook or the PowerPoint presentation? Yea, not fun is it. In order to engage a student the teacher needs to appear to enjoy what they are teaching and enjoy working with people. I believe that enthusiasm for the subject matter and those students being taught are very important attributes to teaching. Engaging students include active learning techniques such as group problem solving, practicing a skill being taught in a structured environment and obtaining feedback from the teacher while the skill is being taught. Active learning also allows students to ask questions when the teachers are actually teaching. When teaching, I also like the idea of making a game out of learning such as Jeopardy. The reason for games is to get the students involved as much as possible, but also, it allows you to assess how your teaching is impacting the student. If you get a lot of participation and answers then you know that you are teaching well. If not, this gives you the opportunity to change up how you are teaching. In conclusion, I like to incorporate fun and games into learning as well as providing positive reinforcement for engagement. I believe that a student will be more receptive to learning when they are having fun. Also, knowing your students is vital in developing a rapport with the students and encouragement in learning new skills. The more you know about the student, the better you will be as a teacher.

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Works Cited
Chodock, T. a. (2009). Applying universal design to information literacy: teaching students who learn differently at Landmark College. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 24-32.

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