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"Information Literacy skills are the skills which pupils
use to identify the purpose of, locate, process and communicate
information and other ideas." Herring James, Teaching
Information Skills in Schools, 1996
At The Mary Erskine School (MES) there were concerns that
pupils appear to be lacking in Information Literacy skills
and were not taught in a consistent way how to assimilate
information to turn it into knowledge. With growing concerns
about plagiarism by Examining Boards as well as Universities
and Institutions of Higher Education, it was recognised
that such skills are of increasing relevance to pupils.
I worked with a small group of MES staff to plan for the
teaching of Information Literacy skills. The findings of
a questionnaire, designed to identify in the first instance
how staff were teaching Information Literacy skills and
how pupils learn such skills, showed that large numbers
of pupils used limited sources of information for assignments
and adopted cut and paste techniques regularly.
An audit was carried out, the findings of which demonstrated
the need for a coordinated, whole-school approach to the
teaching of such skills. Information Literacy should be
embedded in the curriculum and should build upon existing
knowledge and skills, contextualised by specific curriculum
content and the required learning tasks.
Last session I chaired a Three Schools' (MES, SMC and the
Junior School) Working Party, the remit of which was to
establish opportunities for the three schools to communicate
and plan the teaching of Information Literacy Skills targeting
one year group in particular. Following much research, the
group produced a Staff Guide, a Pupil Guide, an Assignment
Tick List and example bibliography. These were made available
to all staff for use within the classroom but particularly
with S1and P7 pupils.
This session I am coordinating the Three Schools with a
view to implementing an Information Literacy Strategy for
teaching Information Literacy Skills in the first instance
to P7 and S1 pupils, with a view to rolling the programme
out to S2 and P6 next session.
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