Beyond

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Beyond Alternatives to Research
PapersApplying Alternatives to Specific Subjects

• By
• Kendall Hobbs
• Reference/Instruction Librarian
• Wesleyan University
• NELIG Annual Program 2002

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Why Alternatives?

• Research paper benefits and drawbacks.
• More systematic information literacy instruction
  and practice.
• Info lit integrated into course content.
• Virtually limitless possibilities.

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Why a List?

• Librarians have seen such lists before, but
  faculty usually have not.
• Faculty were typically taught their subject but
  not how to teach it.
• Make it easy for faculty to rearrange
  assignments.

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Before Making a List

• Do your homework
• Education theory (active learning, critical
  thinking, learning styles, stages of intellectual
  development, etc).
• Course, department, school curricula.
• Your experience helping students, and knowledge
  of collection, resources, strategies, etc.
• Define and prioritize goals for list.

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Putting the List Together

• What do faculty want their students to be able to
  do?
• How can their students learn to do this?
• What do students want to be able to do? And why
  would they want to do your assignments?

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Applying the List

• What is important for this course or discipline?
• What is unique to this course or discipline?
• Keep in mind info lit is a means, not an end.

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Some Examples

• Phil 200 Philosophical Methods
• Soc 202 Sociological Analysis
• Anth 201 Anthropological Theory

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Philosophy Whats Important or Unique

• Primary / secondary / reference overlap.

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Philosophy Assignments

• Compare reference sources look up one topic in
  many sources.
• Search log note databases used, search
  strategies, results, etc.
• Annotated bibliography place each source in
  reference to others.

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Sociology Whats Important or Unique

• Statistics, surveys, etc.

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Sociology Assignments

• Update statistics find latest statistics,
  compare with older analysis.
• Research proposal include literature review,
  place proposal in context.

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Anthropology Whats Important or Unique

• Time

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Anthropology Assignments

• Pick a journal, trace its history.
• Pick a theorist, write a brief intellectual
  biography, referring to past and present
  critiques in the literature.
• A good idea that didnt quite fit compare an
  older and a recent ethnography.

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Bibliography

• Farber, Evan I. Alternatives to the term paper.
  New Directions for Teaching and Learning, v. 18,
  June 1984, p. 45-53.
• Gibson, Craig. Alternatives to the term paper
  an aid to critical thinking. The Reference
  Librarian, no. 24, 1989, p. 297-309.
• Rehmke, Denise M. Creating meaningful
  assignments for student learning. In Learning
  and Libraries in an Information Age. Teacher
  Ideas Press, 1999.
• Souchek, Russell Meier, Marjorie. Teaching
  information literacy and scientific process
  skills an integrated approach. College
  Teaching, v. 45, no. 4, Fall 1997, p. 128-31.
• Winiarz, Elizabeth Sullivan, S. John.
  Discovering the variety of library resources
  through bibliographic instruction and an
  assignment. Canadian Library Journal, v. 48, Oct
  1991, p. 335-8.

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Wesleyans List

• Integrating Information Literacy into the
  Curriculum(list of alternative
  assignments)http//www.wesleyan.edu/libr/instruc
  tion/infolit2.pdf
• Information Literacy for Wesleyan Students
  http//www.wesleyan.edu/libr/instruction/infolit1
  .pdf