Abstract
As a teaching librarian, I have come to dislike the phrase one-shot because to me it is a misnomer, an inaccurate description of the hard work we put into information literacy instruction, both before and after each session. When I look at the syllabi of the teaching faculty I collaborate with, I am usually listed as a guest speaker. While that is not the best description either, I like it better than ‘one-shot-er’. When I begin my instruction session, I usually ask the students if any of them have met me before and more often than not a handful of them tell me that they have. I am thrilled when they have because I have often told students they will see me again with new material. This is why I was so pleased to read in Maximizing the One-Shot that ‘we need to remember the one-shot really isn’t the only time librarians work with students’ (p. 16). With this in mind, the authors encourage the teaching librarian not to kitchen-sink an instruction session, but to formulate it using specific learning goals and integrating information literacy to support the curriculum.
Maximizing the One-Shot is a step-by-step description of an ambitious, collaborative project between the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), librarians, and teaching faculty. CETL, responsible for faculty professional development, promoted the instruction method Lesson Study, a team-based format in which the members draft learning goals, form the lesson, teach and observe the instruction session, participate in post-instruction reflection and discussion and revise as necessary. The librarians seized this professional development opportunity and piloted the Lesson Study program with English 110 faculty, frequent requesters of information literacy instruction.
As the authors describe the five-step Lesson Study process, they provide not only the what and how, but also the why, including institutional context for a deeper understanding. The one exception from this is part of the third step: observation of student behavior as a way of assessing engagement. While I can understand the value of this kind of data collection, there was no explanation as to why certain behaviors were chosen. For example, I found myself wondering why self-segregation was important for them to note in an information literacy workshop. Including some justification for these decisions would have made a stronger chapter.
After the Lesson Study proved to be successful with the English curriculum, the group collaborated with the Science and Nursing faculty. Their work with the Nursing faculty is particularly impressive: a three-year scaffolded plan beginning in the sophomore year with a lesson on finding evidence-based research in subscription databases and ending with a lesson finding reliable health information on the open web, an issue they will likely face as working professionals. Students require more out of higher education than simply becoming more knowledgeable; they expect to graduate with skills they can transfer to the workplace.
The sixth chapter outlines extended learning opportunities with the same deliberation and care as the initial Lesson Study process, with strong recommendations of collaborating with faculty and making course-appropriate digital learning objects. The authors mention lack of time and knowledge in order to make these learning objects appealing to a younger audience, trying to strike a balance between pedagogical best practices and student engagement, but I wonder if marketing analysis is a necessary step. In my own study and practice of eLearning, pedagogical best practices should maximize student engagement. Learning technology choice should support the learning objectives, not the other way around. It is easy to worry about not appealing to so-called ‘digital natives’, but confidence will grow as we librarians become more comfortable with designing digital learning objects.
In the subsequent chapter, ‘The benefits and challenges of collaboration’, I am uncomfortable with the assumptions made about librarians and faculty, that we are ‘conditioned to collaborate’ (p. 67), but that ‘collaboration has not necessarily been a part of working culture of teaching faculty in the same way it has been for librarians’ (p. 69). I have encountered varying collaborative skills with both groups. That being said, the chapter is beneficial in that it allows the reader to plan to avoid potential pitfalls and maximize the benefits of working on this kind of group project.
The next two chapters provide particularly useful information. In Chapter 8 the authors provide practical advice as to how librarians may increase their campus footprints in order to implement a Lesson Study. In addition to this, the authors offer assessment strategies of the Lesson Study and provide excellent talking points to both faculty and library administrators whose buy-in is needed. Chapter 9 also provides buy-in strategies, but to a different audience: students. Like collaborative skills, presentation skills vary with librarians. Many of us have not received teacher training, and this chapter provides simple, unobtrusive, but highly effective strategies to connect with student audiences and to be prepared for the things that often go wrong during one-shots such as technology failure and surprise requests from the instructor.
Finally, I was particularly impressed with the inclusion of the instructional faculty narratives. One theme occurred often in narratives – the time-consuming nature of the Lesson Study; however, it makes me wonder whether once an institution gets over its initial hump of piloting this kind of project, the time commitment reduces. On the whole, the faculty interviewed indicated that despite the challenges of the time commitment of the Lesson Study, they believed it to be worthwhile and beneficial to their students as well as to themselves.
What I like most about this book is the big picture it provides of information literacy instruction. Instead of bemoaning their circumstances and logistics of higher education, the authors use their time deliberately and purposefully to maximize learning during one-shots with the students. To take it further, they highlight the importance of information literacy instruction not only with the learning theory behind a Lesson Study, but by including the voices of their collaborating faculty. I recommend this book to any library instructor who is interested in improving their one-shots at the very least, or implementing an integrated, collaborative project with their faculty at the very most.