What's the Point?: The Elusive Focus

What's the Point? Part 3

WHAT MEDIATORS CAN DO
School library media specialists and teachers

Everyone needs an Arrow

This paper has discussed the focusing experience of a group of high school students, both those who explored around a narrowed topic and those who formed a clear focus. Oblio's story was offered as a metaphor for their information search experience. Throughout Oblio's journey, Arrow was always by his side, sometimes pulling him through tough spots, sometimes catching the triangle for him, and sometimes just checking that he was still there and wagging his tale. That kind of support is needed by students doing these information rich projects. Otherwise they are truly banished. While comparing mediator's support to that of a loyal pet stretches the metaphor (perhaps too far), it emphasizes that support is necessary for both academic success and personal validation. Again what is the point? What can we do to help students focus appropriately and well?

Coach

Provide a supportive environment that encourages independence and freedom of expression.

Actively encourage students' expressions of personal perspective.

Point out the personal in information encountered and the uncertainty of knowledge to those who are ready to see that uncertainty.

Collaborate with teachers to promote that same support and awareness. Discuss in pre planning how different assignments favor different paths. Educate teachers who may have outdated research paper methods in the process approach. Dialog with teachers to allow students to take safe risks with less certain knowledge areas. Work with both teachers and students to develop skills that support that differentiation. Stripling and Pitts (1988) provided a library research taxonomy that they called Levels of Thoughtful Research that gives step by step guidance to teachers and school library media specialists. Model the process approach and talk about what you are doing and why in your work with both teachers and students.

Encourage exploration itself as a teaching method "aimed at encouraging learner autonomy" that may be particularly appropriate for adolescents and is certainly applicable to many of the kinds of information seeking assignments made in classrooms.

Mediate with the following in mind:
There is more than one path through the woods.

Tasks that require combining information from multiple sources may result in a clearly formulated focus, which is one path through the information search process. Other such tasks and projects are successfully completed by the organizing and sequencing of information around a narrowed topic, a different path. In the schools, these tasks are typically initiated by an assignment, but outside of school assignments, information tasks also vary based on individual information needs. Touring information is a common phenomenon and as valuable for some students and some tasks as clearly formulating a focus, the navigating of information which requires higher level cognitive processing. Similarly clear focus formulation is more appropriate to some tasks, such as research projects that require the development of a thesis. For example, the focus style useful for following the lateral links of a hypertext based assignment is likely to be very different than that required by a carefully structured scientific hypothesis. Nonetheless, the focus formulation path must be appropriate to each student­consider each student's individual development, interests, and information preferences, in addition to assignments and information tasks.

Dialog about topics at the beginning of the process. Successful students pick topics for learning or topics for pleasure, and the result is enhanced learning and motivation to complete the project. Dialog during the process itself, recognizing that most students want independence as they work on their projects, but that interventions are often welcome but when timed carefully. Don't provide help that is not needed. Recall Kuhlthau's Zone of Intervention based on that of Vygotsky, for effective instruction to occur a "student must be developmentally ready to learn the skill . . . and must recognize that use of the skill will be effective in solving a personal cognitive problem." (Mancall, Aaron and Walker, p. 22) Carefully selected topics provide skill motivation, and the knowledge of individual students provides developmental guidance. To go beyond effective instruction, combine the goal of learning with pleasure. Many students will do so on their own by becoming involved in their topics and projects. Know when to intervene and when to back off. Remember the senior English teacher thought that dialog was the single most important factor. Dialog frequently with students and teachers during the process. "Some can do this on their own [and benefit from that independence], but struggling, undiscipline students need a lot of guidance."

Go beyond location support to guidance and regular supportive dialog. This is a difficult and important process for students cognitively and personally. It is also difficult to mediate. While it may be simpler to check library passes and instruct students in how to use a periodical index or the latest CD ROM, this is probably less important than dialoging. Obviously it is not enough in a school library media center to merely help students locate information in the library media center, and indeed the students who centered on finding more information often had poorly focused papers.

Extending the strategies and skills of good reference work are appropriate here, as recently described by Nardi (p. 65) who praises the librarian's human touch in collaboratively refining the client's [read student's] goal. Her librarians used the reference interview to help to clarify each search request, adjust the focus, and to stretch boundaries. Although she was writing of collaboration with adult clients in special libraries, the benefits of her approach are clear. Use a student profile developed collaboratively with teachers to refine goals that are then collaboratively dialoged with each student. In the school setting, supplement such reference "magic" with teaching, teaching focus formulation rather than source use.

The final point

Completion of the information search process at an appropriate focus style can provide a rich individually meaningful learning experience. It can also provide personal autonomy, enhance confidence, and validation as learner. Like Oblio, everyone has a point.