The value of collaboration: raising confidence and skills in information literacy with first year Initial Teacher Education students

This paper will focus on the increasing staff-student-librarian collaboration, and integration of information literacy (IL) teaching, within a Primary Initial Teacher Education undergraduate course. These developments arose from an action research project which started during the academic year 2010-11. The aim of the research was to evaluate the impact of the IL teaching upon students’ confidence in their abilities to find, select and use information. Results of the first research cycle (2010-11) indicated that overall, the teaching had a positive and desirable impact upon students' confidence. However, staff and student feedback suggested that mutual expectations, and the consistency and timing of support, were important factors in the development of students' IL skills. During the analysis of our initial findings, we will focus our discussion around two identified themes which relate to these issues – role and collaboration – and share our experiences from the second and third cycles of the research, which led to a transformation of IL teaching for our students in 2013-14. This paper charts our four-year journey, sharing the ideas and opportunities realised through the project and through increased collaboration as a teaching team and with our students. This paper is based on a presentation given at LILAC 2014