Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts

About the Book

The definition of threshold concepts has been expanded over the years based on the work of many educational scholars and practitioners, but are essentially described as a portal, transition, or threshold to additional learning and deeper understanding for a learner. Threshold concepts are transformative, integrative, irreversible, bounded, and troublesome, and can be a valuable tool in both facilitating students’ understanding of their subject and aiding in curriculum development within the disciplines.

In 25 chapters divided into sections mirroring ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education—Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as a Process, Information has Value, Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation, and Searching as Strategic Exploration—Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts explores threshold concepts as an idea and the specifics of what the concepts contained in the Framework look like in disciplinary contexts. The chapters cover many disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences, and a range of students, from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students.

Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts provides a balance of theoretical and practical to help readers both conceptually and pragmatically with their work in supporting student learning, including chapters in which librarians have designed learning outcomes aligned with the frames of the Framework. These examples demonstrate different approaches to working with information literacy threshold concepts and how librarians are incorporating them within their disciplinary and institutional contexts. As Ray Land says in the Foreword, “This volume marks a significant new departure in the development of the threshold concepts analytic framework.”

Table of Contents:

• Foreword, by Ray Land
• Introduction, by Samantha Godbey, Susan Beth Wainscott, Xan Goodman
• Section One. Authority is Constructed and Contextual
• Chapter 1. Teaching Inclusive Authorities: Indigenous Ways of Knowing and the Framework for Information Literacy in Native Art — Alexander Watkins
• Chapter 2. “But How Do I Know It’s a Good Source?” Authority is Constructed in Social Work Practice — Callie Wiygul Branstiter and Rebecca Halpern
• Chapter 3. Exploring Authority in Linguistics Research: Who to Trust When Everyone’s a Language Expert — Catherine Baird and Jonathan Howell
• Chapter 4. Evidence and Authority in Health and Exercise Science Research — Michelle Twait
• Section Two. Information Creation as a Process
• Chapter 5. Common Ground: Communicating Information — Beate Gersch
• Chapter 6. Using the Frame Information Creation as a Process to Teach Career Competencies to Advertising Students — Megan Blauvelt Heuer
• Chapter 7. Moving Public Health Learners to the Skeptical Edge with Information Creation as a Process — Xan Goodman
• Chapter 8. Teaching Source Selection in Public Affairs Using Information Creation as a Process — Christina Sheley
• Section Three. Information Has Value
• Chapter 9. Information Privilege in the Context of Community Engagement in Sociology — Heidi R. Johnson and Anna C. Smedley-López
• Chapter 10. Images Have Value: Changing Student Perceptions of Using Images in Art History — Courtney Baron, Christopher Bishop, Ellen Neufeld, and Jessica Robinson
• Chapter 11. Mining for the Best Information Value with Geoscience Students — Susan Beth Wainscott and Joshua Bonde
• Chapter 12. Teaching the Teachers: The Value of Information for Educators — Jess Haigh
• Section Four. Research as Inquiry
• Chapter 13. Empowering, Enlightening, and Energizing: Research as Inquiry in Women’s and Gender Studies — Juliann Couture and Sharon Ladenson
• Chapter 14. Framing the Visual Arts: The Challenges of Applying the Research as Inquiry Concept to Studio Art Information and Visual Literacy — Marty Miller
• Chapter 15. Integrating the ACRL Threshold Concept Research as Inquiry into Baccalaureate Nursing Education — Kimberly J. Whalen and Suzanne E. Zentz
• Chapter 16. Action Research as Inquiry for Education Students — Samantha Godbey
• Section Five. Scholarship as Conversation
• Chapter 17. Performance as Conversation: Dialogic Aspects of Music Performance and Study — Rachel Elizabeth Scott
• Chapter 18. Framing the Talk: Scholarship as Conversation in the Health Sciences — Candace Vance
• Chapter 19. Widening the Threshold: Using Scholarship as Conversation to Welcome Students to Science — Rebecca Kuglitsch
• Chapter 20. Theater as a Conversation: Threshold Concepts in the Performing Arts — Christina E. Dent
• Section Six. Searching as Strategic Exploration
• Chapter 21. From Novice to Nurse: Searching For Patient Care Information as Strategic Exploration — Elizabeth Moreton and Jamie Conklin
• Chapter 22. Leveraging the Language of the Past: Searching as Strategic Exploration in the Discipline of History — Jamie L. Emery
• Chapter 23. Mapping the Chaos: Building a Research Practice with Threshold Concepts in Studio Art Disciplines — Ashley Peterson
• Chapter 24. Teaching Future Educators Exploration through Strategic Searching — Michelle Keba
• Chapter 25. Threshold Concepts, Information Literacy, and Social Epistemology: A Critical Perspective on the ACRL Framework with Reference to Psychology — Tony Anderson and Bill Johnston
• Bibliography
• About the Authors

About the Author :
Samantha Godbey, education librarian and assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, earned her MLIS from San Jose State University and MA in education from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to becoming a librarian, Samantha was a high school English teacher in Berkeley, California, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Russian Far East. Her research focuses on information literacy instruction and assessment. She is also co-editor of Journal of Research in Technical Careers, an open-access journal.

Susan Beth Wainscott is the engineering librarian, formerly the STEM librarian, for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas University Libraries. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a master of science in biological sciences from Illinois State University. Her current research interests include information literacy instruction and assessment, specifically the impact of student affect on learning.

Xan Goodman is a health sciences librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she supports the Schools of Allied Health, Community Health Sciences, and Nursing. She earned her master’s degree in library and information science from Wayne State University. Xan’s research agenda focuses on assessment, information literacy, teaching practice, and cultural competence.