October 25, 2011

Develop skills in scholarly disciplinary research

Many disciplines expect that students will develop the ability to conduct research using the scholarly disciplinary literature.  These research skills require information literacy skills in which the student can locate and evaluate sources of information. 

This tip describes a collaborative project developed for a survey-level American history course by a historian and a reference librarian.  This assignment could be adapted to courses in any discipline that uses visual materials (art work, artifacts, and photographs) as part of scholarly work. 

Learning Outcomes for the Assignment

• Students will locate, analyze, and use information appropriate for a college-level research and writing assignment.
• Students will describe important issues associated with the historical period represented by the image or artifact.
• Students will use specific library databases, the online catalog, and recommended web sites to locate scholarly sources.
• Students will evaluate whether the information located is appropriate and relevant for use in the assignment.
• Students will follow disciplinary practices for the ethical use of information and correctly cite sources of information using the disciplinary editorial style. 
• Students will create a citation database for their sources using a citation management tool such as RefWorks. 

Preparation

• Gather a collection of visual images associated with a specific historical era to be used by the students when completing this assignment.  Images can be downloaded from the internet, cited, and distributed to students in hard copy. 
• Select a large variety of visual images and topics so that students do not compete with one another for access to the same materials when completing the assignment.  When each student is assigned a unique image, the instructor reduces the temptation to copy or inappropriately collaborate with other students while completing the assignment.
• Share the images and a list of the topics covered by the visual sources with the reference librarian for your discipline to guide the librarian in the selection of appropriate databases for the library instruction workshop.

Assignment
Assign a different image or artifact to each student.  The student’s task is to write a 4-5 page essay that explains the image or artifact using information from scholarly sources and places the image or artifact in historical context. 

Students need approximately two to three weeks to complete the research and writing components of this assignment, including time to request and receive materials available only through inter-library loan.  Encourage students to meet with reference librarians out of class if they have additional questions about researching their image.

Essays must include the following elements

• Identify the image or artifact (photographer or creator of the image if known, the date of creation, location, subject, etc.).
• Explain the historical context in which the photograph was taken or the image created.
• Describe the content of the photograph, image, or artifact.
• Speculate about the likely goals the photographer/creator intended to meet when creating this work.  What did the creator hope an audience would learn from this image?  What responses were viewers expected to make?
• Discuss what contemporary viewers can learn about the historical period through study of this photo, image, or object.
• Provide complete citations for all sources used when completing the assignment. 
• Cite at least one book and one article located through an academic database.

Library instruction associated with the assignment
The students will need two consecutive class sessions with a reference librarian in the library classroom.  The first session is a library workshop demonstrating how to conduct searches in the appropriate library databases.  The second session should be devoted to a discussion of the ethical use of information and the importance of citing sources.  A brief demonstration of citation management software (e.g., RefWorks) can be provided or students can be referred to the library tutorial (http://library.uwf.edu/tutorials/writing_skills/refworks/).  In addition, students should use some time during this session to begin their search for information about their assigned image.  Both the instructor and the librarian should be available to answer specific questions about using the databases and evaluating the usefulness of information related to the images.

This tip is based on teaching strategy suggested by Suzanne K. McCormack, PhD (Department of History/Social Sciences and Center for Innovative Teaching, Learning & Assessment) and Susan G. Miller (Librarian), Community College of Rhode Island (http://www.ccri.edu/citla).

 

10/25/11 cdw