School librarians should strive to create a learning environment that prepares their students for higher level thinking. They should not only memorize and remember, but also synthesize and evaluate their learning. This can be achieved through social literacy. By utilizing a collaborative lesson that has students teaching other students, school…

The idea that information is the building block for learning is not new. In fact, it has been a core tenet of learning theory since the study of human cognition began. What's new about learning in the twenty-first century is that various dimensions of information have changed--expanding in every conceivable way. Information is now a "24-7"…

Learning in the library should present opportunities to enrich student learning activities to address concerns of interest and cognitive complexity, but these must be tasks that call for in-depth analysis--not merely gathering facts. Library learning experiences need to demand enough of students to keep them interested and also need to be…

There has been a significant spike among school librarians in talk about the process of learning since the 2007 release of the "Standards for the 21st-Century Learner" by the American Association of School Librarians. How do children really learn best? The AASL Standards make it clear that 21st-century school librarianship is not just about…

It is no secret that learning has a social context. As library media specialists work with students nearly every day, they take for granted their pedagogical roots in social learning theory based on the premise that students need modeling and observation to learn from one another. Information gathering becomes a key activity, and social…

Describes eight study skills and reading comprehension learning strategies involving structured patterns used to help students find meaning and understand information: (1) GLP (Guided Lecture Procedure); (2) K-W-L; (3) Qair (Question Answer Relationships); (4) RARE (Review, Answer, Read, Express); (5) ReQuest; (6) SCORER; (7) SPaRCS; and (8)…

What specific learning behaviors are important to students and faculty members? Does the campus provide spaces that foster these behaviors? Where are those spaces? Asking these three questions at six colleges and universities reveals notable differences in the ways students and faculty members answer them. Student and faculty member answers also…

The term "inquiry" can be viewed from two perspectives. Inquiry refers to the abilities students develop when designing and conducting investigations and the understanding they gain through this process about the nature of science. Inquiry also refers to teaching and learning strategies that enable students to master content concepts. Library…

Explains how the library professional staff in a Colorado Springs school district has changed the focus of their job role from technology implementation and support to increasing student achievement. Discusses reasons for the change, the library technology educator model, standards of performance, and collaboration with classroom teachers. (LRW)

Recent research on the brain has identified a number of cognitive strategies for constructing knowledge and improving retention of new information. Classroom teachers have begun implementing many of these strategies in their teaching, but what about library media specialists? As leaders and learners in the Information Age, library media…

Discusses the changing shift in education, including learning resources centers, from a production to a consumer mind-set, focusing on the activity of learning rather than teaching. Highlights include learning communities; personal mastery; developing a vision; the interconnectedness of organizations; harmony and balance, similar to feng shui; and…

Over the past decade, educators have stressed the importance of creating exciting and intellectually stimulating environments where students are actively involved in constructing their own understandings. Whether it's designing a WebQuest to spark curiosity in science or establishing an oral history project to spur interest in local history,…

Focuses on using effective instructional analogies, or explicit, nonliteral comparisons between two objectives, or sets of objects, that describes their structural, functional, and causal similarities. Describes the structure of analogies; common analogies to help younger learners become excited about searching for information in the library; and…

Discussion of library media specialists and technological change focuses on the use of the World Wide Web. Highlights include teaching and learning issues; roles of the library media specialist, including teacher and instructional partner; designing Web sites; and student-created Web pages. (LRW)

Discusses how to use stories to help children connect mathematical ideas to their own lives. Gives examples of picture books and other children's books that present math ideas, suggests the use of visual learning and real-life applications, and explains how to adapt ideas to library media center activities. (LRW)