LOEX 2016: Rhetorical Theory matched with ACRL Framework

Title of Session: Rhetorical Reinventions: Rethinking Research Processes and Information Practices to Deepen our Pedagogy

Presenters: Witek, Snyder Brossard, and Burkholder

This presentation was comparison of rhetorical theory and information literacy. The main point of the presentation was to compare the framework used by Writing Centers and English departments (Framework for Success in PostsecondaryWriting) and drawing comparisons between that and the ACRL Framework forInformation  Literacy. The presenters did this by talking about three main areas where these frameworks intersect: scholarship as a conversation, research as inquiry, and searching as strategic exploration. They posit that moving away from a mastery of tools and focus on building on the students’ prior knowledge by situating our instruction in context. One of the things I really picked up on during the session was that “mystery is a source of inquiry” and the fact that we should focus on “less efficiency and more mystery” in academics. They suggest finding a way to invite students to approach research tools with an air of mystery or curiosity. Of course, when we only get them for 50 minutes, we have to be focused on efficiency, so this was perhaps just rosy thinking and not exactly correct thinking for most librarians. But I, for one, loved the idea of it. Lastly, they talked about making learning explicit to students, which I felt was something I could do more in my instruction. They talked about the flexible structures in the brain called schema and talked about how new information gets attached to what we already know. The presenter had a tinker toy structure that she had built and she compared the tinker toys to schemas. In the same vein of explicit instruction, they referred to a  concept called BEAM, which stands for background, evidence, argument, or method. This concept challenges students to think about how information is being used. The same piece of information may be used as background information in one article, but may be used as an argument in an essay. Some instructors in the crowd said during the comment period that they teach BEAM with the information timeline.

A book recommended during this session was The Craft of Research by Booth et al (2009). 

Another nice connection for this topic happened shortly after LOEX. At the NC-BIG Camp unconference at UNC-G, we ended up talking about this again during the breakout session on the ACRL Framework. Notes from that session can be found here.