An Investigation Into the Interactive Teaching Practices of Librarians in Information Literacy Instruction at the University of Auckland Library

Abstract

The development of constructivist learning theory has greatly influenced the design and delivery of the Information Literacy instructional programmes. Student-centred teaching methodology has been widely adopted in the IL instruction, however, the challenges library presenters face while practicing interactive teaching methods in their classes still require further investigation. This study aims to respond to the need for a deeper understanding of IL instruction from a teachers’ perspective and provide an insight into currently applied interactive practices in IL classroom teaching, as well as associated challenges and effective solutions. An explanatory, sequential mixed methods research design has been applied to further investigate the quantitative information collected in the first phase of the project (an online survey emailed to 55 Subject Librarians at the University of Auckland (UoA)) followed by the second phase of qualitative, in-depth data gathering conducted in the form of nine individual 45 minutes long semi-structured interviews with Subject Librarians at the University of Auckland. The findings confirm the themes already discussed in the library literature, but also reveal new and unexpected elements of IL classroom instruction offered at the tertiary level in New Zealand region. Eleven original interactive classroom activities successfully employed in IL classroom teaching by Subject Librarians at the UoA are also identified during this research project and presented in the report. Suggestions are made for further research.