Developing students’ critical thinking skills through peer assessment and information literacy

Richard Owen (University of Glamorgan) looked at an attempt to develop students’ critical thinking through information literacy and the use of asynchronous methods of peer assessment to develop essay writing and intellectual skills.

Richard’s slides are embedded below.

Richard’s presentation was developed with assistance from Sue House, Glamorgan’s law librarian. Sue delivered some of the information literacy classes described and assisted in the production of student materials, as well as in the student assessment. In addition, she was instrumental in getting the teaching team to take the concept of information literacy more seriously.

The presentation built on previous work with predominantly second year undergraduates in 2008-09, which drew on ‘cognitive apprentice’ theory as well as the literature on peer assessment. It showed that asynchronous tutor mediated peer assessment did lead to a modest improvement in student performance, retaining many of the advantages of synchronous peer assessment whilst avoiding some of its disadvantages, as well as to substantial improvement in students’ essay writing skills, but was less successful in improving their critical thinking skills and awareness of the importance of sources. Evaluation of the assessment through questionnaires and focus groups revealed that the students’ epistemology was sometimes hostile to the acquisition of skills, which was seen as being in opposition to the acquisition of knowledge.

It was felt that the full potential of the work in terms of developing students’ critical thinking skills had not been realised, and that the following attempts should be made to remedy this:

• stress the advantages to students in terms of improved performance
• challenge ideas that skills and knowledge were somehow opposed
• raise students’ awareness of the importance of using a wide range of reputable sources
• provide additional formative preparation
• include a ‘sectioning’ of the summative coursework assessment to separate out assessment of the development of essay writing skills, critical thinking skills and awareness of sources

These issues were addressed during the winter term of the 2009-10 academic year through formative and summative coursework assessment. Drawing together the literature on peer assessment, information literacy and student induction a range of innovative methods for developing critical thinking were devised.

Richard and Sue took discussions further post-conference:

“Many of the questions following my paper revolved around the fact that the literature talks of the need to embed information literacy across the curriculum – how will assessment of information literacy be rolled out across the whole of the teaching team so that team ‘buy in’ is achieved?

The idea of skills development popping up in some places on academic programmes and not being developed systematically also arose in other presentations I attended in Learning in Law Annual Conference 10. I’m not sure that there’s an easy answer at the moment. One of the pleasures of working in an academic institution is that there is a degree of freedom to pursue issues of personal interest, and these interests vary and skills development does not float everyone’s boat.

My only answer at present is that I feel that using an annotated bibliography to assess information literacy significantly improved the range of sources the students used, and this seemed to benefit their critical thinking, but there are still further ways to test whether this form of assessment is producing optimal results.

The assessment of information literacy can be proselytised in the hope of achieving team buy in, communities of information literacy practice can be formed whose ideas may spread, information literacy can be supported by national strategies so people feel the need to ‘get with it’, etc. I’d be very interested to hear if other people have other ideas.

— Richard, 2 February 2010

“I agree, there is no easy answer to how to introduce information literacy (IL) and assess it systematically across the curriculum.

I see IL as being a development of and a drawing together of several skills that are already present in ‘legal skills’, for example library/legal research skills, IT skills, organisational skills, analysis, evaluation and communication skills. In a sense IL is nothing new, it simply brings together and presents in a more holistic way all the skills that are required to be successful at studying. It is all about learning how to learn and it is particularly applicable to law because it is a subject based on the written word, which requires authoritative information to function. It is also an iterative process, so is not something that can be checked off of a list in the first year, but something that needs to be practised and can become ever more sophisticated as a student progresses through their course.

There is no UK IL strategy as yet, Scotland has one in draft form and Wales is hoping to develop one, so I am hopeful that this will encourage curriculum development. Some institutions have already taken a strategic approach and have an information literacy strategy, eg Cardiff, Sheffield, Leeds to name but three. In theory the strategy applies to the institution as a whole and may act to promote best practice, but, as Richard says, there is always academic freedom and therefore even these strategies are not always operationalised across the whole institution. If developing IL skills in your students make sense to you, invite your librarian for a coffee/tea/chocolate/cocktail and just start talking about it. Let us know how you get on.

For more on the links between critical thinking and information literacy see this blog post: Critical literacy? Information!

— Sue, 3 February 2010

Further reading:

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• Allen M (2008) ‘Promoting critical thinking skills in online information literacy instruction using a constructivist approach’ College & Undergraduate Libraries 15(1/2):21-38
• Donham J & Steele M (2007) ‘Instructional interventions across the inquiry process’ College & Undergraduate Libraries 14(4):3-18
• Ellis E & Whatley K (2008) ‘The evolution of critical thinking skills in library instruction, 1986-2006: a selected and annotated bbliography and review of selected programs’ College & Undergraduate Libraries 15(1/2):5-20
• Gordon C (2009) ‘An emerging theory for evidence based information literacy instruction in school libraries, part 1: building a foundation’ Evidence Based Library & Information Practice 4(2):56-77
• Hayes-Bohanan P & Spievak E (2008) ‘You can lead students to sources, but can you make them think?’ College & Undergraduate Libraries 15(1/2):173-210
• Miller I & Carlberg K (2008) ‘Integrating information literacy within the disciplines: a faculty centered approach’ PNLA Quarterly 73(1):39-40
• Nentl N & Zietlow R (2008) ‘Using Bloom’s taxonomy to teach critical thinking skills to business students’ College & Undergraduate Libraries 15(1/2):159-172
• Owen R (2009) ‘Turning the assessed into assessors: using asynchronous tutor mediated peer assessment to develop students’ academic, professional and personal skills’ Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education 1(2):45-55

About Richard and Sue

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Richard Owen is Associate Head of the University of Glamorgan Law School. He is an independent reviewer for the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX) and an external examiner for the Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Lincoln, as well as UKCLE’s consultant for Wales.
 
Sue House is Law Librarian at the University of Glamorgan and has taught legal research skills to undergraduates and postgraduates since 2001. Her professional interests include the practical application of information literacy principles in the teaching of legal research skills. She is currently working with the law school to embed information literacy skills within the curriculum.

Last Modified: 9 July 2010