Archive – Research

Dr Kay Oddone, Course Director & Lecturer, Master of Education: Teacher Librarianship, Charles Sturt University
17 May 2023 – Webinar replay –  60 minutes

Shifting firmly entrenched beliefs and opinions is hard work. Teacher Librarians (TLs), know just how challenging it is to break down stereotypes of what the role entails and to convince others of the value the profession can contribute to teaching and learning.

Action research (or what I call, inquiry learning for adults) is a method that TLs can build into their practice to generate qualitative and quantitative evidence, supported by the research literature. The outcomes of action research can be used to inform and improve library programs and projects, as well as provide data that can be shared with school leadership and the school community to communicate the quality of teaching and learning being created within and beyond the library space.

In this webinar, you will be introduced to the concept of Action Research, become familiar with the processes involved, and consider the different ways you might design an Action Research Project that you can implement within your school library context.

Outcomes for attendees:

• Understand the purpose of Action Research
• Become familiar with the steps of Action Research
• Consider different data collection techniques within an Action Research Project
• Generate ideas about how Action Research could be implemented within your context.

Dr Kay Oddone has over 20 years of experience in education and information management and has taught at all levels from Prep through to Post Grad. She has experience as a Classroom Teacher, Assistant Principal, Teacher Librarian and Learning Designer. Currently, she holds the position of Course Director and Lecturer for the Master of Education: Teacher Librarianship at Charles Sturt University. In her spare time, she loves cooking curries and cuddling up with her dog Ruby and a good book.

For all States and Territories:
This webinar will provide self-identified professional development addressing the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the Proficient level:
6.2 – Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.4 – Apply professional learning and improve student learning
7.4 – Engage with professional teacher networks and broader communities

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Krystal Gagen-Spriggs, Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
22 March 2023 – Webinar replay –  60 minutes

This webinar will discuss the influence teacher librarians have on reading cultures in their schools. A discussion of reader motivation and identity shall be presented, with key points made about the role of the teacher librarian in influencing these factors. A brief explanation of Krystal’s PhD project shall also be provided.

Outcomes for attendees:

• Current research on teacher librarian influence
• Current research on reading identities and reading motivation
• Understand how to harness influence on reading in your school

Krystal Gagen-Spriggs is a PhD Candidate and lecturer in the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University. Her research is on factors affecting the teacher librarian’s influence on reading cultures in schools. Krystal is a lecturer in the Master of Education, Teacher Librarianship course at Charles Sturt University. She also owns a gym with her husband and loves reading.

For all States and Territories:
This webinar will provide self-identified professional development addressing the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the Proficient level:
3.3 – Using teaching strategies
3.4 – Select and use resources
6.2 – Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.4 – Apply professional learning and improve student learning
7.4 – Engage with professional teacher networks and broader communities

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Dr Anne Whisken, Consultant
17 February 2021 – Webinar replay –  60 minutes

We often talk in school libraries about information literacy and wide reading as being separate and different teaching and learning programs. This session presents the idea that a focus on the learning experiences associated with each reveals common elements.

If students are to function as effective independent information users and as independent wide readers, they need to develop their own individual repertoires of information strategies and wide reading strategies.

The findings of my PhD suggest that the development of these independent sets of strategies involves learning activities in which teachers and teacher librarians model expert information use or wide reading habits and engage with students as reflective users of information or as reflective wide readers.

This expert and reflective information use and wide reading teaching need to be seen as the responsibility of all teachers across the curriculum, working with teacher librarians who ensure that resource collections and spaces support best practice programs.

This presentation will look at the role of school libraries in developing the programs, spaces and collections to enable student development of individual strategies for information use and wide reading success.

Outcomes for attendee:

• A transformed view of the holistic practices, policies and programs required for students to develop the global competencies of independent strategies for information use and wide reading.
• The view that no matter what your budget or school attitude, there are changes you can make to support student development of their own individual strategies for information use and wide reading success.
  o How would you define the strategies required for each information use and wide reading?
  o What are the pedagogies you will use with teachers for the development of these strategies?
  o What programs should be in place to achieve this?
  o How can you arrange your spaces to achieve these goals?
  o How can you arrange your information and wide reading resources for the best outcomes?

Anne Whisken has studied and worked in the library field for many decades, chiefly in school libraries. Her research journey has mostly involved action research to inform library practice and design, including a PhD completed at Charles Sturt University in 2020. She used the qualitative methodologies of multiple case study and Participatory Action Research (PAR) to investigate ways that teachers might use Informed Learning ideas to close the gap between information literacy education theory and practice.

For all States and Territories:
This webinar will provide self-identified professional development addressing the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the Proficient level:
3.3 – Using teaching strategies
3.4 – Select and use resources
6.2 – Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.4 – Apply professional learning and improve student learning
7.4 – Engage with professional teacher networks and broader communities

[Members, please log in to view this webinar and access the additional resources that accompany this webinar.]

Fiona Sharman, Teacher Librarian, Roseville College
13 November 2019  – Webinar replay –  60 minutes

In a ‘post-truth’ world, it is more important than ever to equip students with the critical thinking skills they need to make reasoned judgments about online news and social media content. During this session, Fiona will share how her school library responded to its concern about the preparedness of students to use reasoning to reach informed conclusions about what they read or view online. This includes a focus on ‘Fake News’, the increasing sophistication of ‘native advertising’, the viral nature of Social Media news stories, and the corruptibility of online image and video content.

Inspired by a 2016 Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) study, Roseville College developed its own three-year action research project that emulated SHEG’s study and adapted year 7 Information Literacy lessons to build student capacity to be critical online learners. Fiona will discuss this action research journey, its findings and suggest digital tools and lesson ideas that can be adopted to build your students’ skills as critical online learners.

After attending, participants will:

• Develop their understanding of how to effectively measure students’ critical thinking skills in regards to online news, advertising and social media content
• Gain access to Roseville College’s full 3 year action reports, graphs and methodology
• Be provided with examples of how to create meaningful lessons that encourage critical thinking and develop student online information skills
• Discover some emerging technologies that are specifically designed to analyse various social media content for reliability, authenticity and source provenance

Fiona Sharman is an English/History/Sociology teacher who now works as a qualified Teacher-Librarian. She is passionate about teaching critical thinking skills and enjoys supporting all students to develop their ability to engage in higher order thinking in their learning. When not at school, Fiona loves visiting family in the country, horse riding, sailing and generally escaping from the city!

This webinar addresses the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at Proficient:
3.3 – Using teaching strategies
3.4 – Select and use resources

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June Wall, Education Consultant
26 April 2017 – Webinar replay 60 minutes

This session uses current research on STEM and its implementation in schools in various modes to then offer practical suggestions for how you incorporate STEM or STEAM into the school curriculum.

After this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Understand the research base for STEM or STEAM
• Consider teaching strategies & pedagogical practices that integrate STEM
• Identify resources that support STEM or STEAM outcomes.

June Wall is an independent Consultant, eLearning and Libraries and an Adjunct Lecturer, School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University. She was previously a Teacher Quality Consultant for the Association of Independent Schools, NSW. She has been a teacher at primary and secondary levels, a lecturer, a professional development and education consultant, Head of Department, special librarian, teacher librarian and computer coordinator in the government and non-government sectors for over 35 years. June has held a range of positions in professional associations at regional, state, national and international levels, including President of both the state and national teacher librarian associations. June is also an accredited Flow and Performance Consultant in Talent Dynamics for Young People.

This webinar addresses the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers:
3.3.2 – Using teaching strategies
3.4.2 – Select and use resources

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Dr Jennie Bales, Adjunct Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
22 March 2017 – Webinar replay ~ 60 minutes

Research informs your profession and your practice. This webinar introduces the concept of research from a practitioner’s perspective and aims to inspire participants to implement their own research project within their field of professional practice.

Becoming a more reflective and responsive educator is an integral part of highly accomplished teaching practice. Undertaking your own research project to evaluate programs and initiatives and inform decision-making provides a stimulating and valuable focus for a personal professional learning pathway. This presentation will introduce you to research processes and scaffold some of the key components that will help you design, implement and apply a straightforward and manageable research project in the school or library environment.

Outcomes for attendee:

• Understand the key components of the research process
• Awareness of ethical considerations in human research
• Introduction to some research methods and research techniques
• Understand ways to apply research findings to inform and improve practice
• Identify pathways to disseminate research outcomes and build personal teaching credentials

Jennie Bales is an adjunct lecturer in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. Before joining the SIS team her career has been predominantly within the teacher librarianship profession in Tasmania. Throughout her career she has drawn on and conducted research to inform practice. Areas of interest include online collaborative learning environments, the use of technology to facilitate shared literary experiences, information literacy in a digital environment and the adoption of technology and e-resources by school library users – educators, students and the parent community.

This webinar could be relevant to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers:
6.2.2 – Engage in professional learning and improve practice
7.4.2 – Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities

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Leonie McIlvenny, Head of iCentre
13 May 2015 – Webinar replay ~ 60 minutes

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers are the key drivers used by schools throughout Australia to gauge teacher competence. Library professionals are required to address the criteria, however, due to their unique position in the school, may not be able to easily articulate their performance for each standard. In 2014 AISWA Libraries developed and presented a series of three workshops designed to interrogate the standards to identify ways in which library staff can demonstrate their achievement. The workshops culminated in the creation of a website called “AITSL through the library lens”. This presentation will describe the process that was undertaken and identify the key components that made this a very successful professional development strategy. It will also interrogate the website and make available to webinar participants valuable resources and guidelines for their own challenge of meeting the AITSL standards.

At the completion of the webinar participants will:

• Know what resources are available help them address the AITSL standards
• Have access to examples of professional portfolios that have been created by teacher librarians to address the AITSL standards
• Have access to the AITSL Through the Library Lens website to use as an ongoing support resources.

Leonie has been an educator for over 30 years. She has been a primary school teacher and teacher librarian and has taught in both primary and secondary schools in the public and private sector in Western Australia. She has also worked as a curriculum consultant, online course developer, library consultant and ICT Project Manager for the Western Australian Education Department. In recent years she was a Project Officer at Curtin University and lectured in Learning Technologies.
Leonie is currently Head of iCentre at Iona Presentation College in Perth.

This webinar could be relevant to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers:
6.2 – Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3 – Engage with colleagues and improve practice
7.4 – Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities

[Members, please log in to view this webinar and access the additional resources that accompany this webinar.]

Dr Ann Gillespie, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, QUT
11 February 2015 – Webinar replay – Approximately 60 minutes

This doctoral research, Untangling the evidence: teacher librarians and evidence based practice (Gillespie, 2013) is the first to investigate the experiences of teacher librarians as evidence based practitioners. This study is a qualitative interpretative research which explores the experiences of 15 teacher librarians from around Australia to discover how they gather and use evidence in performing their roles.

A model which represents how teacher librarians perceive evidence based practice was developed from the research. This model is illustrated with snapshots or examples of teacher librarians using evidence in their practice.

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of evidence based practice as it applies to teacher librarians.
• Have an opportunity to hear how other teacher librarians gather and use evidence in their practice.
• Be able to apply the theory and illustrations of practice to their own situations.

Ann Gillespie is a postdoctoral research fellow within the Information Studies Group of Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Her work as a teacher librarian in primary schools lead her to investigate evidence based practice within that context, culminating with her 2013 doctoral thesis, Untangling the evidence: teacher librarians and evidence based practice. Her current research explores evidence based practice as it is experienced in the public libraries.

This webinar could be relevant to the following Australian Professional Standards for Teachers:
1.2 – Understand how learners learn
3.6 – Evaluate and improve teaching programs
5.1 – Assess student learning
6.3 – Engage with colleagues and improve practice

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Dr Jennie Bales, Adjunct Lecturer, School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University
12 November 2014 – Webinar replay – Approximately 60 minutes

Action research provides a sound and informative approach to assess the readiness of your school to incorporate and build an e-book collection. This project demonstrates how the teacher librarian can connect with students and teachers to improve learning and build effective partnerships.

This webinar outlines an action research project that was designed to respond to 1-to-1 technology access, introduce teachers and students to locating, accessing and using e-books to support classroom programs and assess their readiness to adopt e-books into teaching and learning. Outcomes of the research informed collection development decisions for the school library.

The session covers:

• action research for informed decision-making;
• practical considerations for implementing an action research project in a school;
• the use of pre and post surveys and survey tools for data gathering and analysis;
• potential pitfalls and ways to maximise successful project completion; and
• the use of action research to improve learning engagement through the exposure of e-books to staff and students.

The content of this webinar is designed to help you:

• develop a small action research project;
• consider ways of collecting and analysing data using an online survey tool;
• build awareness of the scope and relevance of e-books in students’ learning; and
• use research as tool for gathering evidence to support the AITSL standards.

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