The Leading of Learning through the School Library

This seminar will present current research on the development of the school library as a dynamic agent of learning in information age schools. Current research related to information literacy, information technology, and reading will be explored, as well as effective dynamics of learning through school libraries.  It will draw on three research studies undertaken by the speaker that has involved 20,000 students and 1,200 classroom teachers in Ohio, Delaware and New Jersey.  The seminar will also examine how school libraries can be more effective as a pedagogical agent.  It will explore the dimensions of productive pedagogy to ensure that learning initiatives of the school library are relevant, integrated, and meaningful to learners.  Productive pedagogy draws school librarians and teachers' attention to what really matters in helping kids to learn. It embraces four dimensions: intellectual quality; relevance or connectedness; socially supportive classroom environment; and recognition of difference.  These aspects will be discussed in relation to integrating information literacy into the curriculum and how meaningful learning outcomes, as opposed to learning busy-work, can be achieved.

Ross J Todd, PhD, Associate Professor Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA

Dr Ross Todd is associate professor in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He is Director of Research in the Center for International scholarship in School Libraries, at Rutgers University.  His primary teaching and research interests focus on adolescent information seeking and use, and how students learn through using information. The research is multi-faceted, and includes: understanding how children learn and build new knowledge from information; how school librarians and classroom teachers can more effectively empower student learning; and how the development of information and critical literacies can foster meaningful learning . He has published more than 120 papers and book chapters and has been an invited speaker at many international conferences, most recently in Hong Kong, Netherlands, Philippines, Croatia and Australia.