Information Literacy as a Transversal Competency

1. Information Literacy as a Transversal Competency Prof. Dr Serap Kurbanoglu Hacettepe University

2. Today’s world is characterised by • globalisation • modernisation • complexity • competition • interdependence • post-truth • constant change Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

3. Individuals need wide range of competences • to keep up with the change • to adapt • to participate • to compete • to suceed • to survive Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

4. Definition of competency • ability to meet complex demands by drawing on knowledge, skills and attitudes in a particular context • the ability to communicate effectively is a competency that may draw on an individual’s • knowledge of language • practical IT skills • attitudes towards those with whom he/she is communicating Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

5. Importance of competences Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

6. Identifying key competences is essential • to assess how well prepared individuals are for life’s challenges • to draw policy lessons • to identify goals for education systems • to enable sustainable development • to enable social cohesion • to enable social equity Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

7. Identifying key competences is not easy one needs to answer certain questions • what demands does today’s society place on its citizens? • what individuals need in order to function well in society? • what competencies do they need to find and to hold down a job? • what competencies do they need to succeed in daily life/school/work? • what competencies do they need to cope with changing technology? Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

8. Main features of key/core/ transversal competencies • of particular value for both individuals and societies • usefull in multiple areas of life (wide variety of context) • important for everyone, not just for specialists Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

9. Attemps for identifying key competences • PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment, OECD, 1997-2018, in every three years) • to monitor to what extent students near the end of compulsory schooling have acquired the knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society • DeSeCo (Definition and Selection of Competences, OECD, 1997 –connected with PISA) • to identify a small set of key competencies • SCANS (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, US Department of Labor, 2000) • to examine the demands of the workplace and to identify competences for employability • P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2002) • To identify skills, knowledge and expertise students must master to succeed in work and life • EC (The European Reference Framework of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, 2006) • competences each European citizen needs for personal fulfilment and development, employment, social inclusion and active citizenship. • ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007) • to identify key competencies for students and teachers • U.S. National Research Council (21st Century Skills, 2012) • to identify key competences Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

10. Key competences - DeSeCo • use tools interactively • use language, symbols and texts interactively • use knowledge and information interactively • use technology interactively • interact in heterogeneous groups • relate well to others • co-operate, work in teams • manage and resolve conflicts • act autonomously • act within the big picture • form and conduct life plans and personal projects • defend and assert rights, interests, limits and needs Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

11. Workplace & employability competences (SCANS) • Resource management skills • allocating time, money, materials, space, and staff • Interpersonal skills • working on teams, teaching others, serving customers, leading, negotiating, and working well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds • Information skills • acquiring and evaluating data, organizing and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating, and using computers to process information • Systems skills • understanding social, organizational, and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, and designing or improving systems • Technology skills • selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks, and maintaining and troubleshooting technologies Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

12. Fundamental skills and qualities(SCANS) • Basic skills • Reading, writing, arithmetic/mathematics, speaking, listening • Thinking skills • creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, knowing how to learn, reasoning • Personal qualities • responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity/honesty Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

13. Partnership for 21st century skills (P21) Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

14. Key competences for lifelong learning (EC) • communication in the mother tongue • communication in foreign languages • mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology • digital competence • learning to learn • social and civic competences • sense of initiative and entrepreneurship • cultural awareness and expression. Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

15. Competencies for students (ISTE) to learn effectively for a lifetime and live productively in our emerging global society: • ability to demonstrate creativity and innovation • ability to communicate and collaborate • ability to conduct research and use information • ability to think critically, solve problems, and make decisions • ability to use technology effectively and productively Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

16. 21st century skills (US National Research Council)

17. Information literacy - definitions • is a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (ALA, 1989) • a mean to “empower people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals” (Alexandria Proclamation, 2005) Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

18. An evolving concept • information skills • higher order thinking skills • the format of information • other related skills • social and ethical issues MIL for Knowledge Societies - 24-28 June, Moscow, Russia

19. Information literacy INFORMATION LITERACY LL Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

20. Information literacy is important • is a prerequisite for lifelong learning • enables individuals to find appropriate information for personal and professional problems • is a prerequisite for participative citizenship, • is a prerequisite for social inclusion, • enables personal, vocational, corporate and organisational empowerment • enables individuals to deal with rapidly changing environments • enables adaptation to the information society • enables individulas to assume greater control over their own learning and life • is vital for creating knowledgeable citizens and the creation of new knowledge • is crucial to the competitive advantage of individuals, enterprises, regions, and nations • maintains employability and productivity • improves personal choices and options • is essential for socio-economicdevelopment • creates highly skilled work force and strong societies • essential for survival in the future Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

21. Importance of IL is increasing • Expanding quantity of information • proliferation of information, big data, information overload, information fatigue syndrome • Uncertain quality of information (Post-truth Era) • unfiltered information, ease of disseminating information (social networks), questions about reliability, fake news, disinformation, misinformation • Characteristics of new generation • navigate the web by trial and error and ignore manuals and help sheets, believe that everything is on the Web, think that what is written down and on the web must be correct, confused or ignorant about ethical issues of the content they are using, cut and paste rather than read and digest what they find, create content, no interest for library databases • Proliferation of e-applications and e-services (e-government) • information and services for the citizens and businesses are increasingly in e-form Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

22. IL skills have never been so curial Today IL skills are required by • educational organizations • accreditation organizations • employers in the workplace for organizational success • society, which needs an informed citizenry that is capable of making well-reasoned and well-founded decisions and fight against misinformation/disinformation Measures should be taken to equip every individual in the socity with IL skills Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

23. The necessity of IL education Evidence indicates that students • are entering university without core information literacy skills and abilities such as critical thinking, decision making and self directed learning • leave the university without the necessary transferable skills to cope in an information based society • are not picking up information literacy skills on their own Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

24. Key players • educational institutions • K12, higher education, vocational education • libraries • academic, school, public, etc • employers • in-service training • governmental organizations • policy makers • non-governmental organizations • professional associations Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

25. Competences for key players • information skills • higher order thinking skills (ciritical thinking, analysis and sythesis, etc.) • Interpersonel skills • Intrapersonal skills • other literacy skills (such as media, news, computer, visual, etc.) • pedagogical knowledge and skills Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

26. LIS professionals/students • Handful of studies • LIS students have positive IL self-efficacy (Kurbanoglu, 2003; Pinto, Fernandez-Ramos, Sanchez, & Meneses, 2013; Saunders et al., 2015). • LIS graduate students have high IL self-efficacy but lower than expected performance (Hebert, 2018) • School librarians in Malaysia reported their IL skills as being average or poor (Singh, 2012) • There is evidence that LIS post-graduate students have limited IL skills, including difficulty formulating Boolean search queries (Conway, 2011; Islam & Tsuji, 2010) • Undergraduate LIS students in Brazil found initial stages of research difficult. Authors of this research claim that future librarians are not sufficiently prepared to perform the kind of search tasks they will be expected as mediators for others (Campello & Abreu, 2005) • A study of students entering Information Studies graduate program (Australia) found that (Conway, 2011) • 33% of postgraduates were unable to identify a citation as indicating a journal article • 59% were unable to select the best method of searching for a specific journal article • 48% were unaware of how to find a book chapter using a library catalogue • 33% were unable to identify the Boolean operator ‘AND’ as a means to narrow a search • A study of LIS students in 18 countries revealed that (Saunders, et al, 2015) at least in some countries, students need improvements in several important areas such as (evalutaing web sources, plagiarism and source citation) Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

27. Conclusions • 21st century requires new key competences • There are several attempts to identify key/transversal competences • Information literacy is among these key competences • LIS professionals are among the key players to teach IL • IL and 21st century competencies of LIS professionals/students is understudied • More research on 21st century skills of LIS students and professionals is needed • Measures should be taken to equippe LIS students and professionals with 21st century skill • Not only IL and related literacies • But also cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills • And pedagogical competences • So that they can assist effectively and educate sufficiently their patrons/future patrons Competences and Trends 3 April 2019, Budapest, Hungary

28. References • ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. (1989). Final report. Chicago:ALA. • Beacons of the Information Society: the Alexandria Proclamation on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. (2005). Retrieved from: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/news-and-in-focus-articles/all-news/news/alexandria_proclamation_on_information_literacy_and_lifelong/ • Campello, B. & Abreu, V.L.F.G. (2005). Information litearcy and the education of school librarians. School Libraries Worldwide, 11(1), 37-52 • Conway, K. (2011). How prepared are students for postgraduate study? A comparison of the information literacy skills of commencing undergraduate and postgraduate Information Studies students at Curtin University. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(2), 121–135. • Definition and selection of competencies: Theoreticel and Conceptial foundations (DeSeCo). (2001). Retrieved from: http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/41529556.pdf • Key competences for lifelong learning (2018). Brussels, European Commission. Retrieved from: http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-5464-2018-ADD-2/EN/pdf • Hebert, A. (2018). Information Literacy Skills of FirstYear Library and Information Science Graduate Students: An Exploratory Study. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 13(3), 32-52. • ISTE Student Standards. (2007). Retreieved from: https://id.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-s_PDF.pdf • Islam, M. A., & Tsuji, K. (2010). Assessing information literacy competency of Information Science and Library Management graduate students of Dhaka University. IFLA Journal, 36(4), 300–316. • Kurbanoglu, S. (2003). Self-efficacy: A concept closely linked to information literacy and lifelong learning. Journal of Documentation, 59(6), 635–646. • Kurbanoğlu, S. (2013).An analysis of concept of information literacy. E. Kuzmin ve A. Parshakova (Eds.). Media and İnformation Literacy for Knowledge Societies içinde (s. 78-87). Moskow:Interregional Library Cooperation Centre.  • P21 Framework Definitions. (2009). Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED519462.pdf • Pinto, M., Fernandez-Ramos, A., Sanchez, G., & Meneses, G. (2013). Information competence of doctoral students in information science in Spain and Latin America: A self-assessment. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 39(2), 144–154. • Saunders, L., Kurbanoglu, S., Boustany, J., Dogan, G. et al. (2015). Information behaviors and information literacy skills of LIS students: An international perspective. Journal of Education for Library & Information Science, 56, S80–S99. • What work requires of schools : A SCANS report for America 2000. (1991). The Secretary’s Commision on Achiving Necessary Skills U.S. Department of Labor. • 21st century competencies: Foundation document for discussion. (2016). Retrieved from: http://www.edugains.ca/resources21CL/About21stCentury/21CL_21stCenturyCompetencies.pdf • Rychen, D. S. & Salganik, L. H. (eds.). (2003). Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society. Hogrete Publishing. • Rychen, D. S., & Salganik, L. H. (eds.). (2001). Defining and selecting key competencies. Ashland, OH, US: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers. • Salganik, L. H., Rychen, D. S., Moser, U., and J. Konstant, J. (1999). Projects on competencies in the OECD context: Analysis of theoretical and conceptual foundations. • Salganik, L. H., Rychen, D. S., Moser, U., and J. Konstant, J. (1999). Projects on competencies in the OECD context: Analysis of theoretical and conceptual foundations.

29. Thanks!Q/A Prof. Dr Serap Kurbanoglu Hacettepe University