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$64.80
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Item Number
978-0-8389-8970-8
Published
2017
Pages
378
Width
6"
Height
9"
Format
Softcover
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  • Description
  • Table of Contents
  • About the authors

The definition of threshold concepts has been expanded over the years based on the work of many educational scholars and practitioners, but are essentially described as a portal, transition, or threshold to additional learning and deeper understanding for a learner. Threshold concepts are transformative, integrative, irreversible, bounded, and troublesome, and can be a valuable tool in both facilitating students’ understanding of their subject and aiding in curriculum development within the disciplines. 

In 25 chapters divided into sections mirroring ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education—Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as a Process, Information has Value, Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation, and Searching as Strategic Exploration—Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts explores threshold concepts as an idea and the specifics of what the concepts contained in the Framework look like in disciplinary contexts. The chapters cover many disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences, and a range of students, from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students.

Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts provides a balance of theoretical and practical to help readers both conceptually and pragmatically with their work in supporting student learning, including chapters in which librarians have designed learning outcomes aligned with the frames of the Framework. These examples demonstrate different approaches to working with information literacy threshold concepts and how librarians are incorporating them within their disciplinary and institutional contexts. As Ray Land says in the Foreword, “This volume marks a significant new departure in the development of the threshold concepts analytic framework.”

Table of Contents

Foreword, by Ray Land
Introduction, by Samantha Godbey, Susan Beth Wainscott, Xan Goodman
 

Section One. Authority is Constructed and Contextual


Chapter 1. Teaching Inclusive Authorities: Indigenous Ways of Knowing and the Framework for Information Literacy in Native Art
Alexander Watkins
Chapter 2. “But How Do I Know It’s a Good Source?” Authority is Constructed in Social Work Practice
Callie Wiygul Branstiter and Rebecca Halpern
Chapter 3. Exploring Authority in Linguistics Research: Who to Trust When Everyone’s a Language Expert
Catherine Baird and Jonathan Howell
Chapter 4. Evidence and Authority in Health and Exercise Science Research
Michelle Twait
 

Section Two. Information Creation as a Process


Chapter 5. Common Ground: Communicating Information
Beate Gersch
Chapter 6. Using the Frame Information Creation as a Process to Teach Career Competencies to Advertising Students
Megan Blauvelt Heuer
Chapter 7. Moving Public Health Learners to the Skeptical Edge with Information Creation as a Process
Xan Goodman
Chapter 8. Teaching Source Selection in Public Affairs Using Information Creation as a Process
Christina Sheley
 

Section Three. Information Has Value


Chapter 9. Information Privilege in the Context of Community Engagement in Sociology
Heidi R. Johnson and Anna C. Smedley-López
Chapter 10. Images Have Value: Changing Student Perceptions of Using Images in Art History
Courtney Baron, Christopher Bishop, Ellen Neufeld, and Jessica Robinson
Chapter 11. Mining for the Best Information Value with Geoscience Students
Susan Beth Wainscott and Joshua Bonde
Chapter 12. Teaching the Teachers: The Value of Information for Educators
Jess Haigh
 

Section Four. Research as Inquiry


Chapter 13. Empowering, Enlightening, and Energizing: Research as Inquiry in Women’s and Gender Studies
Juliann Couture and Sharon Ladenson
Chapter 14. Framing the Visual Arts: The Challenges of Applying the Research as Inquiry Concept to Studio Art Information and Visual Literacy
Marty Miller
Chapter 15. Integrating the ACRL Threshold Concept Research as Inquiry into Baccalaureate Nursing Education
Kimberly J. Whalen and Suzanne E. Zentz
Chapter 16. Action Research as Inquiry for Education Students
Samantha Godbey
 

Section Five. Scholarship as Conversation


Chapter 17. Performance as Conversation: Dialogic Aspects of Music Performance and Study
Rachel Elizabeth Scott
Chapter 18. Framing the Talk: Scholarship as Conversation in the Health Sciences
Candace Vance
Chapter 19. Widening the Threshold: Using Scholarship as Conversation to Welcome Students to Science
Rebecca Kuglitsch
Chapter 20. Theater as a Conversation: Threshold Concepts in the Performing Arts
Christina E. Dent
 

Section Six. Searching as Strategic Exploration


Chapter 21. From Novice to Nurse: Searching For Patient Care Information as Strategic Exploration
Elizabeth Moreton and Jamie Conklin
Chapter 22. Leveraging the Language of the Past: Searching as Strategic Exploration in the Discipline of History
Jamie L. Emery
Chapter 23. Mapping the Chaos: Building a Research Practice with Threshold Concepts in Studio Art Disciplines
Ashley Peterson
Chapter 24. Teaching Future Educators Exploration through Strategic Searching
Michelle Keba
Chapter 25. Threshold Concepts, Information Literacy, and Social Epistemology: A Critical Perspective on the ACRL Framework with Reference to Psychology
Tony Anderson and Bill Johnston

Bibliography
About the Authors

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)

Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for librarians. Representing more than 11,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals, ACRL develops programs, products and services to help academic and research librarians learn, innovate and lead within the academic community. Founded in 1940, ACRL is committed to advancing learning and transforming scholarship.

Samantha Godbey

Samantha Godbey is education librarian and associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She earned her MLIS from San José State University and an MA in education from the University of California at Berkeley. Samantha is a presenter with the ACRL Roadshow “Engaging with the ACRL Framework: A Catalyst for Exploring and Expanding Our Teaching Practices” and is coeditor of Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts (ACRL, 2017). Her research focuses on information literacy instruction and assessment.

Susan Beth Wainscott

Susan Beth Wainscott is the engineering librarian, formerly the STEM librarian, for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas University Libraries. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a master of science in biological sciences from Illinois State University. Her current research interests include information literacy instruction and assessment, specifically the impact of student affect on learning.

Xan Goodman

Xan Goodman is a health sciences librarian and associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she supports three schools in the Division of Health Sciences: the School of Integrated Health Sciences, the School of Public Health, and the School of Nursing. She has presented extensively at national and international conferences about information literacy, health sciences librarianship, and threshold concepts. She earned her master’s degree in library and information science (MLIS) from Wayne State University.