Appendix B

INFORMATION LITERACY STANDARDS

From: Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning.  American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Chicago: ALA, 1998.

 Schools must identify the behaviors of problem solving and thinking-or human competence- as they appear in authentic settings and then attempt to create academic experiences that develop the kinds of skills and strategies that characterize successful intellectual work. 

Three dimensions characterize such work: 

v     Construction of knowledge calls for students to engage in higher order thinking skills to arrive at conclusions that produce new meaning or understanding for them; this contrasts with reproducing information provided to them. 

v     Disciplined inquiry calls for deep knowledge where students explore interconnections and relationships rather than fragmented pieces of information.  In disciplined inquiry, students pose questions and seek information not to become literate on a topic but to solve a problem or resolve an issue.

v     Connections beyond the school means that the work students do should have value beyond being an indicator of success in school – either a real world public problem, personal experience, or communication beyond the school to inform or influence.

Source; Fred Newmann, Walter Secada, and Gary Wehlage, A guide to Authentic Instruction and Assessment: Vision, Standards, and Scoring (Madison, Wisk.:Wisconsin Center for Education Research, 1995).

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