Teaching Information Skills in the Information Age: An Examination of Trends in the Middle Grades

Introduction

In Canada, as in most countries, educational policy identifies the goals of schooling in the Information Age as those of the development of lifelong learners, a learning society, and a knowledge-based economy (Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, 1999). Literacy researchers argue that to attain these outcomes "it becomes essential to prepare students for ... the literacies [of the Internet and ICT] because they are central to the use of information and the acquisition of knowledge" (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004, p. 1571). These "new literacies" that are tied to the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICT) are a rapidly growing focus of research in the literacy literature and overlap with what the library community calls information literacy. Although the library and literacy fields are largely unfamiliar with each other's work, they share a common focus in the literacies of the Information Age (Asselin & Dreher, 2005). Research in this area is increasing since Reinking, McKenna, Labbo, and Kiefer (1998) noted, "Although studies of (new literacies) are gradually beginning to emerge in research journals of literacy, the paucity of hard data in this area remains all too obvious." What is needed now is knowledge about if and how information literacy is being taught to students. This study examines the extent of information literacy instruction in grades 6 and 7 (ages 11-12) and the degree to which supportive factors of this instruction are in place in classrooms and library programs in one western Canadian province.

Toward Mainstream ing Information Literacy: Situating Information Literacy in New Literacies, the Internet, and ICT Over the past two decades, there has been considerable debate about the nature of literacy. In contrast to those who see literacy as a single general ability to read and write, a growing number of literacy researchers have begun ...

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