Personalised approaches to teaching information literacy

Much advice is available to teachers wanting to instruct their pupils in how to find and use information. Indeed, a wide range of models devoted to information literacy (IL) has existed for many years.

Typically, these list for educators the relevant skills to be taught, while indicating to learners the steps they should take when faced with any major task that necessitates locating and exploiting information. 

In his book Improving Students’ Web Use and Information Literacy, James Herring makes a somewhat radical suggestion, however. He raises the possibility that youngsters may be encouraged to develop their own IL models. There are several benefits of this approach – pupils are given the freedom to create a framework that suits their preferred learning style, reflection is promoted, and the prospect that the skills in question will be transferred across subjects and retained over time is increased.