Self-Directed Reading Post

Article 2: Student psychosocial and cognitive development: theory to practice in academic libraries

By placing the psychosocial and cognitive development theories in the context of Carol Kuhltau’s Information Seeking Process (ISP) model and the Information Literacy (IL) Standards model of the Association of College and Research Libraries, Gatten’s objective is to encourage designers of library instruction to draft their learning process interventions to support and enhance students’ information research skills as they develop. Representative of this intention is his statement that “educational theory has value only to the extent that it is known and that it informs practice.” The author does acknowledge certain challenges and limitations in this approach, but encourages a gradual introduction to library resources as needed and as the student is prepared to receive the instruction or resource exposure (as measured along the development theory continuums, not necessarily linear in nature).
Since the development theories do not apply to each individual in exactly the same way or in the same time frames, it becomes difficult to apply a single interaction, or a few interactions, that will meet all of the needs of all of the students all at once. The interactions must come in shorter pieces of time, and offer smaller segments of knowledge, and at multiple times (frequently) to span the development process. This approach allows for interactions to come at the time when students are prepared for them, or in other words, when they are in the proper developmental vector, stage or phase to appreciate and receive the instruction. Gatten provides an interesting mapping diagram comparing the stages or vectors of two development theories to the stages of the ISP and the standards of IL by aligning them on a comparative progression line. The intent of this new model is to allow instruction designers to match programs to audiences in their anticipated developmental phase, their information seeking skill level and while in the perceived stage of the search process. It is an interesting approach, fraught with difficulty since instructors and designers are not psychologists or experts at determining development progress and skill levels. For that matter, who could possibly do that analysis in one interaction? However, with some care and understanding, use of the model has the potential to assist designers and instructors to provide more effective and successful library instruction interventions.

Article Citation: Gatten, Jeffrey N.. “Student psychosocial and cognitive development: theory to practice in academic libraries.” Reference Services Review 32.2 (2004): 157-163.