Training to Teach Graduate Information Literacy Sessions Using a Team-based Mentorship Approach: Report on a Pilot Project at the OISE Library
Staffing changes in the summer of 2015 at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Library and an increased student enrolment in one of OISE’s core programs meant that the OISE Library would not be able to meet the demand for information literacy (IL) instruction in the fall. A new librarian and two Library and Information Science (LIS) graduate students were hired in early September and had only a short time to learn about OISE’s students, programs, and IL instruction more broadly before designing, delivering, and evaluating IL sessions for graduate students in OISE’s Master of Teaching (MT) program. Recognizing and drawing on each team member’s unique skills and experiences, the OISE Library piloted a team-based mentorship approach to training which enabled the team to collaboratively develop their instructional skills while meeting the goal of a better IL session for its MT students. In turn, this approach provided the LIS student instructors the unique opportunity to gain instructional experience within the library, teaching fellow graduate-level students. This paper outlines the rationale for piloting a team-based mentorship approach, describes the various implementation stages of the pilot project, and explores the ways in which the instruction team incorporated MT student feedback to improve its teaching. LIS students on the instruction team share their perspectives on participating in an instruction team. Read More
