Why thinking is connected to the library

Yet we knew we were on to something. Design thinking as a creative process is messy learning. Done well, it uncovers unmet needs and produces innovative new models. Today, schools around the world are teaching design thinking to their students to foster innovation skills.

Increasingly, we find school teams learning and leveraging the process to tackle their issues: homework, schedules, student engagement, and learning and play spaces. Invite a small group of stakeholders teachers, administrators, librarians, students, and parents to work together for a year.

A good size is a group of four to eight people who are curious and committed to the challenge of reimagining the library. As a group, research and understand as much as you can about the design thinking process. If you have professional development funds, seek out opportunities to learn design thinking by actually doing it. In order to learn about the needs you are trying to solve, interview library users.

Go ask your community -- students, teachers, and librarians. Learn as much as you can from whomever you can. What spaces and places invite curiosity, discovery, creativity, collaboration, learning? This webcast will pay particular attention to ways in which librarians can leverage instruction and their expertise to equip students with transferrable skills that can help them with their current academic situations and their future.

We will draw from the recently published ACRL Critical Thinking About Sources Cookbook and will unpack a number of concepts and ideas for how librarians can proactively respond to current challenges and provide support to students facing present and future challenges.

Participants can expect a webcast that is highly interactive, with time for discussions and questions. Together, we will unpack and share some of our current challenges.

Next, we will explore select vital, and highly transferrable, information and media literacy skills and concepts that can be empowering and beneficial for students to learn during this time. We will then consider instruction strategies, methods, and approaches for delivering this content to students. Finally, we will explore ideas for ways to communicate and share our content and ideas with different audiences and partners to ensure our efforts can not only meet the needs of the present moment but also continue in the future.

Discuss different examples of transferrable skills and identify and explore examples from media and information literacy and critical thinking.

Evaluate different instruction strategies for equipping students with vital, transferrable skills in information and media literacy.

For more information about the Paul-Elder framework, click the link below. Paul-Elder Framework. William F. Ekstrom Library. Critical Thinking and Academic Research : Intro This guide explains the fundamental role of critical thinking in the academic research process. Critical Thinking and Academic Research Academic research focuses on the creation of new ideas, perspectives, and arguments.

Research Anxiety?