This Web site is based on a poster session presented at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida on June 27, 2004.
Abstract:
The culture at the University of Washington, Bothell fosters a strong spirit of collaboration. Librarians, faculty, and the Writing and Quantitative Skills centers' staff operate from a core assumption that information literacy should be integrated into an interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizing critical thinking, writing, and quantitative reasoning. UWB's Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (IAS) program serves transfer and adult returning students. The program's foundation course, Interdisciplinary Inquiry, serves as an orientation to upper-division work, while developing research skills for subsequent courses. This poster session will introduce successful modes of collaboration in Interdisciplinary Inquiry, as well as assignments and assessment methods that have proven effective.
Through frequent in-class collaboration, faculty, librarians, and academic services staff model different modes of inquiry, thereby demonstrating critical thinking while considering how one's perspective shapes that process. This provides a collaborative learning model for students as they work in research teams formed around a central research question. Through frequent short writing exercises and research group presentations, students build necessary skills leading to a final research proposal. This in-depth proposal serves as an alternative to the traditional research paper, enabling students to focus more on understanding the process or research by emphasizing inquiry, rather than on creating a final written product.
| Natalie Delker Beach nbeach@bothell.washington.edu (425) 352-5251 |
Suzan Parker sparker@bothell.washington.edu 425-352-3540 |
Mark Szarko |