EDU 6920 Reflection

Ethics of Research

We started this course with ethical training, especially focused around working with students and protecting their rights to confidentiality and privacy. I completed similar research ethics training when working on my MLIS degree. Re-doing this training was very helpful for me; I may have felt as though it was unnecessary, but as I delved back in I realized how many details I had forgotten, although the larger gist of it remained in my brain.

As a librarian, I place a lot of importance on the quality of research and part of this is being aware of how ethical the study was. Another part of the ethics as a person who is disseminating information to others is making sure that I can help them deconstruct it if needed. Understanding the ethics and terminology used overall is essential.

Action Research

I love research. I was a researcher, I am a researcher, and now I am also an action researcher. Being able to tailor the research to small-scale sample sizes and a short period of time was key for my library and my work as a youth services librarian. I will break up this research in three parts: database diving, organizing to the nth degree, and living the life.

Database diving is my bread and butter. Give me a topic -- even one that I previously had 0 interest or knowledge in -- and I am going to dive deep. This part of research is comfortable for me. I can skim abstracts, articles, and key words. I can analyze the currency and relevance. I can re-word and re-connect subjects all day. And, as makes most introverts happy, I can do it mostly on my own.

Organizing to the nth degree is my kryptonite. I will plan and organize and get excited about research and what comes next -- but it's also a way that I procrastinate. I will organize and reorganize as many times as necessary to avoid actually stepping up to start the action part of the research. 

Having an assignment that required action research instead of solely a literature review forced me to keep my organizing and planning to a moderate amount so I could live the life. This action research was AMAZING. I analyzed data from the past five years at the library and learned that some of the hearsay was rose-tinted and my goals were more reasonable than expected. I also made connections with more teachers and school librarians. And most importantly, I made connections with students.

What Now?

Now that I've started my action research, I feel fully confident in continuing it. Where before I was most interested in the literature review and analyzation for my personal research, I feel equipped to jump off the high dive and actually engage beyond the safety of published work. This action research helped me check my own biases about what teens want and need. My goal was to give teens a bigger voice at the library, and this research helped me step back to quiet my voice and give them more space. As an added bonus, it also helped (and is continuing to help) me reach and engage with more teens to give them access to resources and services at the library.  

EDU 6235 Reflection

Theories of Development

Many different philosophers, educators, psychologists, sociologists, and other specialists have different theories about how the brain develops and what that means for children and learning. While some of these theories may be applied to one person, it seemed that they may not be applied to everyone. One of the theories that has given me the most thought was Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System. This is one of the systems we learned about this semester that really gives weight to how individuals in similar systems may experience and grow differently.

Guy-Evans, 2023

 

Characteristics of Diverse Learners

A lot of different characteristics can affect how a person learns. Some characteristics were particularly interesting due to their physical implications, such as people with split-brains. Once the brain has been split, one eye may process something without relaying that information "verbally" to the other side of the brain, and yet the information is still being processed. What I learned is that the brain is really elastic and adaptable.

The implications of learners with different characteristics is that learning is not -- and never really has been -- one size fits all. In the past, those with different characteristics could be institutionalized, hidden away, or discarded due to their diverse characteristics. Now, we have a better understanding that is continuously evolving and hopefully we can make adjustments in the classroom to help all learners. 

One of my favorite examples of adjusting materials or lessons to include and make stories accessible for a wider range of learners came from one of my annotated bibliography assignments. Huisinga et al. (2018) worked with student volunteers to study how making changes to physical storytime books could help accessibility for students who were otherwise unable to participate during storytime. These changes included adding vocabulary words, making pages easier to handle for those with mobility issues, adding more visual support, and even including textures.

Disability Support at the Library

Something that came out of my studies this semester was an appreciation of how difficult it can be for people with certain disabilities to access services and materials. It is frequently discussed at library conferences and even in informal meetings that many library buildings are outdated and may not be ADA-compliant, although changes are being made. Some concerns include capital for these projects -- and that doesn't even include services that may need continuing capital. Some grants can help offset the budgetary concerns, but other concerns include space, and "when and where". Services may not always be accessible for people with disabilities if they are unable to get to the library through public transportation or other means. Furthermore, the materials and services provided at the library may not be suitable for each individual. 

Vermont has a decent support system for helping library users with disabilities access books and different types of media through the ABLE Library. These resources are invaluable and each year we learn about new resources ABLE is getting access to that our community members can use to support different disabilities.

(More information on ABLE Library can be found here: https://able.vermont.gov/)

What Now?

My biggest takeaway this semester is that there is always room to improve. Each weekly reading had me examining the practices at my library to see what could change. Some of these changes -- many of them -- will take a lot of time. Other changes I could implement immediately. One of these was while learning about brain development in young children, and how much textures could help them learn and engage. That very day, we ordered textured squares to use during Baby Time and Storytime to engage different senses for individuals who learn or experience differently.

After meeting with my library director, my hope is that we will continue to improve our services to be more inclusive to our community members with disabilities. While this has been on my director's radar, there were things we hadn't thought of, like reaching out to caregivers we know to make sure they know that our programs are open to all and no matter the suggested age, others are always welcome. I learned that this can sometimes be a barrier to folks with intellectual disabilities as they "age out" of certain programs. However, here at the library they are always welcome!

References

Guy-Evans, O. (2023). Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. SimplyPsychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bronfenbrenner.html 

Huisinga, S., Luttrell, L. A., Cook, R., & Jones-Bromenshenkel, M. (2018). Making books accessible for all readers: Students reflect on a service project. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 47(1), 18-27.