Toward a Critical-Inclusive Assessment Practice for Library Instruction

Using a Critical Theory framework, Toward a Critical-Inclusive Assessment Practice for Library Instruction offers academic librarians practical, and actionable, strategies for critical assessment of teaching and student learning. The authors share their experiences integrating critical assessment techniques into their information literacy curriculum. Each assessment technique discussed is a method that the authors have personally tried in their classrooms. The strategies described in the chapters translate to both credit-bearing and one-shot scenarios. In this book you’ll find the following:

– Foundations of the author’s pedagogical practice
– An introduction to the Critical-Inclusive Pedagogical Framework
– A discussion of the approaches to critical assessment of teaching
– An historical survey of alternative methods of student learning assessment
– Methods for assessing teaching practices
– Methods for assessing student learning

Through tested classroom applications and critical reflections, this book works to bridge the gap between critical information literacy and assessment.

Lyda McCartin is a Professor and Head of Information Literacy and Undergraduate Support at the University of Northern Colorado. She leads a team of innovative librarians who are recognized as an ACRL Information Literacy Best Practices Exemplary Program in Pedagogy. Lyda earned her MA in History and her MLIS from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She currently serves as UNC’s Senior Faculty Assessment Fellow; in this role she provides consultation, guidance, and professional development on course and program-level assessment of student learning to faculty across campus. She has presented on assessment of student learning at state, national, and international conferences.  Her current research agenda includes critical information literacy, critical assessment, and assessment of information literacy.

Rachel Dineen is an Assistant Professor in Information Literacy and Undergraduate Support at the University of Northern Colorado. She currently teaches credit-bearing information literacy classes at the undergraduate level. Rachel earned her MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include critical information literacy, feminist pedagogy, assessment, and art and design librarianship.