Publikace:
Partners in Class: A Needs-Based Approach to High School Curricular Support at the National Library of Technology in Prague

Datum
2017-09-20
Název časopisu
ISSN časopisu
Název svazku
Vydavatel
Výzkumné projekty
Organizační jednotky
Číslo časopisu
Abstrakt

This case study discusses the development of courses at the National Library of Technology in Prague (NTK) for different grade levels developed in direct collaboration with several private schools, notably the Austrian School in Prague (OEGP) and the English College in Prague (ECP). These courses were developed in close partnership with teachers at these schools according to specific curricular needs: students at both schools must write a formal paper in order to graduate. For OEGP, a highly structured Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit (VWA), or “pre-scientific paper,” is required by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education (2017) for graduation. ECP students must complete the International Baccalaureate Extended Essay (IB EE). The case study contains descriptions of multilingual courses relevant to any libraries who support multilingual research/writing environments—while the IB EE must be written in English, VWA students can select the language of their papers (Czech, English, or German). This poses unique challenges for both NTK instructors and school teachers because different resources and tools must be introduced for different language environments. In our paper, we describe strategies we have developed to overcome such challenges, including our approach to instruction for citation management tools—we recommend different tools for different languages, for example, and coordinate teaching with teachers based on each school’s curriculum. Although information literacy (IL) is supposed to be included in Czech high school programs as a part of a larger discipline, Informatics and Information and Communication Technology (Výzkumný ústav pedagogický v Praze, 2007), the majority of schools neglect IL almost completely (Medková, 2011). This means, among other things, that NTK instructors and school teachers must include in all courses a heavy emphasis on describing relevant resources and introducing the concept of publication ethics, particularly for schools such as OEGP which do not have their own libraries. The paper outlines the next stages of program development, including planned open access learning materials as well as our efforts in encouraging the Czech Ministry for Education, Youth, and Sports to include a formal paper requirement similar to the VWA or IB EE in future high school graduation requirements. At present, most Czech high school students are not required to write a paper in order to graduate (Parliament of the Czech Republic, 2004; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, 2009). Finally, we relate whether or not our experiences correspond to findings from original research conducted at NTK identifying a gap in writing and research skills for Czech undergraduates in STEM fields (Chodounská, 2016). In closing, we discuss how stronger high school requirements could potentially improve writing and research skills for all students entering university programs

Popis
Klíčová slova
publikační etika, knihovní instruktážní služby, publication ethics, library instructional services
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