Building the Wikipedia-

Proof Assignment

How to Engender Critical Thinking and Active

Learning through Instructional Design

Matt Bejune, mbejune@worcester.edu

Information Literacy Librarian, Worcester State University

Session Description

The use of Wikipedia in student research assignments is a

common problem on college campuses despite our

repeated exhortations to use other, more scholarly

resources. How else might we address the so-called

Wikipedia problem? Join us for a lively discussion about

instructional design informed by John C. Bean’s Engaging

Ideas. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Session Goals

1. Demystify the “Wikipedia problem”

2. Examine Potential Solutionsa. Library Services

b. Instructional Design - John C. Bean and You!

The Problem as We Know It

How Freshman Conduct Course

Research Once They Enter College

● Interviews with first-term freshman

● Surveys from approx. 2,000 high school and

college students

● A comparative analysis of high school and

college libraries

Head, Alison J. Project Information Literacy Research Report: Learning the

Ropes: How Freshman Conduct Course Research Once They Enter College. 5

Dec. 2013. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.

<http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_2013_FreshmenStudy_FullReport.pdf>.

The Library: Your Ally

Information Literacy is:

a set of abilities requiring individuals to

"recognize when information is needed and

have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use

effectively the needed information."

American Library Association. Presidential Committee on

Information Literacy. Final Report.(Chicago: American Library

Association, 1989.)

and...

it is a WSU Institutional Learning Outcome

and…

it is part of the LASC Curriculum

Having completed classes in the LASC, students will:

● Demonstrate effective oral and written communication.

● Employ quantitative and qualitative reasoning.

● Apply skills in critical thinking.

● Apply skills in information literacy.

● Display an appreciation for the interrelations among global and cross-cultural

communities.

● Develop a critical understanding of the U.S. experience.

● Understand the roles of science and technology in our modern world.

● Demonstrate and value personal creative expression.

● Understand how scholars in various disciplines approach problems and construct

knowledge.

● Make connections across courses and disciplines.

● Develop as healthy individuals – physically, emotionally, socially, ethically, and

intellectually.

● Display socially responsible behavior and act as socially responsible agents in the world.

Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The

Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing,

Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the

Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,

2011.

Is it really a Wikipedia problem?

“The research paper (or term paper) can be one of the most

valuable assignments we give students. Research assignments

flow from our desire that students become self-directed inquirers

who can bring their own critical thinking to bear on interesting

problems. But our students’ research papers are often

disappointing. Despite our admonitions that students should do

their own thinking and analysis in research papers, many

students regard a research paper as an informative pastiche or

an “all about” report on a topic area. We all know students’

tendency to manufacture a term paper by patching together

passages closely paraphrased from their sources. There is

something mechanistic about the way many of our students

produce research papers, something disturbingly unlike the

motivated inquiry and analysis that we value.” (224)

Student Misperceptions (226-7)

● Research = “all about” writing, as opposed to

analytical or argumentative writing

● Research = go to the library to gather

sources, rather than critical inquiry

(investigating, analyzing, synthesizing, etc.)

● They don’t have “anything original to say”

Faculty Misperceptions (227-8)

● Students learn how to write the “research

paper” in first-year composition classeso “It is a “pseudo-academic genre, a “mutt genre,” that

has different meanings to different teachers across

the curriculum.”

● Students learn how to use the library in first-

year compositions classes.

MacDonald’s Four-Stage Schema of

Students’ Development as Writers (228)

1. Nonacademic writing [what students bring from high

school]

2. Generalized academic writing concerned with stating

claims, offering evidence, respecting others’ opinions,

and learning how to write with authority [the goal of first-

year composition]

3. Novice approximations of particular disciplinary ways of

making knowledge [early courses in the major]

4. Expert, insider prose [advanced courses in the major]

Expert Insider Prose (254)

Difficult Subskills of Research Writing (229)

1. How to Ask Discipline-Appropriate Research Questions

2. How to Establish a Rhetorical Context (audience, genre,

and purpose)

3. How to Find Sources

4. Why to Find Sources

5. How to Integrate Sources into the Paper

6. How to Take Thoughtful Notes

7. How to Cite and Document Sources

Who teaches these subskills?

1. Bizup’s BEAM Model (236-9)

BEAM sources instead

of primary, secondary,

and tertiary sources.

2. Meaning-Constructing Assignments (232)

3. Modulating Difficulty Levels (232-233)

1. Instructor gives all students the same

problema. Provides all the sources

b. Provides some of the sources and asks students to

find one or two more on their own

c. Asks students to find all the sources

2. Instructor asks students to choose their own

topics (which they must convert into a

research problem) and find their own

sources

4. Scaffolded Assignments for Joining an

Academic Conversation (242-4)

● They say / I say (Birkenstein, 2009)

● Literature Review Establishing a

Controversy

● “State of the Art” Literature Review

● “Gap in Knowledge” Literature Review

5. Backward Course Design (244-250)

Consider Last Assignment First and Build

Accordingly

● Thinking pieces

● Mini-Guided-Research Paper

● Prospectus

● Exploratory Essay

6. Backward Curriculum Design (260-262)

“Working together, departmental faculty can design the

curriculum backward to ensure that the skills and

knowledge needed for expert insider prose are taught

gradually and sequentially in key courses throughout the

major. Backward design requires faculty members to give

up some autonomy in key courses in favor of coordinated

teamwork that may include at designated places in the

curriculum communally designed assignments or

community-designated assignment types--what Gerald

Graff (2009) calls a dismantling of “courseocentrism” in

favor of shared goals.”

Questions?

1. Do you have any “wikipedia-proof”

assignments? Do they also engender critical

thinking and active learning?

2. How do you handle students who do not rise

to the occasion?

3. Where does instructional design “live” on

campus? Who are the resident experts?

4. How can the library assist?