A study of instructional development knowledge and competency among teacher-librarians in Newfoundland

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine instructional development knowledge and competency among teacher-librarians in the province of Newfoundland. Resource-based approaches to curriculum are being implemented throughout Canada, and, the Newfoundland Department of Education recommends a resource-based approach to teaching and learning, although a formal model has yet to be adopted. Because this approach requires that teacher-librarians and classroom teachers work together as teaching partners in the curriculum implementation process, using instructional development in a cooperative program planning process, it was desirable to establish the level of instructional development knowledge and competency of teacher-librarians. -- The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) published a task force report, in 1982, on instructional development certification which provided a list of core, performance-oriented instructional development competencies for the instructional/training development professional. These AECT core instructional development competencies were incorporated with competencies outlined in various Canadian documents and considered necessary to implement cooperative program planning and teaching. A content analysis was performed on three Canadian documents: (1) Partners in Action: The Library Resource Centre in The School Curriculum, by the Ontario Ministry of Education (1982); (2) The 4th R: Resource-based Learning, by the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (1987); and (3) Qualifications for School Librarians, by the Canadian School Library Association Report (1980). This process provided fifteen instructional development competency areas to use in the examination of instructional development knowledge and competency on the part of teacher-librarians. -- An initial instrument was piloted in the fall of 1988 with a group of sixty teacher-librarians attending an annual conference. This instrument was developed to gauge the level of familiarity with instructional development terminology, and to provide information to assist in the development of the main instrument. -- The main instrument was a highly structured interview guide, permitting participants to respond with open-ended answers. One hundred and twenty-one teacher-librarians, working half-time or more, from twenty-six school districts throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, participated. -- The study results indicate very few teacher-librarians possessed comprehensive instructional development knowledge and competency.