Critical Thinking in Information Literacy Pedagogical Strategies: New dynamics for Higher Education throughout librarians vision

Abstract

This work explores the articulation of Information Literacy and Critical Thinking, throughout a preliminary study on the pedagogical strategies used by academic librarians in lecturing information literacy courses. A theoretical reflection is presented about students skills in Information Literacy, enhanced by Critical Thinking, to acquire the ability to move autonomously in printed and digital information environments, based on their reflective thinking, to transform information into new knowledge. The study aims to compare information literacy pedagogical practices in different subject areas. As such, psychology, education, and health sciences were the ecosystems in which the strategies were explored and applied to analyze common approaches, and ultimately detect and share good practices for pedagogical improvements. The present work results from a qualitative study, based on the interviews regarding the vision of three academic librarians, framed by seven major parameters: metacognition, reflection, analysis, evaluation, inference, and use, as well as dispositions, applied to information management. The objective was to evaluate what kind of strategies were adopted by each librarian and if the pedagogical practices are effective in fulfilling the learning objectives. Overall, all three librarians agreed that libraries have an important role in promoting critical thinking in higher education students.