Big6 Skills and State Standards
by Janet Murray
Since the establishment of the National Council on Education Standards and Testing (NCEST) in 1991, national standards have been adopted in virtually all curricular areas. “Currently, 49 states have adopted state standards and most districts are assisting schools in bringing standards-based reform to life in classrooms.” Many states have developed information and technology literacy standards that extend across curricular boundaries to define skills important for 21st century students.
For example, North Carolina’s “Information Skills Curriculum” explicitly connects to the national information literacy standards developed by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the Association for Educational and Communications Technology (AECT) by quoting from the Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning: “Developing expertise in accessing, evaluating, and using information is in fact the authentic learning that modern education seeks to promote.”
How can we help students acquire these skills? By using the Big6 Skills approach, of course! The Big6 information problem-solving process dovetails neatly with the information literacy standards as well as the National Educational Technology Standards for Students, as reflected in the matrix, “Applying Big6™ Skills, Information Literacy Standards and ISTE NETS to Internet Research.”
In this column, I plan to explore four geographically dispersed states’ information and technology literacy standards and demonstrate their connection to the Big6 Skills. (See the accompanying matrix)
Purpose of State Standards for Information and Technology Literacy
- Washington:Washington state accompanied their 1996 publication of “Essential Academic Learning Requirements” with the following statement by the Commission on Student Learning:“Students need to be able to see patterns and relationships between facts and ideas, and to use facts as tools for understanding and organizing concepts and principles.”
- North Carolina:North Carolina’s “Information Skills Curriculum Competency Goals” observes,“In order for today’s students to function in the 21st century, they must be able to acquire, evaluate, and use information effectively. . . . Information Literacy Skills emphasize the problem solving, critical and creative thinking, decision making, and cooperative learning that prepare students for the challenges in society.”
- Colorado:Colorado’s “Standards for Information Literacy” describe information literate students as ones who:
- Are competent, independent learners
- Actively engage in the world of ideas
- Confidently solve problems
- Know what is relevant information
- Use technology tools to access information and communicate
- Operate comfortably in situations where there are multiple answers or no answers
- Have high standards for their work and use information ethically
- Create quality products
- Are flexible and adapt to change
- Are able to function independently and in groups.
Colorado’s five guidelines describe students as knowledge seekers, quality producers, self-directed learners, group contributors, and responsible information users.
- Missouri:“Information and technology literacy skills empower the students to know how knowledge is organized, how to locate information, and how to evaluate and use the information in a way in which it can be communicated to others,” according to Missouri’s document, “Information and Technology Literacy: A Companion to the Show-Me Standards.” It makes an important distinction between process / performance goals and content / knowledge standards, and connects components of information and technology literacy skills to both in a valuable matrix (the “component checklist”).The Missouri document further elaborates the connections between information and technology literacy skills and process / performance standards. For example, the first performance goal, “Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas,” is expanded into ten performance standards elaborated with specific processes and benchmarks. Although these are the standards cited in the matrix accompanying this column, Missouri”s other performance goals (2. communicate effectively, 3. recognize and solve problems, and 4. make decisions) also relate to information and technology literacy and are included in their matrix.
Integrate Information and Technology Literacy Skills Across the Curriculum
Each of these four state documents explicitly recognizes information and technology literacy skills as a process that needs to be integrated across the curriculum:
| “Research supports the instruction of information literacy skills in an integrated approach, rather than taught in isolation.” (Washington)“A dynamic relationship exists between the goals and objectives identified in the Information Skills Curriculum and all other curricular areas.” (North Carolina)“Information literacy guidelines provide all students with a process for learning that is transferable among content areas and from the academic environment to real life.” (Colorado)“These skills are not meant to be taught as an isolated curriculum but are strands to be integrated throughout the school”s curriculum.” (Missouri) |
Librarians and Big6™ Skills are Essential Partners
Traditionally, libraries have provided society’s portal to the world of information, and librarians have been particularly well trained in research processes, including locating and evaluating information sources. All four state documents emphasize the importance of a collaborative partnership between teachers and library media specialists to help students achieve information and technology literacy skills:
| “This guide will be useful to both teachers and library media specialists as they work together in integrating these skills into all content areas, and in support of all the Essential Academic Learning Requirements.” (Washington)“In collaboration with all classroom teachers, the library media specialist focuses on student involvement, activity and action.” (North Carolina)“The library media specialist, teaching collaboratively with other teachers, is vital to student learning.” (Colorado)“Indicator 10.1 C of the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP), [states] ”The library media staff, in partnership with the faculty, teaches information literacy skills or integrates these skills across the curriculum.”” |
The Big6 information problem-solving process helps teachers and library media specialists organize their approach to enabling students to acquire information and technology literacy skills. The accompanying matrix extracts a few of these state performance standards and aligns them with each of the Big6 Skills.
Other Resources for Exploring State Standards
Of course, these are not the only four states to have recognized the importance of information and technology literacy.
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Why Use the Big6 Skills™?
Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz recognized the importance of information literacy skills as early as 1987, before the terminology was even adopted by AASL and AECT. Their Big6™ Skills model can help our students acquire information problem solving skills. Eisenberg and Doug Johnson made the essential connection between information and technology literacy in their 1996 collaboration, “Computer Skills for Information Problem-Solving: Learning and Teaching Technology in Context.”
Therefore, there is a substantial body of research and practice to guide our efforts. By contributing to our developing database as requested in the sidebar, you can increase the value of these resources for yourself and your colleagues, wherever they live.