James Henri

Changing concerns in distance education for teacher-librarianship

This article examines the concerns of instructors and students in two distance learning pro- grams in teacher-librarianship: a new program at the University of Alberta in Canada, and an established program at Charles Sturt University in Australia. Instructors and students in the new program were con- cerned about the issue of equivalent standards, but this was not a meaningful question for those in the established program where distance education was a way of life. The issues raised by instructors and students in established programs included credibility, costs, equity, practicality, student community, and student support. The article concludes with a discussion of five major themes common to the new and established programs: changing pedagogy; maintaining credibility; cost/benefits for students; cost/bene- fits for instructors; and benefits of collaboration.

Learning to learn

In this paper it is argued that educators must take note of the evidence that learning in many schools and by many students is far from effective. The reports on school effectiveness highlight this fact and also offer a number of recipes for change. It is argued that a narrow interpretation of the problems is unhelpful. The argument is that, rather than restructuring the instructional program predominantly to the learning of a fixed body of knowledge, teachers should be investigating the use of instructional methods that place the student in the centre of the teaching/learning process. The use of resource based enquiry methods, reinforced through the development of information literacy and critical thinking processes, is advocated.