Research Guides: Information Literacy in the Curriculum: Scholarship is a Conversation

Scholarship is a Conversation

Learning Goals

Recognize that a given scholarly work may not represent the only, or even the majority, perspective on the issue at hand.
Understand that students are entering the middle of the scholarly conversation, not the end.
Critically evaluate contributions made by others and see self as a producer as well as consumer, of information.

Assignment Ideas (from UW Research 101)

1. Provide students with a list of 3-5 sources from different perspectives that shape the conversation surrounding a topic of interest.

Example sources: a news article, a tweet from a reputable source, a scholarly article & a literature review.

Ask:

What perspectives are presented?
Who has the strongest voice in this conversation? Why?
How would you involve yourself in this conversation?

2. Ask students to conduct an investigation of a particular topic from its treatment in the popular media, and then trace its origin in conversations among scholars and researchers. How have perspectives changed and why?

Example sources: news articles, tweets from reputable sources, magazine articles, blog entries, bestselling novels.

Assessment Ideas (UW Research 101)

These questions can be added to Canvas as a graded homework assignment. A librarian embedded in your course can create, grade, and provide feedback.

A single scholarly source does which of the following?
1. Represents the view of all scholars in a field
2. Represents an opinion
3. Represents the view/research of the author
4. Represents the correct ideas

When conducting scholarly research students must:
1. Read all articles relevant to their topic
2. Read only the articles that support their opinion
3. Read only the articles that were published in the last year
4. Read some articles that provide context for the research related to their topic

Students can contribute to the scholarly conversation.
1. True
2. False