Learner Analysis

Getting Started...

The information that I have used to complete this analysis has been taken, in part, from an email questionnaire that I sent out to paraprofessional librarians in my district. I did so to gather information on prior experiences, skills, values, and attitudes of the participants. I received replies from four of the eight librarians that are to be participants in this information literacy training. I have attached a copy of the questionnaire below. I also found the PDF document Developing Training Material With ADDIE , particularly page 8, to be a valuable resource in planning questions and considerations for learner analysis.

Learner Analysis

The learners in this training group will consist of eight paraprofessional librarians. All are females of approximately 35-60 years of age. Work experience in the library varies from 1-22 years among them. Seven of the paraprofessionals manage their libraries alone, while one is an assistant to a certified librarian/ district library coordinator. This group consists of six elementary librarians, one middle school librarian, and one high school librarian.

None of the learners in this group of participants report any formal training for their positions. Most report having been briefly oriented with their libraries upon employment by the previous librarian being replaced. The paraprofessional librarian with the most years of work experience claims to have been almost entirely self-taught. The following is a collective list of skills that librarians in this group reported having and felt were important to the job (although not any one librarian reported having all skills):

• computer skills
• communication skills
• organization skills
• website maintenance skills
• organization skills
• time and task management skills
• interpersonal skills
• people skills/ service skills
• experience in working with children

As previously, mentioned District XYZ requires 18 hours of off-contract training/ development time of its paraprofessionals. It will be most effective to offer this training toward the fulfillment of that requirement. It is also predicted that paraprofessional librarians may be reluctant to fully implement new skills and knowledge learned during training if it requires significantly more effort, time, or work. They are on paraprofessional salary and therefore may be reluctant to perform what may be perceived as professional duties for paraprofessional pay. The benefits of implementing and promoting information literacy skills, and the value that this will add to the student’s education, must therefore be much of the focus of the training. Learners reported that the most important aspects of their jobs included encouraging others to learn and try new things, effectively work with teachers and students, teaching students, encouraging a love of reading, and assisting users of the library. If the learner is able to relate the importance of information literacy skills to these other aspects of their jobs that they perceive as important, they will be more properly motivated to learn and promote these new skills as well.

It is likely that instruction and training will need to accommodate varying skill levels among learners. Because of differences in work experience in the library varying from 1-22 years among learners, the more experienced may be more familiar with and adept at using the online catalog and standard library organization. Although it does not seem to be age related, some learners have expressed more interest in, and seem to place more priority upon, computer skills than other learners. These learners may have more prior experience with existing technologies and online information searches. Because of these differences in experience and interest, it is recommended that the approach to instruction be one in which learners receive guidance as they work through an information literacy problem. This problem will require the learners to each build upon their own skills and interests in order to strengthen and develop new skills and attitudes related to information literacy. Learners may complete a research task, on a topic of their choosing, during which they are given opportunities to put into practice the target skills of media literacy, research and library skills, critical literacy, and information ethics. In this way learners will be encouraged to construct their own knowledge and meaning of information literacy. Because of contextual factors related to differences in grade levels served, information literacy will likely hold different meaning for different librarians. This learner-constructed research approach will also accommodate different learning styles (most commonly “visual” and “hands-on”) reported by participants.