Author Archives: Kevin Michael Klipfel

by | April 16, 2018 · 9:55 pm

Farewell to Rule Number One

Dear Readers,

We’re writing with some bittersweet news: as of April 17, 2018,  we’re going to be closing up shop here at Rule Number One. Though we plan to keep the blog up as a record of … well, the blog … we aren’t planning any new posts here.

When we started the blog – about five years ago, when we we both just out of library school – our main purpose was just to create a reason to stay in touch and work on a project together. Neither of us had any pretensions that we were doing anything but shouting out into the silences of the internet, but just in case anyone was listening, we were excited to put our perspective out there.  Never in a million years could we have anticipated what this little project turned into: articles, presentations, and the book that we recently published with the American Library Association, Learner-Centered Pedagogy.  We’ve been truly grateful (and surprised!) by the reception to our work here.

So why end Rule Number One?

We just have a sense that it’s to time to end this particular collaboration. One of our main goals for starting the blog was to get our perspective (a learner-centered approach driven by the cognitive science of learning and humanistic psychology) out there in libraries. And now we feel that we’ve done that, both here and in our book. This is not to say that we think it’s perfect, or great, or done, or that everyone has now adopted its methods and ideas and we can retire into library instruction infamy. We’re probably not even totally done with these ideas, but now we’d like to explore both these ideas and other things in new ways. We’re so psyched we got to do this together for as long as we did and we hope we’ll collaborate in different ways in the future, but this chapter feels like it’s closing.

Honestly, we’re different people at very different places in life than we were five years ago, just out of library school. There’s new jobs, spouses, kids, moves across the country… It’s been a challenge to keep up with the blog, and we feel like we’re not doing it justice anymore, with rare posts and limited engagement. We don’t want to leave it hanging, so it seems better to wrap it up.

It’s been hard to make this decision, which is why there’s been silence for so long. We feel sad, but also sort of liberated. We’re glad we’ve been able to do this thing, together, and that you’ve been kind enough to join us for the journey.

If you want to find us, you can always send us an e-mail or find us on Twitter (@danibcook and @k_m_klipfel),  and we would love it if you say hi if you ever run into us at a conference.

…And with that, we bid you a fond and grateful farewell, at least on this particular WordPress site.

We’ll see you when we see you,

Kevin and Dani

Rule # 1: A Library Blog Co-Bloggers

2012-2018

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3 Comments

Filed under Posts by Dani Brecher, Posts by Kevin Michael Klipfel, The Library Game

by | October 12, 2017 · 2:29 pm

Congrats, Dani!

Really nice article by UCR featuring Dani and Learner-Centered Pedagogy!

An excerpt:

“Most librarians who come out as credentialed MLSs don’t have a background in teaching, but when they come onto their job, a huge amount of their work is in teaching,” Cook explained. “We hope this book will help librarians who don’t necessarily have a background in education to put their students at the center of their work.”

Full article here.

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by | October 12, 2017 · 2:25 pm

Learner-Centered Pedagogy E-Course

Dani and I are excited to announce that we’ll be partnering with ALA for a six week E-Course based on our Learner-Centered Pedagogy book, taught by … us!

The course, which is asynchronous, begins on Nov. 13, 2017. Students who register for the course will receive an electronic copy of Learner-Centered Pedagogy, and upon completion of the course will get a certificate of completion for professional development/continuing education purposes through ALA.

Here is a basic course outline:

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this course, you will be able to

  • Articulate an individually developed learner-centered teaching philosophy
  • Plan and deliver a learner-centered activity for an information literacy-related outcome
  • Incorporate evidence-based practices related to autonomy, empathy, relationship rapport, and learners’ intrinsic motivation into your own reference and instructional contexts

eCourse Outline

Week 1: Introduction to Learner-Centered Pedagogy

  • How is learner-centered pedagogy defined and what are its theoretical and empirical bases?
  • How do we know when learning has occurred?
  • How can teacher-librarians (re)define information literacy in a learner-centered environment?

Week 2:  Facilitating Curiosity

  • How can library instructors tap into learners’ intrinsic motivation and desire for authentic self-expression to make information literacy really matter to learners?
  • Why do autonomy-supportive rather than controlling learning environments so successfully motivate learning?
  • What are some evidence-based practices librarians can employ to support learners’ sense of autonomy and authenticity in the information literacy context?

Week 3: The Cognitive Science of Learning

  • What are some of the cognitive challenges that students face when learning information literacy skills?
  • How can an understanding of the cognitive science of learning improve librarians instructional design practices in and out of the classroom?
  • What are some evidence-based practical strategies librarians can take from the cognitive science of learning to better organize their instruction to help make information literacy learning stick?

Week 4: Relationships: The Heart of Learner-Centered Pedagogy

  • Why do students seem to learn best with instructors that they feel connected to?
  • How have librarians historically approached the importance of the librarian-student relationship for facilitating information literacy learning?
  • What are some evidence-based practices librarians can use to establish genuine connections and relationship rapport with learners in the information literacy context?

Week 5: Mindsets toward Learning

  • How does students’ attitudes toward the role intelligence plays in learning impact their motivation to learn?
  • How can we facilitate a process-oriented approach to research?
  • What best practices can librarians adopt from the mindset literature to help students who are experiencing roadblocks in their research?

Week 6: The Learner-Centered Technologist

  • What is technology and what role does it play in learner-centered information literacy instruction?
  • What practical test can librarians use to assess whether the use of a particular technology is learner-centered?
  • What evidence based strategies for using technology are recommended by the learner-centered pedagogy literature?

There’s a good bit more info available at the ALA site about registration, etc., but please feel free to get in touch personally with either Dani or myself if you have any questions about the content, etc.

We look forward to the possibility of working with you!

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by | September 28, 2017 · 10:23 am

“Creative Types”

There’s no such thing as a creative type. As if creative people can just show up and make stuff up. As if it were that easy. I think people need to be reminded that creativity is a verb. A very time consuming verb. It’s about taking an idea in your head and transforming that idea into something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult process. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel like work

-Milton Glaser (via NITCH)

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Filed under Education, On Being Human, Posts by Kevin Michael Klipfel, Quotes

by | September 13, 2017 · 6:35 am

“Learner-Centered Pedagogy” Recommended in American Libraries Magazine

We wanted to share something we’re quite excited by, that our book Learner-Centered Pedagogy was reviewed and recommended by Karen Muller in her “Librarian’s Library” column for American Libraries Magazine.

We’re particularly pleased that the review considers the book useful for school librarians in a K-12 educational setting: though we wrote it, in some sense, with academic librarians in mind (since we’re academic librarians), we do think that the book is applicable for all kinds of libraries, and transfers to any context where librarians are connecting with learners or other educators in some way.

Happily, the review agrees:

Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles and Practice, by Kevin Michael Klipfel and Dani Brecher Cook, is intended for academic librarians, but the concept of having empathy for the learner and what that person needs or wants to learn has broad applicability.

We promise we won’t share every review of the book, but we may share some so it’s not just us saying that we think the book is good!

Also exciting, I might add, is the column’s general focus on the importance of librarians as educational leaders.

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Filed under Education, Library Instruction, On Being Human, Posts by Kevin Michael Klipfel, Uncategorized

by | September 8, 2017 · 10:03 am

Project Management

mike-tyson-punched-mouth

In advance of the former heavyweight champion’s appearance Saturday night at the Seminole Coconut Creek Casino, where he will perform his one-man stage show, “Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth,” I asked Tyson if he remembered the origins of that quote.

“People were asking me [before a fight], ‘What’s going to happen?,’ ” Tyson said. “They were talking about his style. ‘He’s going to give you a lot of lateral movement. He’s going to move, he’s going to dance. He’s going to do this, do that.’ I said, “Everybody has a plan until they get hit. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.’ ”

What I like so much about the quote is that its application stretches far beyond boxing. It really has meaning in any area of life, whether the blow comes from a health issue, losing your job, making a bad investment, a traffic jam, whatever.

It’s how you react to that adversity that defines you, not the adversity itself.

“Exactly,” Tyson agreed. “If you’re good and your plan is working, somewhere during the duration of that, the outcome of that event you’re involved in, you’re going to get the wrath, the bad end of the stick. Let’s see how you deal with it. Normally people don’t deal with it that well.”

He laughed. There’s another way to spin his famous quote:

“How much can you endure, buddy?” he said. “Most talkers, they can’t handle it.”

 

 

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Filed under Education, On Being Human, Posts by Kevin Michael Klipfel, Quotes, Uncategorized

by | September 7, 2017 · 9:44 am

The Information Behavior of Librarians: A Super-Scientific Study

Based on about four years of periodically checking this blog’s traffic, here’s my super scientific impression of the percent of people who click on various kinds of links when I link to something on this blog.

Pictures of me or Dani: 99.9%

Any anecdotal thing I’ve said about threshold concepts that I thought about for less than three seconds: 92.4%

Ryan Gosling memes: 72.3%

Links to personal websites of guest bloggers: 68%

Links to persons, places, or things I just insulted: 49.6%

Papers we’ve authored: 19.1 %

Articles I think are extremely important for people in our profession to read: <1%

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Filed under Posts by Kevin Michael Klipfel, The Library Game

by | September 6, 2017 · 11:09 am

Opposing Viewpoints

I don’t generally comment on what other people in the profession are writing or blogging about (ironically,  I suppose, I don’t read any library blogs), but on my esteemed co-blogger’s twitter I came across and enjoyed this post by Lane Wilkinson on “Dealing with Both Sides in Your Library.” I liked it not just because I tend to agree with its general sentiments :re folks with morally repugnant and intellectually indefensible positions, but also because I haven’t seen a ton of discussion (though I haven’t really looked) about how dumb it is to think that “pro” vs. “con” or “for” and “against” is at all an interesting or nuanced way to think about research, debate, or anything else that is not a sporting event.

This has come up in a variety of professional contexts for me (e.g., at one job I had I was against showing freshmen the “Opposing Viewpoints” database because, well, there’s just evidence for or against a particular claim, not “opposing viewpoints, which aversion was met by horror for some other librarians) and it’s nice to see someone explaining why it’s not all that great.

More controversially, perhaps: I really like the tone (at least in this post) Lane writes with, and am glad to have people who conduct themselves that way publicly in the profession.

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Filed under Education, Library Instruction, Posts by Kevin Michael Klipfel, The Library Game, Uncategorized

by | August 31, 2017 · 8:55 am

First Review of “Learner-Centered Pedagogy”!

Our publisher just sent over a link to the first review of Learner-Centered Pedagogy and it’s … a good one!

An excerpt:

Fusing theory with practice, this handbook is exceptionally organized and presented, making it a valuable and very highly recommended resource to help every practitioner connect with learners more effectively. Enhanced with the inclusion of a eight page bibliography (Directions for Further Reading) and an eleven page Index, “Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles and Practice” is an unreservedly recommended addition to college and university Library Science collections and community library staff in-service training supplemental studies reading lists.

Here’s where you can read the whole review in full, Mom.

(*Small correction to the review, if anyone cares: I’m not, as the review suggests, currently a lecturer in moral and existential philosophy at Virginia Tech – that was a past life. I’m the Instructional Design and Assessment Librarian at the University of Southern California Libraries).

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by | August 28, 2017 · 9:29 am

John Stuart Mill on Individuality and Conformity

In our times, from the highest class of society down to the lowest, every one lives as under the eye of a hostile and dreaded censorship. Not only in what concerns others, but in what concerns only themselves, the individual or the family do not ask themselves—what do I prefer? or, what would suit my character and disposition? or, what would allow the best and highest in me to have fair play, and enable it to grow and thrive? They ask themselves, what is suitable to my position? what is usually done by persons of my station and pecuniary circumstances? or (worse still) what is usually done by persons of a station and circumstances superior to mine? I do not mean that they choose what is customary, in preference to what suits their own inclination. It does not occur to them to have any inclination, except for what is customary. Thus the mind itself is bowed to the yoke: even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of; they like in crowds; they exercise choice only among things commonly done: peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes: until by dint of not following their own nature, they have no nature to follow: their human capacities are withered and starved: they become incapable of any strong wishes or native pleasures, and are generally without either opinions or feelings of home growth, or properly their own. Now is this, or is it not, the desirable condition of human nature?

-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapter Three, “Of Individuality, as One of the Components of Well-Being,” 1859

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