Scholarship as Conversation
The resources below relate to the Scholarship as Conversation frame of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Learning outcomes include, but are not limited to:
-
Perform critical close readings in order to actively engage with scholarly literature.
-
Follow scholarly conversations in order to discover the evolution of a given topic.
-
Examine the connections and ongoing narratives among information sources in order to gain greater understanding of a topic.
- Identify multiple perspectives for a given topic in order to foster dialogue about how experts can disagree on critical issues.
Videos and Tutorials | Instruction and Activities | Assignments
Videos and Tutorials
Introductory
- Research 101: Scholarship is a ConversationUses the analogy of conversations at a party to explain the concept of scholarship as an ongoing conversation.
→ Time: 2 mins - Research is a ConversationTakes a different approach to the party analogy to explain the concept of scholarship as an ongoing conversation.
→ Time: 2 mins
Instruction and Activities
Introductory
- Mapping Scholarly ConversationStudents develop their research topics through concept mapping and preliminary research.
→ Time: 50 mins
→ Computers: Required
Intermediate
- Close Reading an AbstractStudents examine a journal article's abstract and complete a worksheet that helps to contextualize it. They then paraphrase the abstract for different contexts.
→ Time: 50 mins
→ Computers: Not required - Reading a Scholarly Journal ArticleStudents read a journal article relevant to the course and complete a worksheet that asks them to identify the article’s research question, key findings, participants (or data sources), methodology, and limitations. (Can be modified for non-empirical articles.)
→ 30 mins
→ Computers: Not required
Advanced
- Citation Mapping with Google ScholarStudents find an article on their topic and use Google Scholar to identify articles that it cites and that have cited it. They create a citation map based on this process.
→ Time: 60 mins
→ Computers: Required - Citation Mapping with Web of ScienceStudents find an article on their topic and use Web of Science to identify articles that it cites and that have cited it. They create a citation map based on this process.
→ Time: 60 mins
→ Computers: Required - Scholarly PartyStudents work in small groups. Starting with a specific journal article, they choose a theme for their "party" and identify relevant "guests" by following citations backwards and forwards and identifying gaps in the conversation.
→ Time: 60 mins
→ Computers: Required
Assignments
Intermediate
- Comparing ArgumentsStudents research their topic and find two articles that give contrasting perspectives. They answer questions about the two articles and their arguments.
- Writing, Analysis, and Disciplinary DiscourseStudents find one article about their research topic and write a brief essay in which they answer questions about that article. They then find a second article on the same topic and add an addendum to their initial essay to incorporate what the second article contributes to the topic.
Advanced
- Perspectives in a Scholarly ConversationStudents read a set of provided sources on a topic and answer questions related to the perspectives, voices, and conversation.
- Evolution of a Scholarly ConversationStudents research a topic and find historical and contemporary articles on it. They then investigate how perspectives on the topic have changed over time using a set of guiding questions.
- Updating a Literature ReviewStudents find an outdated literature review and perform research in order to update the review.