For our Infinite Learning module, I was drawn to the “Library as Classroom” topic because of the ongoing discussions I’ve had in numerous classes concerning the educational role we as librarians will develop in our careers.
Messy Learning:
There is no one information-seeking behavior or information retention method. We will come across a number of users who possess different means of taking in information. It will be our role as educators to work around these barriers and provide our users the answer or answers being sought. Learning, of course, is not a clean process—this can be the case for users of all age groups we’ll encounter. Learning is exciting, confusing, upsetting, and frustrating. Essentially, it’s complicated.
The piece “Embracing Messy Learning” normalizes the complicated process of retaining information. Block (2014) expresses the acceptance of messiness in learning “If I don’t allow learning to be messy, I eliminate authentic experiences for students as thinkers and creators. I find it important to regularly remind myself that frustration leads to insights and that learning is not necessarily the equivalent of mastery.” I appreciate the wording of this passage, in which “authentic experiences” should not be overlooked nor attempted to be what some considered fixed. Messy learning allows us to understand what’s not working during the process of hitting a specific target; recognizing these barriers can help us in our future endeavors. Learning, as we know, does not have to be done alone—that’s where we come in! Block (2014) proposes that as educators, we need to make sure we’re asking the right questions, provide an appropriate structure, and encourage the development of new ideas in the pursuit of information. We should be providing the adequate tools for our users to wield and fulfill their searches.
As I expressed earlier, learning does not have to be an isolating experience. We, as librarians, should be in open collaboration with our users to find the answers being sought. We should also be encouraging our users to learn. Knowledge is power, so working through barriers and mistakes can be rewarding! I believe we should work on finding a balance in our careers—knowing when to be a motivator and knowing when to be more direct. Messy learning is a normal experience that we’ll need to accept, for the sake of our users and ourselves.
References
Block, Joshua. (2014, January 7). Embracing messy learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/embracing-messy-learning-joshua-block