By Brandon K. West, Head of Research Instruction Services
and Alan Witt, Research Instruction Librarian
Milne Library, State University of New York at Geneseo
Abstract
Student engagement is a consistent challenge for librarians in information literacy instruction, especially in the context of single session learning. Two librarians at a small, public liberal arts college took inspiration from Malone’s (1981) theory of intrinsically motivating instruction to create a lesson plan that caught the imagination of the students and produced enthusiastic participation. This paper explains the theoretical framework used, examines the reasons for its success in this iteration, and discusses potential applications to other information literacy lessons.