Communications in Information Literacy - Volume 15 - Issue 2 - Article 2 - Exploring Teaching Librarians' Beliefs about Undergraduate Student Learning

Oct 15, 2026

Whether formally articulated or tacitly held, librarians develop beliefs about how undergraduate students learn. This study frames learning beliefs as part of a teaching philosophy and investigates how 13 teaching librarians from three Texas doctoral universities describe undergraduate learning best. Findings highlight diverse learning ways, the need for interaction, action, and reflection, and learning conditions that enable learning. Identified beliefs align with learning theories and learning science, while threshold concepts theory did not appear to shape librarians' learning models.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Developing Knowledge of Learning Theories

Method and Research Question

Findings and Discussion

Conclusion

Communications in Information Literacy | Volume 15 Issue 2 | Article 2 | | --- | --- | | 12-2021
Exploring Teaching Librarians' Beliefs about Undergraduate Student Learning
Ashlynn Kogut
Texas A&M University, [awkogut@library.tamu.edu](awkogut@library.tamu.edu)
Follow this and additional works at: [https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit](https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit)
Let us know how access to this document benefits you. | | Recommended Citation Kogut, A. (2021) . Exploring Teaching Librarians' Beliefs about Undergraduate Student Learning. Communications in Information Literacy, 15 (2), 167–187 . [https://doi.org/10.15760/](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[comminfolit.2021.15.2.2](comminfolit.2021.15.2.2) This open access Research Article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4 .0) . All documents in PDXScholar should meet accessibility standards. If we can make this document more accessible to you, contact our team. COMMUNICATIONS IN INFORMATION LITERACY | VOL. 15, NO. 2, 2021 167 Exploring Teaching Librarians' Beliefs about Undergraduate Student Learning Ashlynn Kogut, Texas A&M University Abstract Whether formally articulated or tacitly held, all librarians have beliefs about how undergraduate students learn. Framing learning beliefs as a component of a teaching philosophy, this study explored how librarians described how undergraduate students learned best. Thirteen librarians from three doctoral universities in Texas were interviewed. Teaching librarians in this study believed that students learn in different ways; that students need to interact with others, act, and reflect in order to learn; and that students learn when certain conditions are met. The learning beliefs identified align with learning theories and the science of learning, but the threshold concepts theory underlying the ACRL Framework did not appear to influence how librarians conceptualized the learning process. These findings are a starting point for librarians considering how to articulate their own beliefs about learning. Keywords: learning beliefs, ACRL Framework, learning theory, library instruction, teaching philosophies Kogut, A. (2021). Exploring teaching librarians’ beliefs about undergraduate student learning. Communications in Information Literacy, 15(2), 167–187. Copyright for articles published in Communications in Information Literacy is retained by the author(s). Author(s) also extend to Communications in Information Literacy the right to redistribute this article via other scholarly resources and bibliographic databases. This extension allows the authors' copyrighted content to be included in some databases that are distributed and maintained by forprofit companies. All other rights of redistribution are licensed by Communications in Information Literacy under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4 .0) . 168 COMMUNICATIONS IN INFORMATION LITERACY | VOL. 15, NO. 2, 2021 Exploring Teaching Librarians' Beliefs about Undergraduate Student Learning An instructor’s view of the learning process influences not only their teaching, but also how students themselves learn (Trigwell et al., 1999; Tynjälä, 1997). Therefore, beliefs about learning guide teaching librarians’ interactions with undergraduate students in instruction sessions, research consultations, and reference work and can influence student learning. The purpose of this study is to explore teaching librarians’ beliefs about how undergraduate students learn. This is important for two reasons. First, many teaching librarians do not have formal education about learning theories (Brecher & Klipfel, 2014; Namaganda, 2020). Second, the exploration of teaching librarians’ beliefs about learning will provide insight into how librarians’ beliefs about l

FAQs

What was the purpose of this study?

The study explored how teaching librarians describe their beliefs about how undergraduate students learn.

How many librarians participated, and where were they from?

Thirteen librarians from three doctoral universities in Texas participated in interviews.

What learning beliefs did the study identify?

Teaching librarians believed students learn in different ways, need to interact with others, act, and reflect, and learn when specific conditions are met.

Oct 15, 2026

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