Newman Library

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Professor Randy Hensley, the Newman Library’s Head of Instruction, is the co-Principal Investigator of a research project that has been awarded $249,000 by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies.   Professor Hensley became involved in the development of the project, “Pathways to Excellence and Achievement in Research and Learning (PEARL)”, while he was working at the University of Hawaii (UHM).  Although he is now at Baruch College, he will continue to participate in the project with his UHM colleagues Dr. Violet Harada, Margit Watts and Michael-Brian Ogawa.

The following is the abstract of the project as published on the IMLS web site:

Faculty and librarians at the University of Hawaii (UHM) will design, implement, and assess a team-based model of professional development for high school librarians and teachers collaborating to help high school students construct rigorous, inquiry-focused, capstone research projects. The UHM team will cooperate with the Hawaii Department of Education and the Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education to address the “expectation gaps” between the standards students must meet to earn a high school diploma and the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in their post-high school pursuits. The gaps identified include many 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, interpreting information, and analytic reasoning. The project will produce a training guide that can be used to create similar professional development programs, including training agendas, instructional materials, and recommended resources. The end goal of this three-year initiative is to produce a replicable model of professional development that may be used in other training contexts.