Type of Presentation
Individual paper/presentation
Conference Strand
Outreach and Partnership
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Ballroom A
Relevance
This session outlines ways in which multiple departments can collaborate on meeting student’s information literacy needs in ways that are not always addressed in the classroom for first year students. Throughout this session, presenters will discuss how the hidden curriculum of college and college level research can be difficult for first-year students to learn and how the Library and a Student Success department worked to address that need. Attendees will hear about different collaboration methods used to teach information literacy through outside of typical library instruction or English classes in ways that address learning critical library and research skills.
Proposal
As librarians who do a significant amount of introductory-level library instruction, over the years we have become aware of some gaps in students’ understanding of certain “hidden curriculum” skills. First introduced in the 1960’s, “the term hidden curriculum refers to attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge that are covertly or unintentionally learned through the schooling process” (Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice, 2014). We have found that many students have never encountered an academic article prior to coming to college, and lack the “hidden curriculum” skills to properly read and understand these types of articles. Our goal, in collaboration with the Student Success Center, was to more explicitly teach these skills to students. If students cannot read and understand the structure of an academic article, they will be locked out of the skills they need to begin to understand information literacy skills and dispositions. Being able to read a scholarly article is a prerequisite to becoming information literate.
This presentation will discuss the partnership between the University Libraries and the Coastal Carolina University’s Student Success Center (CSSC) that has developed over the past several years. CSSC supports multiple student success programs, which provide comprehensive academic support to students who were conditionally admitted. The University Libraries has begun partnering with the CSSC to offer library instruction and support to students in these programs as they visit the library three times in their first semester, setting them up for success in their time at Coastal Carolina University.
This instruction is offered when many students begin to work on final papers for their first-year English courses. Students learn how to read a scholarly article and can practice using an article from another class. Since most of these students receive research-focused library instruction in their English class, the session on reading scholarly articles helps students understand and decode a resource type that is likely novel to them. By spending explicit instruction time on teaching students to understand and analyze an academic article, we introduce elements of the framework while explaining the information product that they will most often use for research.
Short Description
The University Libraries at Coastal Carolina University partners with the Student Success Center (CSSC) to support first-year students. Through a Welcome Week scavenger hunt and mid-November instruction on reading scholarly articles, students explore the “hidden curriculum” of college through learning about library services and essential college research skills. These sessions, integrated with other academic support programs, help students become familiar with scholarly resources and campus services, setting a foundation for their success at CCU.
Keywords
Student Success Center, University Libraries, First-Year Students, Information Literacy, Research Skills, Library Instruction, Hidden Curriculum, Reading Scholarly Articles
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Foster, Kimberly and Mixon, Loren, "Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: A Partnership for Student Success at Coastal Carolina University" (2025). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 30.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2025/2025/30
Navigating the Hidden Curriculum: A Partnership for Student Success at Coastal Carolina University
Ballroom A
As librarians who do a significant amount of introductory-level library instruction, over the years we have become aware of some gaps in students’ understanding of certain “hidden curriculum” skills. First introduced in the 1960’s, “the term hidden curriculum refers to attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge that are covertly or unintentionally learned through the schooling process” (Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice, 2014). We have found that many students have never encountered an academic article prior to coming to college, and lack the “hidden curriculum” skills to properly read and understand these types of articles. Our goal, in collaboration with the Student Success Center, was to more explicitly teach these skills to students. If students cannot read and understand the structure of an academic article, they will be locked out of the skills they need to begin to understand information literacy skills and dispositions. Being able to read a scholarly article is a prerequisite to becoming information literate.
This presentation will discuss the partnership between the University Libraries and the Coastal Carolina University’s Student Success Center (CSSC) that has developed over the past several years. CSSC supports multiple student success programs, which provide comprehensive academic support to students who were conditionally admitted. The University Libraries has begun partnering with the CSSC to offer library instruction and support to students in these programs as they visit the library three times in their first semester, setting them up for success in their time at Coastal Carolina University.
This instruction is offered when many students begin to work on final papers for their first-year English courses. Students learn how to read a scholarly article and can practice using an article from another class. Since most of these students receive research-focused library instruction in their English class, the session on reading scholarly articles helps students understand and decode a resource type that is likely novel to them. By spending explicit instruction time on teaching students to understand and analyze an academic article, we introduce elements of the framework while explaining the information product that they will most often use for research.
