Let’s Get Moving!: Eight Ways to Teach Information Literacy Using Kinesthetic Activities

Abstract

Kinesthetic pedagogy uses physical movement to stimulate learning; recent studies in higher education increasingly reveal the effectiveness of kinesthetic activities (KAs) in college teaching. Accordingly, this paper suggests that academic librarians explore the use of kinesthetic activities in their instruction. Librarians have designed many excellent classroom activities based on other active learning pedagogies that happen to provide opportunities for some student movement. However, few librarians have intentionally incorporated KAs into their instructional design or contextualized their efforts within kinesthetic pedagogy. Nevertheless, some existing teaching methodologies discussed in library literature can offer a starting point for kinesthetic-conscious information literacy (IL) teachers. This article presents librarians with a menu of effective, evidence-based library activities documented in the literature along with practical advice from our trial-and-error experiences to enhance the kinesthetic benefits of these activities and manage student movement in the classroom.