Winging It

With the increasing pressure from accrediting bodies and now the federal government to focus on measuring student learning it is becoming more important for instruction librarians to perhaps reconsider their teaching models.

Is a librarian's ability to "wing" an instruction session a detriment to student learning? I'm a strong believer in establishing learning objectives before teaching anything, but I admit to winging instruction sessions that I'm familiar with. A librarian may choose to go unprepared for numerous reasons. He may feel he's too busy to prepare. He may feel he's doing himself and the students a favor by maintaining the ability stay on his toes.

This instructional flexibility is especially important when an attentive/interested faculty member attends the session. Many times a faculty member with good questions/intentions completely side tracks an instruction session.