Teaching Serendipity

Creator

Jennifer Nutefall, University of Northern ColoradoFollow
Phyllis Mentzell Ryder

Date Created

6-14-2016

Abstract

Faculty and librarians can collaborate to create academic learning environments where serendipity is more likely to happen and where students see possibilities in the chance encounters that they have. Teaching serendipity includes designing research courses that provide students with disciplinary frameworks through which to recognize, activate, and manage the layers of inquiry. A pedagogy that "courts serendipity" makes room for chance and shows students how to capitalize on the possibility of chaos. In addition, faculty and librarians are called on to talk about research as part of a larger conversation, and a recursive, process, rather than a step-wise march to completion. Teaching serendipity can be incorporated through multiple ways-of-doing within academic situations: those that call for empirical inquiry, problem-solving, and research from sources.

Publication Title

Accidental Information Discovery: Cultivating Serendipity in the Digital Age

Document Type

Book Chapter

First Page

27

Last Page

51

Digital Origin

Born digital

Publisher

Chandos Publishing/Elsevier

Recommended Citation

Nutefall, Jennifer and Ryder, Phyllis Mentzell, "Teaching Serendipity" (2016). University Libraries Publications. 109.
https://digscholarship.unco.edu/libfacpub/109