Accidental Information Discovery

Chapter 3

Teaching Serendipity

P.M. Ryder¹ and J. Nutefall²,    ¹George Washington University, Washington D.C., CA, United States,    ²Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, United States

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 ...