A study about information seeking of teacher students

The main purpose of this Master’s thesis is to contribute to anincreased understanding of student teacher’s informationseeking for their studies. The role of cognitive authorities andapproaches to the critical evaluation of sources are taken intoaccount as well as what student experiences of informationseeking imply for their future profession. The study takes asociocultural perspective and the empirical material is based oninterviews with six student teachers at the end of theireducation. The interviews have been analysed with a departurepoint in the research questions to the following themes; seekingand finding information, critical evaluation of sources and,analysing and using information.The major findings concern the teacher students’ emphasis onthe importance of the critical evaluation of sources and theirscepticism towards Internet use, both for their own studies aswell as for their future pupils. The student teachers expressedawareness of cognitive authorities when seeking information informal printed sources, but they were not fully aware of the roleof teachers and supervisors as cognitive authorities. Several ofthe informants expressed a need for teaching methods related toinformation seeking.Program: Bibliotekari