Abstract
With the ever-growing pervasiveness of the Internet, teachers’ use of Web-based resources is increasing. Although much is now known about undergraduate students’ search behaviors for Web-based resources, little research has focused on search behaviors of pre-service educators. This study examined the Web searching strategies of pre-service teachers when searching for online science resources and examined the factors that influenced resource selection. Pre-service teacher search behaviors were found to be generally inefficient and lacking in complexity. Furthermore, an analysis of the participant selected resources showed that pre-service teachers preferred resources that were highly modifiable, despite the limited availability of such resources online. Suggestions for improving the design and organization of online educational resources and pre-service teacher search skills are discussed.
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This study was funded by the University of Alberta Roger S. Smith Undergraduate Researcher Award and a University of Alberta Support for the Advancement of Scholarship (SAS) Grant.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (University of Alberta Research Ethics, ID #Pro00025609) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Burron, G., Pegg, J. Elementary Pre-service Teachers’ Search, Evaluation, and Selection of Online Science Education Resources. J Sci Educ Technol 30, 471–483 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09891-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09891-z