Internet-specific epistemological beliefs and online information searching strategies of pre-service teachers: gender and department differences

Year 2016, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 63 - 80, 01.08.2016

F. Gizem Karaoğlu Yılmaz , Ebru Kılıç Çakmak

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.16.10.3.2

Cited By: 9

Abstract

With
the wide use of internet, internet has become the easy and fast way of
accessing information and one of the main sources used to access information.
Especially with the spread of the use of Web 2.0 technologies, many internet
users are now able to add/edit content on internet, shape it in a collaborative
way on social environments and easily share it. Therefore, it is believed that
there has been changes in the epistemological beliefs of internet users towards
internet as a source of information. The purpose of this study is to examine
internet-specific epistemological beliefs of pre-service teachers in terms of
gender and department they study; and to reveal the impact internet-specific
epistemological beliefs on online information searching strategies. The study
group includes 203 pre-service teachers. For the collection of the data,
personal information form, internet-specific epistemological beliefs and online
information searching strategies inventory were used. The results of the study
revealed that internet-specific epistemological beliefs did not change based on
gender; yet there was a statistically significant difference based on
department pre-service teachers study. In addition, it was also found that
internet-specific epistemological beliefs did not have a significant impact on
information searching strategies. And depending on the findings of the study,
what could be done in the process of using internet-based information sources
in education and teacher training programs were discussed and suggestions were
made.

Keywords

Pre-service teachers, Internet-specific epistemological beliefs, Online information searching strategies, Gender, Department

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