The “I’m Feeling Lucky Syndrome”: Teacher-Candidates’ Knowledge of Web Searching Strategies

Abstract

The need for web literacy has become increasingly important with theexponential growth of learning materials on the web that are freely accessibleto educators. Teachers need the skills to locate these tools and also theability to teach their students web search strategies and evaluation ofwebsites so they can effectively explore the web by themselves. This studyexamined the web searching strategies of 253 teachers-in-training using botha survey (247 participants) and live screen capture with think-aloud audiorecording (6 participants). The results present a picture of the strategic,syntactic, and evaluative search abilities of these students that librarians andfaculty can use to plan how instruction can target information skill deficits inuniversity student populations.