Assessment of the quality of information literacy (IL) training among teacher trainees enrolled in selected Northern Malaysian Teacher Education Institutes

Abstract

Our case study examined and assessed the quality and effectiveness of information literacy training employed by teacher trainees in their follow-on research process. A sample of teacher trainees enrolled in selected Malaysian Teacher Education Institutes located in the northern region of Malaysia was surveyed. These Institutes’ mission is to produce trained teachers who will possess a comprehensive and accurate understanding of information literacy core principles and skills, and be able to apply those core principles and skills in their various follow-on research processes. Many recent observers have reported that many, perhaps even most, future Malaysian teachers, enter teaching practice without having adequately learned the necessary core information literacy principles and skills which can then be implicitly employed in their follow-on research processes. The study recommends various reforms which are needed in official Malaysian teacher training policies, programs and curricula, based on the case study’s findings, conclusions and recommendations. An Information Literacy Research Process Model was developed and employed by the authors in this case study, and then used to describe and explain trainee behaviors in searching for, retrieving, organizing, evaluating and applying the obtained information wisely and ethically, using learned information literacy core principles and skills. The researchers studied these behaviors in the context of the Malaysian teacher training curricula which is used by all Malaysian training institutes. A sample of teacher trainees was selected from several of these Institutes located in the northern region of the country. A “mixed methods” design was used for this purpose, consisting of (1) face-to-face interviews and (2) document analysis, in order to perform a sampling of the examined teacher trainees. The case study was strengthened by using two separate phases of data gathering. The study’s findings, conclusions and recommendations will hopefully provide insights to the various Education Ministry stakeholder groups (government policy makers, teachers, parents, school administrators, etc.) so as to enable them to better move forward in terms of defining sharpened, modernized and strengthened teacher training reforms, then applying them, and finally realizing upgraded expected positive outcomes – all within the framework of the overall Malaysian National Information Literacy Agenda.