Exploring Taiwanese Preschool Teachers’ Information Literacy and Searching Behavior in Relation to Internet Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This paper explores the skills experience and confidence of preschool teachers’ engagement with web-based tools in support of learning and teaching. A sample of 287 early-years teachers were examined through path analysis. The results indicated that preschool teachers’ Internet self-efficacy (ISE) acts as an important mediator between information literacy standard and searching behavior. In addition, the path analysis revealed that pre-school teachers’ authority, multiple and content of information literacy standards are the significant positive predictors for the elaboration scale of searching behavior. That is, preschool teachers with variety information literacy standard and with higher ISE are more likely to express elaboration of searching behavior than those who with lower ISE. The findings of this study also suggest that the government and researchers need to identify effective ways for improving preschool teachers’ abilities to utilize the Internet information and their use of appropriate Internet-based tools.