Information needs of teachers teaching General Paper in a Junior College.

• Main Author: Siew, Pui Yeok.
• Other Authors: Shaheen Majid
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: DRNTU::Library and information science::Libraries::Information services and centres
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/14253
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

General Paper (GP) is a GCE ‘A’ level subject which explores diverse themes ranging from the humanities and culture, to science and technology. GP teachers need to draw the content from various current information sources in order to bring their students up-to-date and to raise their awareness on national as well as global issues. This study investigates the information needs and information seeking behaviour of teachers teaching GP in a Junior College so as to develop information products and services to support them in their quest for relevant teaching resources. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the information needs and information seeking behaviour of GP teachers were determined through a questionnaire survey and focus group discussion. The results showed that GP teachers favour information sources that were easily accessible, up-to-date and able to generate discussion/debate. Hence, newspaper articles, articles from current affairs magazines and news websites were their preferred information sources. In the second phase of the study, eight GP teachers used the resource package put together by the researcher and their feedback was obtained through a second questionnaire survey. Seventy-five percent of the respondents indicated that the resource package was able to meet their information needs and helped to save time when sourcing for teaching resources. The participating teachers were, however, very concerned about the continuing effort that is needed to maintain and update the resource package. This study put forth a framework showcasing the viable partnership between the information professional and GP teachers to produce relevant, ready to use and up-to-date resource packages. This framework could be extended to other departments and schools.