Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of NCE III Teaching Practice Students in Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoko Lagos State.

Abstract:

This study assessed the information needs and seeking behaviour of NCE III teaching practice students in Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoko Lagos State. It employed the use of descriptive survey research design. The total population for this study is 371, comprising all NCE 3 teaching practice students in Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoko Lagos State in the 2023/2024 academic session, and the total enumeration sampling technique was adopted because of the small population size. A questionnaire was designed and administered to elicit data from the respondents, of which only 312 were completed and found usable, giving a 84% response rate. The simple percentage and frequency counts were used to analyze data generated from their response. The findings suggest that the information needs of NCE 3 teaching practice students are information about their course, teaching practice supervision, evaluation/assessment of students, teaching subject, method of teaching, business/wealth creation and school curriculum, use of teaching aids, current affairs and sport/entertainment. They seek information for the purpose of preparing lesson note, self-development, knowing how to use instructional materials, assessment and evaluation of students, get students information, entertainment/sports, understand different teaching methods/techniques, acquire/improve teaching skills, know the curriculum/syllabus, understand classroom management, and imbibe ethics of teaching profession. It further reveals that the major sources of information consulted by teaching practice students are google/other search engines, students, friends/colleagues and professional teachers. However, it identified erratic power supply, too much information to deal with, lack of time, inadequately stocked library, lack of computer infrastructure, poor internet access, poor internet/search skills, non-availability of student records and limited access to information materials as the challenges faced by teaching practice students when seeking for information. The study recommended that academic/school library should revamp or make available a viable computer infrastructure with access to the internet for users to easily access information relevant to their field.