Primary School Teachers’ Information Literacy Skills and Attitudes Towards Evidence-Based Teaching

Abstract

Primary school teachers in Spain are required by law to implement Evidence-based Teaching (EBT) to keep their practice updated. To successfully put evidence into practice, teachers should be information literate and have positive attitudes towards evidence-based teaching practice. This study explored Spanish primary school teachers’ (N=120) information literacy skills and attitudes towards EBT in relation to their intention to use research evidence in schools with a survey. We also explored whether information literacy skills or attitudes were the strongest predictor of teachers’ intentions to implement EBT. The correlation analyses revealed that both variables do not relate to the teachers’ intention to use evidence in their practice. The multiple regression analysis model, including research attitudes and information literacy skills, did not improve the ability to predict the outcome variable. However, the simple regression analysis resulted in information literacy skills as a negative predictor of the intention to use EBT. To explain the results, contextual factors should be studied, since they might have a stronger influence than individual factors. This study is one of the first studies to explore research attitudes and information literacy skills in primary school teachers and supports professional development efforts to enhance primary school teachers’ evidence-based practices.