Relationships between characteristics of teachers and teachers' assessments of sources of information

The Researchers' primary purpose was to explore relationships between (a) urban area secondary school teachers' assessments of thirty three sources of information apt to influence their practice and (b) specific characteristics of these teachers. A sample of 245 teachers, or 61% of the set contacted, participated. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of data offered by the respondents were carried out. Both predictable and perplexing outcomes of the data analyses were documented. The Researchers concluded: a) That demographic profiles of teachers can be discerned which are related to assessments of various information sources; and b) that teachers' needs for information can be linked to preferred sources of information. They were unable to explain why variables like years of teaching experience, sex, and age were related significantly to teachers' assessments of sources of information.