Information Literacy Follow-Through: Enhancing Pre-Service Teachers' Information Evaluation Skills Through Formative Assessment

An investigation into pre-service teachers' information evaluation skills at a large university suggests that formative assessment can improve student performance. Pre-service teachers were asked to apply information evaluation skills in the areas of currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy and purpose. The authors compared the pre-service teachers’ and researchers’ evaluations and used Perreault and Leigh’s Index of Reliability to analyze final projects from two semesters. When asked to evaluate the sources cited in a final project for an Education methods course, pre-service teachers who received formative feedback from librarians improved in most information evaluation areas. Formative assessment is explored as a tool for improving information literacy instruction.