English abstract
The attitudes study is highly important to educational institutions. It helps to determine the student's behavior and interaction with peers, understand different issues around him/her explain taking the appropriate behavior and the ability to make decisions in different situations. The study aimed to identify the students' attitudes towards information studies major, to identify the factors affecting the student's choice of major, and to identify the role of faculty members in the formation of students' attitudes towards majors from the point of view of the students themselves. The study relied on mixed methods approach that combines the quantitative and qualitative methods. The data were collected on two main phases. The quantitative method in which a questionnaire was used as a tool to collect data from the study population in the first phase. The questionnaire consisted of 57 items distributed on 6 axes which represent variables of the study (study information studies major, the role and importance of major in public life and society, faculty members in the department and their competence, degree plan for information studies major, factors influencing the students' choice of information studies major, and the role of faculty members in the formation of students' attitudes toward major). The questionnaire was distributed to 232 information studies students in different years of study from 2011 batch to 2015 batch and 200 questionnaires were returned. A total of 164 questionnaires were analyzed (71%) and 36 incomplete questionnaires were excluded from the study. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS) was used to analyze the data. While the second phase consisted of collecting qualitative data. Focus groups were used as a complementary tool for the questionnaire in order to get deep analysis of the study and increase the credibility of the results and to interpret the ambiguous and incomplete data. Thematic Analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.
The most important results of the study were as follows:
1. The study revealed that students had high and positive attitudes towards study
majoring in information studies. The axis of majoring in information studies received the highest degree of approval and the mean of axis phrases was between
3.37 to 3.97. 2. The results of quantitative and qualitative study related to faculty in the
department and their competence showed a general positive attitude among students which indicates faculty efficient performance and active role in preparing and re-qualifying students,
3. The results showed statistical significant differences at level @=0.05 on study year
of student's attitudes towards major axis and in favor of fifth and fourth study year.
4. According to the quantitative and qualitative study sample, the most influential
factor in their choice of information studies major is that students believe they have completed the most relevant major compared to other majors. This is due to a variety of reasons, including the technical nature of the major and the overlap with other major. The study proposed a number of recommendations including identifying the problems that face students after their choice of major and work on resolving them through dialogue with the students; and asking students about their views on the major and the challenges they face. It also recommends to communicate with educational institutions in order to contribute to the delivery of a positive message to students at school about the major and the importance of libraries. It is also important to consider restructuring some courses and emphasizing the introduction of new courses which are more closely related to professional life through correlation studies between the major in information studies department at the University of Sultan Qaboos and the Omani labor market needs
