Physics teachers in high schools and elsewhere have a wide range of specialization and teaching experiences. A recent survey found seventy-five percent of physics teachers do not earn their degrees in physics. Physics InfoMall, a resource on CD-ROM was developed to provide these teachers and other physics educators access to a wide variety of teaching materials. Along with a search engine, Physics InfoMall included materials such as textbooks, reference books, laboratory and demonstration books and activities, indexes and selected articles to physics education journals, pamphlets and other documents related to teaching. Field test versions of the Physics InfoMall were distributed to teachers around the country and feedback on the use of the Physics InfoMall for lesson planning was collected over a period of a year.

This study investigated how teachers with different specialization and experiences used the Physics InfoMall. Specifically, this study probed into teachers' choice of lesson components, stores entered, query modes and information seeking categories when preparing lesson plans. Overall, demonstrations, laboratories, lectures, and teacher background readings were the primary lesson components chosen and these choices were highly reflected in the stores teachers entered for shopping. Additionally, teachers queried for information using Boolean searching but failed to refine their searches by searching in selected fields of documents.

Comparisons were made between crossover teachers (little or no physics background) and prepared teachers (significant physics background), between teachers with different teaching experiences and between crossover and prepared teachers with similar teaching experiences. Differences were tested for statistical significance using z-test for proportion, ANOVA, Chi Square and t-test for independent samples. Crossover teachers queried materials for lecture more than prepared teachers but no differences were observed in their query modes. On average, crossover teachers chose more lesson components and spent more time than prepared teachers for each observation they did. Teaching experiences were found to have no influence on choice of lesson components, stores entered, query modes and information seeking categories. However, comparisons between crossover and prepared teachers with similar teaching experiences revealed a number of variables showing significant differences.

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