Teachers are the key to an inclusive and quality education for all. Therefore, the training of teachers and teacher students and understanding how they learn is crucial. This also applies to information-seeking behaviours as part of learning. This systematic literature review explores the observed research gap regarding teacher students’ information-seeking behaviours. Of specific interest is information-seeking affective behaviours and the research practice context. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guided the review process. Searches were conducted in three key research databases and resulted in 1006 references. Abstracts and titles were screened and assessed using Rayyan. After screening, 58 publications were chosen for the qualitative synthesis, of which 39 used only or partly quantitative methods and thereby of interest for the review. The results were then analysed through thematic analysis. The results revealed a research gap regarding quantitative and mixed methods studies of non-normative and qualitative features of teacher students’ information-seeking behaviours, especially affective behaviours and in research practices. This is the first systematic review of teacher students’ information-seeking behaviours. Thus, a valuable contribution to information-seeking behaviour and information literacy research has been provided.

Given the limited body of literature on information-seeking emotions in library and information science research in general and relative to appraisal theories in an educational context, the findings of this paper will make a valuable conceptual and theoretical contribution to the field. The paper explores a proposed appraisal theory framework for understanding the information-seeking emotions of higher education students in learning and achieving information-seeking skills. Studying this process is crucial for academic success and future research-informed practice. The relevance of applying the framework, Scherer's (2005) semantic space of emotions and Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, is presented, elucidated and discussed. Concepts, elements, structure and dynamics of the theories are presented. The framework offers an understanding and explanation of the nature of information-seeking emotions and their interplay with cognitive appraisals in the complex constructivist learning process of achieving information-seeking skills. Viewed together, the framework has the potential to be an appropriate analytical tool to investigate information-seeking emotions in the process of learning and achieving information-seeking skills.

Teachers are the key to an inclusive and quality education for all. Therefore, training teachers and teacher students and understanding how they learn, including information-seeking behaviours, is crucial. This systematic literature review explores the observed research gap regarding teacher students’ affective information-seeking behaviours. Of specific interest are the research practice context. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guided the review process. Searches were conducted in three key research databases and resulted in 1006 references. Abstracts and titles were screened and assessed using Rayyan software. After screening, 56 publications were chosen for the qualitative synthesis; 17 used qualitative methods and were thereby of interest for the review. The high number of publications resulted in a need to divide the review into two studies. The first part focused on quantitative and mixed methods studies. The results were then analysed through thematic analysis. The results revealed a research gap regarding qualitative methods studies of non-normative and qualitative features of teacher students’ information-seeking behaviours, especially affective behaviours and in research practices. This is the first systematic review of teacher students’ information-seeking behaviours using thematic analysis. Thus, a valuable contribution to information-seeking behaviour and information literacy research has been provided.