Effectiveness of WebQuest on Higher Order Thinking and Learning Motivation of Elementary School Students

• Main Authors: Mei-Ching Su, 蘇美菁
• Other Authors: Ya-Ting Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77553897236686098748

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 教育研究所 === 94 === 　　The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of WebQuest in promoting the higher order thinking (HOT) and learning motivation of elementary school students. Students’ perceptions of the factors influencing their learning of WebQuest were gathered via a semi-structured interview. The research method was a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design and the participants were 104 sixth-grade students in three classes at the Dong-Guang Elementary School in Tainan. The instructional website was set up by the researcher. The experiment lasted 11 weeks. The independent variable was the instructional strategy, which included three levels – traditional instruction (comparison group), WebQuest with no resources provided (Treatment I), and WebQuest with resources provided (Treatment II). The dependent variables were students’ HOT (including critical thinking skills and problem solving skills) and learning motivation. A variety of measurement instruments with established reliability and validity were used in this study. The results of this study are summarized as follows: 　　1. There were no statistically significant differences among the three treatment conditions in critical thinking skills, which shows that manipulation has no effect on the critical thinking skills of students. 　　2. There were statistically significant differences among the three treatment conditions in problem solving skills. Students who participated in Treatment II performed significantly better than those who participated in the comparison group. In addition, the performance of students in the comparison group was significantly higher than that of the students in Treatment I. This indicated that manipulation did have an effect on problem solving skills. 　　3. There was no significant difference among the three groups in motivation. Besides, there was no statistical significance between the pretest and posttest in the comparison group and in Treatment II. This showed that no change occurred after the instructional manipulation. However, there was negative significance between the pretest and posttest in Treatment I, especially in confidence. This indicated that students who participated in Treatment I had reduced confidence after the instructional manipulation. Because students needed not only to learn how to develop a website but also to search for information by themselves to finish their learning tasks within the limited class time, they may have felt no confidence in accomplishing those tasks. 　　4. The factors affecting WebQuest instructional strategy included the degree of HOT, explicitness of the process, implementation of cooperative learning, learning style, and the description of links of resources. 　　5. Students felt that the advantages of engaging students in WebQuest learning activity included the increase of students’ information literacy, their capability in computer skills, their competency in website searching, their ability to sort data, and their skills in inquiry-based learning. 　　Finally, suggestions for teaching and further research are provided based on the research findings of this study.