Abstract
The WebQuest is a student-centered, inquiry-oriented and project-based approach for teaching and learning that students use Web resources to learn school topics. This article reports on the design, implementation and evaluation of a WebQuest teaching approach for chemistry classroom teaching in improving the critical thinking of high school students. A pre- and post-test design was used where 4-month long-term WebQuest teaching approach with five chemical topics was offered to 50 high school students aged ranged from 16 to 17 years in Xidian Middle School attached to Xidian University in Shaanxi province of China. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) were employed as data collection tools. Both CCTDI and CCTST scores of the participants showed significant differences (p < 0.05) between before and after WebQuest learning. The subscale scores of CCTDI showed significant differences in all aspects of dispositions toward critical thinking except open-mindedness and maturity. For CCTST subscales, the scores showed significant differences in analysis and evaluation but in inference. These findings add to the evidence that integrating Webquest into science classroom teaching might be an effective way to develop high school students’ critical thinking.
Highlights
What Is a WebQuest?Classrooms have been provided with increasingly easier access to the Internet and teachers are challenged to create meaningful Web-based learning activities
The purpose of our study was to assess whether WebQuests in chemistry classroom teaching can improve the students’ critical thinking
A pre- and post-test experiment design was used to assess the effects of WebQuest learning in chemistry topics on high school students critical thinking dispositions and skills
Summary
Classrooms have been provided with increasingly easier access to the Internet and teachers are challenged to create meaningful Web-based learning activities. Exposure to current, authentic information uniquely available through Web sites can provide students with environments that support inquiry-based and constructivist learning (Oliver, 2000), improve student test performance, and develop broader forms of social, cultural, and intellectual capacity (Guile, 1998). The WebQuest is a computer-based teaching and learning approach in which learners are actively involved in an activity or situation and use the Internet as a resource. This approach has students seek out information about a topic using Webbased resources. Lamb and Teclehaimanot (2004) claimed that WebQuest is a student-centered and project-based approach for teaching and learning, which was rationally supported by a variety of theories, such as constructivist philosophy, critical and creative thinking, situated learning environments, cooperative learning, and engaged learning
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