School:St Francis de Sales
Year Level: 7/8
Teacher: Louise & Denise
Focus area: Managing Self
Research Questions
Question 1. Implementation: How do you implement a senior webquest?
(A webquest is a research tool which has relevant links to safe sites to assist children in their search for information.)
Question 2. Engagement: Does a webquest provide all students with motivation to focus on their inquiry.
Question 3. Knowledge: To develop an understanding of the impact NZ natural disasters have had on people, communities and landscapes.
Success Criteria for Knowledge
Expert: Can independently use their knowledge to plan, create and generate a new learning experience .
Practitioner: Is aware of a range of NZ Disasters and
uses this knowledge in another context .
Apprentice: Can explain to others the effect a disaster has had on people, communities or landscapes.
Novice: Retrieves and reports information orally
Question 4. Competency: To be able to navigate a webquest effectively in order to interpret and present research results
Success Criteria for Competency
Expert:
Can independently create and explain their own webquest
Practitioner:
Uses knowledge of webquest navigating in another context
Apprentice: With support can complete a webquest task
Novice: Select relevant links for research
Learning Story:
Focus area: Managing Self
Research Questions
Question 1. Implementation: How do you implement a senior webquest?
(A webquest is a research tool which has relevant links to safe sites to assist children in their search for information.)
Question 2. Engagement: Does a webquest provide all students with motivation to focus on their inquiry.
Question 3. Knowledge: To develop an understanding of the impact NZ natural disasters have had on people, communities and landscapes.
Success Criteria for Knowledge
Expert: Can independently use their knowledge to plan, create and generate a new learning experience .
Practitioner: Is aware of a range of NZ Disasters and
uses this knowledge in another context .
Apprentice: Can explain to others the effect a disaster has had on people, communities or landscapes.
Novice: Retrieves and reports information orally
Question 4. Competency: To be able to navigate a webquest effectively in order to interpret and present research results
Success Criteria for Competency
Expert:
Can independently create and explain their own webquest
Practitioner:
Uses knowledge of webquest navigating in another context
Apprentice: With support can complete a webquest task
Novice: Select relevant links for research
Learning Story:
Implementation:
We were interested in exploring options that would promote further learning for our senior students when using class sets of laptops, ICT and on line search engines.We decided to design a web quest that which would challenge the way our students usually researched i.e. not to rely on one site such as 'Wikipedia' or on one search engine such as 'Google.’ We were hoping that it would not only provide them with the most informative and direct links to a site but would give them the opportunity to contribute and understand what a web quest was.
Web quest Design:
Our web quest was designed using previous experience. We also sourced materials from the National Library, Christchurch City Libraries and Civil Defence New Zealand. It was important to us that our students had ownership of this web quest so we designed it in such a way that our students could participate and contribute to its effectiveness by adding their own success criteria and choosing their next learning step.
Teaching and Learning:
Children assessed themselves against a knowledge and competency rubric before beginning the web quest. They were then exposed to a variety of texts, video clips and speakers about NZ disasters to provide them with some base knowledge of NZ disasters. This gave them the ability to understand the impact that disasters have on communities and environments.
We then introduced the actual web quest learning and research tool which had been designed using power point. Teachers modelled to students how to navigate their way through the web quest by demonstrating some of the direct links. Other links were left unexplored which gave the students the opportunity to discover what they held without teacher modelling.
The students contributed their own thoughts on what they felt successful measures would be as a final result of their research, investigation and presentation and developed their own success criteria. This success criteria was integrated into the actual web quest design and students were made aware of how important it was to refer back to this during their research. Next, students were given the opportunity to explore and discuss the web quest before beginning their actual disaster inquiry.
Children developed their disaster reports using the links provided in the web quest and any additional resources they located themselves. These were presented to parents and the school community at the conclusion of the investigation.
Students then assessed themselves against the success criteria they had developed in the web quest. This assessment included self, peer, group and teacher feedback. Everyone was required to give specific feedback according to this success criteria and then students reflected on the feedback they had received.
We took this a step further and encouraged students to discuss with a buddy an area that they wanted to improve in their competency when working with a web quest and an area they would like to focus on when writing a report. Together they recorded how they thought they might achieve this.
Finally, students were given time to reflect on their feedback and re assess themselves against their own rubric.
Student Reflection:
We gave all students the opportunity to reflect on the pros and cons of their experiences when using a web quest. We were pleased with the feedback from our students and felt they had enjoyed this learning experience.
· “All the information is ready for you to stop you from using irrelevant info. Good visuals! Didn’t have to spend days researching.”
· “Some of the websites had all of NZ’s disasters and it was faster and easier to source information.”
· “It helped me to see what I had to do for my project.”
· “It helped because it had sites that I could use that gave really good information quicker, faster and had success criteria that we could follow.”
Student engagement:
We found the use of a web quest beneficial and highly motivational for all students. This was reflected not only in the student comments (see above), but in the positive body language that was evident throughout the investigative activity.
We felt there were very high levels of enthusiasm, interest and engagement. It is also clear that knowledge and competency increased considerably as a direct of the students’ engagement with the web quest.
Data Analyses:
Results:
Outcome 1. Engagement:
SCALE: 1 = never, 2 = not very often, 3 = about half the time, 4 = often, 5 = always
Mean level of engagement of students ...
Class One
Offered ideas - 3.4
Asked questions - 2.6
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - 4.0
Used positive body language related to task - 4.8
Persevered in order to enact related task - 4.1
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time -
Showed interest in directing their own learning - 3.3
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - 1.4
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - 4.
Data Analyses:
Results:
Outcome 1. Engagement:
SCALE: 1 = never, 2 = not very often, 3 = about half the time, 4 = often, 5 = always
Mean level of engagement of students ...
Class One
Offered ideas - 3.4
Asked questions - 2.6
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - 4.0
Used positive body language related to task - 4.8
Persevered in order to enact related task - 4.1
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time -
Showed interest in directing their own learning - 3.3
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - 1.4
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - 4.
Overall mean level of engagement of students = 3.8
Class two
Offered ideas - 3.3
Asked questions - 3.3
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - 3.1
Used positive body language related to task - 3.1
Persevered in order to enact related task - 4.0
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time - 3.6
Showed interest in directing their own learning - 3.9
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - 1.8
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - 3.1
Asked questions - 3.3
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - 3.1
Used positive body language related to task - 3.1
Persevered in order to enact related task - 4.0
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time - 3.6
Showed interest in directing their own learning - 3.9
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - 1.8
Showed evidence of using what they have learnt - 3.1
Overall mean level of engagement of students = 3.5
Outcome 2. Knowledge: N/A
Outcome 3. Competency:
Number of students who were ...
Class One:
8. Proficient experts - at start 0; at end 0
7. Beginning experts - at start 0; at end 0
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0; at end 2
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 0; at end 21
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 0; at end 4
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 0; at end 1
2. Proficient novices - at start 1; at end 0
1. Beginning novices - at start 27; at end 0
Competency effect size = 1.85
Standard error = 0.09
Class Two:
7. Beginning experts - at start 0; at end 0
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0; at end 2
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 0; at end 21
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 0; at end 4
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 0; at end 1
2. Proficient novices - at start 1; at end 0
1. Beginning novices - at start 27; at end 0
Competency effect size = 1.85
Standard error = 0.09
Class Two:
8. Proficient experts - at start 0; at end 0
7. Beginning experts - at start 0; at end 1
6. Proficient practitioners - at start 0; at end 9
5. Beginning practitioners - at start 0; at end 17
4. Proficient apprentices - at start 0; at end 2
3. Beginning apprentices - at start 3; at end 1
2. Proficient novices - at start 27; at end 0
1. Beginning novices - at start 0; at end 0
Competency effect size = 1.57
Standard error = 0.07
Conclusions:
Our webquest proved to be a very effective learning tool for year 7 & 8 students. It is clear through the data that the competency of the students increased and engagement was high throughout the webquest. As a different way of challenging and motivating senior students we would definitely recommend giving this a go!
Our webquest proved to be a very effective learning tool for year 7 & 8 students. It is clear through the data that the competency of the students increased and engagement was high throughout the webquest. As a different way of challenging and motivating senior students we would definitely recommend giving this a go!
[outline conclusions to be drawn from the research here]
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