A Study On Research Learning Activity Based On WebQuest

With the development of information technology, especially the development of internet, remarkable changes have taken place in all the related fields, and therefore the way of life and the way to study, to work and to produce have greatly changed. As a result, the ability to acquire, to analyze, to process and to utilize information becomes the basic requirement for modern talents, and the ability also has played a decisive role in judging whether a learner is highly-qualified or not. In the age of information,"reading, writing, calculating and information"have become the four pillars for the culture foundation. At present, countries across the world are striving to develop IT (information technology) education, so is China. Our country is pushing hard the IT education in both primary and secondary schools. Wide use of modern IT to serve the purpose of teaching reform in primary and secondary schools is greatly encouraged and highly promoted.At the threshold of the new century, when we look back at the traditional model of passive learning, we find that it has its own defects caused by its knowledge acquisition process, though we can not deny its advantages, such as short learning period, smooth learning process and high learning efficiency. So during the first round curriculum reform, great importance was attached to the"research learning". Guidelines in Curriculum Reform of National Basic Education (Pilot) issued by the Ministry of Education (MOE) stipulates clearly that comprehensive practice activities are obligatory subjects in primary and secondary schools. These include IT education, Research Learning, community service and social practice, labor and technique education and etc. All these comprehensive practice activities with research learning included are obligatory subjects for all the primary and secondary students across the country.Nowadays, Internet, with rich information resources and relaxed and equal atmosphere, provides great convenience and support to research learners. Therefore a great many research learning models based on the internet have come into being. Among these models, the WebQuest model put forward by Pro. Bernie Dodge from the Santiago State University has caught much attention from educators. In fact the WebQuest model is the manifestation of Construction Theory in learning on the internet. To put it more clearly, it is a practical process, in which the learners are motivated to solve certain tasks, which requires them to construct, to explore and to research one certain subject or some problem under the guidance of teachers, making full use of the information resources on the internet. Over the past few years, the author has been closely observing the research progress of the WebQuest model. Meanwhile the author has also carried out some exploration on the research learning activity and its effective model in application, trying to test the use of WebQuest models in the research learning activities to enrich students knowledge,enhance their learning ability, cultivate students scientific methods, awareness, effectiveness and so on . By doing this, the author wants to offer her own ideas and measures on the WebQuest model and the Basic Education Reform.First of all this article introduces the present research situation of research learning activity based on WebQuest both at home and abroad through careful study of document archives. Then the author analyses the connotation of the WebQuest model, and the promising effects on the learners brought about by the model, using the Construction Theory and the Multiple Intelligence (MI) Theory as the guidance. Thirdly, the author further explores the connotation, characteristics, theoretical basis, and the influence brought about by learners'values and the whole network environment. Fourthly, the author has conducted a survey among the senior middle school students in Grade One by questionnaire. By doing this, the author get the first hand information on the students'ways of study, sense of cooperation, creative aptitude, understanding of the internet, the ability to acquire and analyze information. And then the writer chooses four cases——"Acid rain","Greenhouse effect", "Protection of the Ozone Layer", and "Chemical and Energy" , and constructs related activities according to the designing ideology of WebQuest model, and does some research about the network to provide a good learning environment for the students who carry out the research learning activities. In the process of...