A Study Of The Influence On Students' Self-efficacy Of WebQuest In Information Technology Instruction Teaching

WebQuest is an internet-based, research-oriented studying activity, in which some or all the information the researcher needs is obtained from internet. Its theoretical basis being constructivist learning theory of cognitive psychology, the core concept being a student-centered active search and construction of knowledge, WebQuest coincides with the concept of the new curricular standard, that is to orient education to all the students, to the exploration of knowledge and to research-oriented study.Self-efficacy, an indispensable aspect of autonomous study, was first suggested in Bandera's Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change in 1977. The current related study has proven that self-efficacy does have an influence on students'activity selection, scholastic emotion and their academic performance. So far, there has not any positivist study on whether WebQuest has an influence on self-efficacy and how to apply self-efficacy theory to WebQuest instruction. This paper brings forth a new idea of improving students'sense of self-efficacy by applying Bandera's self-efficacy theory to WebQuest instruction in information technology class of junior middle school. The author draws up a quantitative table of self-efficacy sense to evaluate the difference in the results measured before and after the application of WebQuest instruction in the experimental class. The table includes 20 questions, concerning students'confidence when they have difficulty in learning information technology (questions 1-5), in completing in-class task (questions 6-9), in group activity (questions 10-11), in work evaluation (questions 12-14), in class self-evaluation (questions 15-17) and in the daily application of information technology (questions 18-20). Taken into consideration the stimulation of students'motivation and observation of common problems, we set the cultural search for Liaozhai Ghost Stories as a case study.The following conclusion are drawn: 1. Students'self-efficacy in work evaluation has improved greatly (questions 12-14). 2. Students'self-efficacy in learning information technology (questions 1-5) and in the daily application of information technology (questions 18-20) has improved. 3. Students'self-efficacy in completing in-class task (questions 6-9), in group activity (questions 10-11) and in class self-evaluation (questions 15-17) remains the same.There is room for improvement in this experimental study. The inadequacies are as follows: 1. It remains in the stage of case design, pending being reorganized and promoted to an applicable teaching pattern. 2. Teacher's self-efficacy and school collective efficacy are not fused into WebQuest teaching. 3. The reliability and credibility of the quantitative table of self-efficacy are not strictly verified. 4. It applies only to information technology instruction, without extending to other subjects.