Sustainability on earth WebQuests as problem-solving activities: can physical sciences teachers rely on them?

Abstract

WebQuests are problem-solving activities that are supposed to be addressed by dealing with information that is available mainly on the internet. WebQuests integrate problem-solving challenges with ICT students‘ motivating power and they may be more useful learning tools than the usual free internet-based Problem-Based Learning settings. However, the educational value of WebQuests depends heavily on the type of task they include. This paper aims at analysing the problem-solving potential of 16 WebQuests, available from schools and universities sites, focusing on Sustainability on Earth. Results indicate that WebQuests differ with regard to the issues addressed in the analysis. Most of them tend to focus on science content and have very low cognitive and creativity demands. The results suggest that science teachers should not rely on the available WebQuests, but rather they should be able to analyse them critically in order to select those that better fit the problem-solving purpose of a WebQuest.