According to Jonassen et al. (2003), when learning about things in natural contexts, human beings interact with the environment and manipulate the objects in that environment, observing the effects of their interventions and constructing their own interpretation of the phenomena and the results of the manipulation (see Figure 1). Constructivists believe that to acquire meaningful learning, learners need to actively engage in meaningful tasks, and while they are engaged, they will manipulate the tasks, including the object and parameters of the tasks and observe the result of the manipulation. Activity is important, but not enough by itself for meaningful learning. WebQuest also supports the notion of engaging learners actively though its critical attributes and motivational elements (Dodge, 1995).
Figure 1. Five attributes of meaningful learning.
Source. Jonassen et al. (2003)
The second attribute of meaningful learning is constructive, which is articulative and reflective. When learners experience something new, they find a discrepancy or a gap between the new observation and existing knowledge that can make them curious or puzzled about the new observation. Jonassen et al. (2003) found that puzzlement is the catalyst for meaning making. By reflecting on the puzzling experience, learners integrate their new experience with their prior knowledge about the world, or they establish goals regarding what they need to learn to make sense of what they observe. Learners begin constructing their own simple mental models to explain their worlds, and with experience, support, and more reflection, their mental models become increasingly complex. The active and constructive attributes of meaningful learning processes are symbiotic because they depend on the other to make the meaning. WebQuest uses open-ended questions to “activate learners’ prior knowledge and create a personal curiosity that inspires investigation and brings about a more robust understanding of the material” (March, 2003, p. 4).
The third attribute is intentional, meaning that behavior is usually goal oriented and that people intend to reach a goal that can be simple or complex. Driving a car to get to the office is an example of a simple goal, whereas studying for a doctorate is considered a complex goal. “When learners are actively and willfully trying to achieve a cognitive goal, they think and learn more because they are fulfilling an intention” (Jonassen et al., 2003, p. 8). WebQuest supports goal-oriented activity by guiding learners though five critical constructs: introduction, task, process, resources, and evaluation are the critical constructs of a WebQuest. Johnson and Zufall (2004) found that the introduction prepares and captures the interest of the students, creates the learning situation, and engages the students through a compelling and relevant question or problem. The task describes the learning activities and explains what students have to do. The process describes how the task needs to be accomplished, which includes the steps and tools. The resources provide relevant links to Web sites that help to accomplish the task, and the evaluation provides the criteria and the standards that students have to meet and demonstrate.
The fourth attribute is authentic, which can be complex and contextualized. Constructivists believe that teachers should not oversimplify or remove ideas from original context, that is, they should not strip and distill ideas to their simplest forms so that students can learn quickly. Teaching or leaning such types of knowledge would be far from reality. It is important to make a connection between how the learners acquire knowledge in the classroom and how they relate that knowledge to real-world settings. Jonassen et al. (2003) commented:
Learning tasks that are situated in some meaningful real-world task or simulated in some case-based or problem based learning environment are not only better understood, but also are more consistently transferred to new situations. Rather than abstracting ideas in rules that are memorized and then applied to the canned problems, we need to teach knowledge and skills in real-life, useful context and provide new and different context for learners to practice using those ideas. And we need to engage students in solving complex and ill-structured problems as well as simple, well structured problems. (p. 8)WebQuests also support authentic learning. March (2005) explained that WebQuests support scaffolded learning, use Internet resources, and support authentic tasks. According to March, WebQuests are not a tool to develop technology-enhanced products by students; rather, a real WebQuest should help students to acquire knowledge through transformative learning and authentic learning. The final attribute of this learning theory is cooperative, which can also be collaborative and conversational. In the real world, people help each other to solve problems and perform tasks. In the academic environment, learning cannot always be effective as an independent process. According to Jonassen et al. (2003), “Good WebQuests incorporate cooperative learning, consider of multiple perspectives, analysis and synthesis of information, and creation of original products that demonstrate knowledge gained” (p. 47). WebQuest uses Internet resources, scaffolded learning, and authentic tasks to motivate students to investigate an open-ended question, develop individual expertise, and work in a group environment. The cooperative aspect of most WebQuests requires students to work as collaborators in presenting the information that they find and defending its value. As team members, they learn the benefit of pooling individual efforts and reaching a consensus. As producers, they are reflective in considering their goals and the audience for whom they are designing the WebQuest, an experience that makes them the developers as well as the consumers of instructional material. (Jonassen et al., 2003)
Constructivist theorists believe that collaborative learning activities need to be included in the classroom. Conversation among the learners is an important attribute in the collaborative learning process. Jonassen et al. (2003) found that “learners working in groups must socially negotiate a common understanding of the task and the methods they will use to accomplish it. That is, given a problem or task, people naturally seek out opinions and ideas from others” (p. 9). ICT can be used to support the attributes of meaningful learning. Technologies such as simulators and IMM applications can support active learning by allowing learners to manipulate the objective and parameters of the task and observe the results; Internet and communication technologies can be used to connect people across the globe to facilitate the conversational process and create a collaborative learning environment; ICT can be used to support role-play simulation and allow students to have access in real-world settings to support authentic learning; ICT can also be used for knowledge hunting, time management, data collection, and evaluation to support intentional and constructive learning. According to Jonassen et al. (2003), “Learning and instructional activities should engage and support combinations of active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative learning” (p. 9). They also believed that all five attributes of meaningful learning are “synergic” because “learning activities that represent a combination of these characteristics result in even more meaningful learning than the individual characteristics would in isolation” (p. 9).
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