High-School Learners’ Environmental Preferences, Personal Beliefs and Concept Achievements in the Web-based Context

Abstract

This study investigated high-school students’ preferences about the web-based learning environments, personal beliefs concerning epistemology and learning in the web-based context, and the effects of above variables on web-based concept learning. One hundred 11th graders participated in the study. For data collection, three questionnaires were used to detect the personal preferences and beliefs, and the flow-map technique was conducted to assess concept achievements. The descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation and regression analyses were employed to present overall trends of and interactions between variables. Result showed that students of the study had a moderate preference toward the explorative web-based learning environment and their belief in the positive learning consequences were only fair. In addition, participants displayed a dynamic form of personal epistemology. As for concept learning, the surface process was evident. It was found that the preference toward instructional configuration and the simple form of personal epistemology predicted the concept achievements.