Using WebQuest as a teaching approach in physical education

In my last role in a secondary school, I had responsibility in my deputy principal position for the in-house teacher professional development that occurred twice a term as part of the teacher meeting program, as well as at two full day teacher PDs during the year. For a time, the PD was supported by Australian Government Quality Teacher Program (AGQTP) funding, which provided the means to also buy-in temp teachers to release our teachers for additional curriculum development work arising from the PD. This enabled teachers to implement, monitor and evaluate their curriculum innovations. Essentially, we were able to provide a form of teacher self-study. Our school AGQTP cluster focus was technology assisted learning. An innovation at that time was WebQuests. I first wrote about how to use a WebQuest in PE in the ACHPER(SA) 2005 publication: Pick Up and Run Volume 3: Even More ideas for Health and Physical Education. I think WebQuests continue to have utility in powering up student learning in physical education through directed learning that can complement, enrich or extend what is happening in class.

If you are not familiar with the pedagogy of a WebQuest, these are the elements:

1.      Introduction: Provide a real-world problem/scenario that has relevance to the student learning outcome/student achievement standard for the Year (Grade) Level. (E.g., "You are the skill acquisition consultant advising your physical education class volleyball unit of work” – connects with AC: HPE student achievement standard element: Students evaluate and refine their own and others’ movement skills and performances).

2.      Task: Provide a clear, achievable goal, often involving a defined role and collaborative problem-solving (E.g., "Using video analysis provide performance improvement advice to a player in your class-team”).

3.      Template: Provide a template for the final product that is being used to enable the student to demonstrate their learning.

4.      Process: Detail step-by-step instructions, and in the case of a group task, explain specific role responsibilities.

5.      Resources: Provide the links to teacher pre-selected, reliable websites, videos, or databases for focused research that support the student to be able to complete the task. Students use the links to learn about the task and how to complete the task, completing teacher pre-prepared task sheets or quizzes to scaffold their learning.

6.      Evaluation: Provide the rubric or criteria list for assessing the final product (E.g., a report, presentation, etc).

Noticeable from the WebQuest description is that the teaching of the content needed to meet the task requirements is not by the common teacher demonstrate-explain-student then practice and complete (DEP) pedagogy that is mainly Style A-Command and Style B-Practice. I reckon, as an inquiry-oriented digital activity where students use internet resources to develop the skills, knowledge and understanding to solve a problem, the WebQuest 6-steps above fits the description of Style K-Convergent Discovery.

Research by Bloom and replicated by others (Bloom, 1984) showed that an ‘average’ student under personal tutoring was about two standard deviations above the average student of the control class taught conventionally. This suggests the provision of personalised instruction provides the potential for accelerated learning. In the absence of a tutor for every student in a physical education class, perhaps the pedagogy of a WebQuest can provide the personalised instruction in the sense that the student can work through the learning progression without having to wait for the timing and pacing of the teacher instruction to progress. Using a Webquest, the teacher moves from instructor (demonstrate-explain-practice pedagogy) and facilitator (use of questioning techniques) the role of knowledge navigator (Candy, 2000). I find this metaphor from Ellyard a useful way of thinking about the pedagogical shift.

“A sailboat may rely on the tide or current to carry it to its destination or, sailing into the wind, use the wind to steer its course in a desired direction.” (Ellyard, 2001)

The Sport Education model is well suited to embedding a WebQuest for education about sport in secondary school physical education. Here is an example of a task for a Year 10 SEM unit of work that incorporates a WebQuest to scaffold the education about sport to complement the education in sport (game development) and through sport (the personal and social responsibility learning) associated with the three pillars of the Sport Education model: competent, literate and enthusiastic participants.

 

Year 10 PE: "The Ultimate League" WebQuest

Student achievement standard element: Apply and evaluate approaches to collaboration and ethical behaviours across a range of movement contexts.

1. The Scenario (Introduction)

Your team has been granted a franchise in the newly formed [insert name of school] Ultimate League in [insert game/sport]. However, the league board requires a "Club Prospectus" before you are given entry to the competition. Your team must work together to build the club’s identity, strategy, and statistical tracking systems.

2. The Task

As a team (group of 5–6), you will develop a digital Club Prospectus outlining your sport literacy: that is, your functional use of sport knowledge.

3. The Roles (Process)

Each student must choose a specialist role. The WebQuest will provide specific links and resources for each:

Role	Responsibility	WebQuest Resource Provided
Head Coach	Develop a "Playbook" to develop with the team 3 offensive and 2 defensive set plays.	E.g. Tactical whiteboard tools, online coaching resources and YouTube coaching clinics.
Statisticians	Design a digital spreadsheet to track "Season Leaders" (not just goals scored in games, but also assists, intercepts, and demonstration of ‘club values’, etc.).	E.g. Google Sheets templates, online readings such as sports analytics blogs.
Media Officer	Create a "Season Launch" video or digital poster and write a match report each week.	E.g. Canva for Education and online media examples
Officiating Lead	Create a "Fair Play" charter and a simplified rule sheet for the class.	Official NSO (National Sporting Organisation) examples.

 

4. Assessment Criteria

In this unit, you are assessed on three distinct "Competencies":

• Competence (The Player): Demonstrated ability to execute tactics during the "Formal Competition" component of the season.
• Literacy: The quality of the Club Prospectus.
• Enthusiasm: Peer and teacher evaluation of your contribution to the "Affiliation" (team culture) in pre-season development of the Prospectus, in-season contribution to the team and the league, and "Festivity" (celebrating the sport).

*These competencies will be discussed and explained in class and illustrated by a detailed rubric which scaffolds the level of competency achievement.

5. WebQuest Structure (The "Steps")

1. Step 1: The Draft. Grouping and role selection.
2. Step 2: Pre-Season Research. Use the provided links to research your role's specific output.
3. Step 3: The Build. Collaborative creation of the Prospectus (hosted on a site like Google Sites or a shared Canva folder).
4. Step 4: The Season. Accepted into the competition, execution of the season where roles are performed.
5. Step 5: The Grand Final & Awards. A culminating event where the Media Officer presents the season highlights.

If you haven't incorporated a WebQuest into your teaching before and you give it a go after reading this post, please message me and let me know how you went with it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this post. If you would like to connect with me about a project to do with this blog or any of the other ideas that I have blogged about, you can contact me by the email link available here

References

ACHPER(SA) Ed. (2005). Pick Up and Run Volume 3: Even More ideas for Health and Physical Education. Author.

Bloom, B.S. (1984). The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educational Researcher, 13(6), 4–16.

Candy, P. C. (2000). Knowledge navigators and lifelong learners: Producing graduates for the information society. Higher Education Research & Development, 19(3), 261-277.

Ellyard, P. (2001). Planning for thrival in a planetist future: The challenge for knowledge management and for learning. Keynote address to the ASLA XVII Conference, Mudjimba Beach, Queensland, October 2001.