A study of the internet resource-based e-learning environments in Hong Kong: Animal classification in a primary school

Animal classification is one of the central concepts of biological science education. Traditionally, students learn about this topic through the teacher’s lecturing relying mainly on the textbook. Nowadays, the Internet and education are becoming more inseparable; this quasi-experimental study looks into the learning of animal classification with Internet resources by two different ability classes of sixth graders in resource-based e-learning environments (RBeLEs). The results from the analysis of the pretest and posttest word webs drawn by students and interviews after the instruction with focus group students show that students did not only enjoy the learning with Internet resources, but they also gained a better understanding of animal classification in terms of taxonomic groups as well as the features and examples of animals in each group. This study provides useful insights into how Internet resources support the learning of animal classification. Copyright © 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.