Journal of Educational Practice and Research

From Turbulence to Tranquility: Transforming the State of Mind Through Spiritual Development and Spiritual Education during the Pandemics

Chia-Ling Wang*

Since the pandemics of COVID-19, human life has changed dramatically. This reminds us that our focus in life needs to be transformed from outer environment to the inner spirit. The competence of being in solitude and living with a tranquil mind have become valuable for facing this global difficult time. This article discusses the significance of tranquility for life and for spiritual education and argues that tranquility is an appropriate solution for human condition during the pandemic. Through literature analysis, three research purposes are addressed. First, the significance of tranquility is explained: tranquility plays a vital role for the growth of life. Second, the nature of tranquility is discussed from the viewpoint of science, psychology, philosophy, literature and spirituality. The power of tranquility and its conscious status are further described. Third, connections between tranquility and spiritual education are explored. Three suggestions for learners in spiritual education are as follows: 1) develop the competence of being well with the self, 2) learn to settle the turbulent mind, and 3) improve the level of life by getting into the condition of tranquility. Meditation is useful for improving harmonious state between the body and the mind. It helps spiritual growth, and supports a higher spiritual level while facing the difficult times of a disaster or the pandemic.

Reflecting on Disinformation of Covid-19: Action Research on Undergraduate Students’ Transformed Practices of Critical Framing Design

Tzong-Sheng Deng*

Social media spreads risk awareness about COVID-19. This study aimed to explore the experience of a college professor in incorporating media multiliteracies, reflecting teaching and learning as well as interpret how to make connections between social media and in-class activities during creations. Applying action research as the research method, twenty-three undergraduate students who took “media ethics” class participated in the study, with eight works created. The results show that students identified themes of familiar misinformation as mission, transforming them into a form of reflective creation. Students could communicate the reflective disinformation on COVID-19 through sharing of redesigned messages on social media beyond the classroom.

For educators, social media might foster a participatory and creative environment that allows for exchange of information and creation of new networks and organizations, thereby providing a creative educational space for discussing topics related to disasters and pandemics. Creations involving controversial COVID-19 disinformation helped students develop critical thinking and science media literacy. Moreover, students developed the ability to apply multiliteracy in daily life and share their reflections with others. The contribution of this study shows that multiliteracies as mediums indeed helped the learners raise art-based learning skills and cross-disciplinary understanding, and the teacher and students were provided opportunities to improve their professional knowledge and competence about reflective information in a co-create process. Based on these contributions, some suggestions were proposed for further art-based cross-disciplinary education research.

University Entrepreneurship Educaiton and Entrepreneurial Intentions during Post-Pandemic Era: The Mediating Effects of Psychological Capital

Chun-Chieh Liao & Lin-Ju Cheng*

This study employs entrepreneurship and crisis management theory as the research framework, focusing on the formation of college students´ entrepreneurial intentions before and after the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) in 2020. The independent variable considered in this study is entrepreneurship education which is not limited to formal classroom instruction but through informal mechanisms such as competition, or mentorship. The study proposes that besides direct impact on entrepreneurial outcomes, entrepreneurship education is also facilitated by the mediation effect of psychological capital. This research particularly focuses on two aspects: optimism and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which had been found important for both entrepreneurship education and the development of entrepreneurial intentions in previous literature. The study was conducted using two sub-samples of Taiwanese university graduates (before and after the COVID-19 shocks) and used structural equation modeling, bootstrapping method, and invariance test of multiple group structural equation modeling to test six hypotheses. Regarding the direct effects, the results indicate that both entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial self-efficacy have positive direct effects on entrepreneurial intentions, whereas the effect of optimism does not. COVID-19 shocks strengthened the above effects. As for the mediation analyses, the results support that entrepreneurship education has an impact on entrepreneurial intentions through both optimism and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The COVID-19 pandemic also deepens the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions through psychological capital (optimism and entrepreneurial self-efficacy). The study concludes that through the COVID-19 shocks, entrepreneurship education not only plays a more important role in directly boosting entrepreneurial intentions but also strengthens the mediation effects through developing psychological capital. The study suggests that the government, corporations, and universities could offer a more abundant environment for entrepreneurship education in universities. Universities could provide some courses and activities related to entrepreneurship to cultivate students’ hard and soft skills, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy and optimism, mitigating negative impacts on entrepreneurial intentions to beat the coronavirus pandemic.

Keyword：entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, optimism, psychological capital  

Tele-Counseling Experiences of Counselors during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pao-Ling Yeh*, Chia-Jung Tsai, & Wen-Ying Chien

This research aimed at understanding counselors’ tele-counseling experience during the COVID-19 pandemic from April to August 2020. This was a qualitative study. A total of 15 participants were selected from counselors in northern, central, and southern Taiwan. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews transcribed verbatim, the data was coded and analyzed based on constructive grounded theory.

Three themes emerged and the results are as follows. 1)The process of tele-counseling during the pandemic: preparation for counseling location, informed consent, crisis evaluation and screening before tele-counseling; intervention adjustment of the difference between tele-counseling and the face-to-face counseling, such as the adjustment of counseling skills, applying strategies for enhancing the effect, more emphasis on observation ability, more precise time structure, amplified silence feelings, and fine-tuning of relationship interaction mode. 2) The characteristics of tele-counseling during the pandemic: counseling content was related to the new lifestyle of the pandemic; the pandemic caused the adjustment and diversification of the case volume and source; the pandemic prompted the formation of a mashup of online and offline counseling methods; the pandemic promoted the interactive selection and development of various communication platforms; the counseling effect was constrained by network stability and equipment; there was more emphasis on space privacy and information transmission security; there were doubts and pressure on crisis handling and reporting responsibilities. 3) Attitude and expectation on tele-counseling development: the counselors’ attitude towards tele-counseling was to construct a personal position between positive and hesitant; counselors were expected to establish a professional organization to revise regulations and cultivate talents; counselors were expected to build a technology cross-domain research and development (R&D) and database resource platform; counselors were prepared to meet the challenges of cases from overseas Chinese and foreign countries.

Overall, the contribution of this study was to expose the process and characteristics of tele-counseling during the pandemic and to present the current attitudes and expectations of counselors on tele-counseling. In the trend of the developing online counseling into legitimate tele-counseling, this study highlighted the value and importance of tele-counseling, and provided prospective reflections on the development of tele-counseling.

From Teachers’ Professional Learning Communities to Mobile Networked Learning Communities: An Additional Path to the Integration of Gender Education into Medical Education

Hsing-Chen Yang* & Ya-Chu Fu

This article discussed the challenges in the establishment of teachers’ professional learning communities aimed at integrating gender into medical education, including taking actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify opportunities in the challenging time. This article described the process a teacher learning community transformed into a mobile networked learning community. The process, divided into three distinctive acquisitions, are as follows: 1) Establish online platforms as knots for community interaction and mobile learning to address the diverse learning goals and individual learning needs of community members. 2) Include students as community participants to reinterpret learner-centered communities and pedagogical imaginary, establish new network relationships, and respond to community spirit in relation to learning. 3) Promote a new method for community participation, combine social network tools with mobile learning functions, and incorporate real-time online interaction. This article proposed the idea of inclusive learning in the university teachers’ professional learning community, promoting “inclusiveness” instead of “homogeneousness” in the community to cover the goals and commitments of different members in terms of the practice of integrating gender into medical education and healthcare. This article also revealed the knots and connections between online platforms and offline in-person classes; these knots and connections conformed to the day-to-day teaching and learning of community members and provided an additional path to integrate gender into medical education and develop learning communities.

Keyword：action research, gender education, medical education, networked learning communities, professional learning community