Journal of Educational Practice and Research

Conversational Repair in School-Aged Children with High-Functioning Autism

Pei-Mei Lu, Pao-Hsiang Chi*, & Hui-Chun Yang

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the conversational repair skills of Mandarin Chinese-speaking children with high-functioning autism (HFA) as compared with those of typically developing children (TD). Ten school-aged children (age 9 to 12) with HFA were recruited and matched against ten TD children in the control group based on age, gender, and verbal intelligence level. During three different conversation situations (free talk, story picture description, play), an examiner engineered 9 episodes of communicative breakdowns. Each consisted of a stacked series of three prompts for responding to requests for clarification (RQCLs) (i.e.‘What?’, ‘I don’t understand’, ‘I still don’t know’). Verbal responses to each RQCL were then coded for further analyses. The results showed that (1) In response to the stacked series RQCLs, children with HFA were similar to the control group children in evidencing repetition, revision, and addition types of repair. Furthermore, children with HFA showed fewer cue type of repair and more inappropriate type of repair than TD group. (2)For both groups, the pattern of responding over the series of RQCLs was similar in varying the repetition and revision types of repair strategies. However, the pattern in the addition, cue, and inappropriate types of repair strategies were different. Children with HFA were significantly more likely to respond to an RQCL with an inappropriate response than the language and age-matched controls. It is suggested that teachers and parents could facilitate the conversational repair skills of children with high-functioning autism by offering them pportunities to manage different types of communicative breakdowns.

An Analysis of the History of Taiwanese Character and Moral Education (1949-2014) and Its Implications for the 12-Year Basic Education

Chih-Hua Fang, Chi-Ming Lee*, Show-Mann Liou, & Yen-Hsin Chen

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the history of character and moral education (CME) during the past 65 years in Taiwan to form a complete image of CME and provide suggestions for the formulation and implementation of the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines. Concretely, the researchers reviewed the documents and literature of CME and divided the history from 1949 to 2014 into three phases - the Martial Law Phase, the Post-Martial Law Phase, and the 9-Year Curriculum Phase. During the Martial Law Phase, although CME was taught as a stand-alone subject, it played a role in transmitting political ideology. During the Post-Martial Law Phase, the goal was to implement a student-centered curriculum, but the period was too short to achieve total transformation. During the 9-Year Curriculum Phase, CME was omitted from the Curriculum Guidelines and replaced by the ‘Character and Moral Education Improving Project’ proclaimed by the Ministry of Education. As a result, CME was passively infused into the curriculum during this phase. Finally, the researchers proposed several suggestions as follows: The centrality of CME should be emphasized in the National Curriculum Guidelines to correspond to the public’s expectations and current international trends. Concrete contents of CME should be actively incorporated into the Curriculum Guidelines of each learning area in order to ensure effective integration and applicabl transformation. Also, CME should be fully implemented in the 12-Year Basic Education Plan and include values of social justice and multiple developmental strategies.

Recognizing Perspectives: Narrative Differences and Hidden Ideologies in Taiwanese History Textbooks

Pei-Fen Sung* & Ting Shiuan Ku

Democratization allowed Taiwanese History to be established independently in the curriculum, and because Taiwanese consciousness and Chinese consciousness are two main historical ideologies in the history curriculum, there is a need for history teachers to have the ability to judge the underlying perspectives in Taiwanese History. This study utilizes three versions of Junior-high school Taiwanese history textbooks and examines three themes-- “The Origins of Taiwanese Aboriginals,” “The Historical Relationship between Taiwan and China,” and “the Mu-Dan-She Event” --to explain the narrative differences in the textbook accounts. We found Taiwanese consciousness, Chinese consciousness and international consciousness in the three different textbooks. However, these identity-related ideologies are embedded in historical facts that appear to be neutral making perspectives in the narratives unheeded. We believe that teachers need to help sensitize students with the underlying perspectives and interpretive frames in historical narratives in order to cultivate citizens’ rational thinking ability and to develop discernment in identifying identity education hidden in textbooks in a democratic society.

The Revision of Perceived Classroom Goal Structure Scale and the Evaluation of Its Reliability and Validity

Chung-Chin Wu*

The measurement of perceptions of classroom goal structure, rooted in achievement goal theory, argued that students could perceive contextual goals shaped by their teachers. Currently, achievement goal has suffered critics on the issues of measurement and theoretical re-conceptualization. However, the revisions of perceived classroom goal structure based on achievement goal theory were rarely investigated in terms of their utility in classroom settings. The purposes of the present study are to: (1) Revise the scale of perceived classroom goal structure according to the problems highlighted by achievement goal researchers; (2) Examine the extent to which the revised model fit the data; (3)Investigate the measurement stability of the theoretical model. In order to achieve the purposes, the present study adopted a three-step sampling procedure, which involved 373, 740, and 767 eighth graders in the pilot study, model verification, and cross-validitation test, respectively. Results showed: (1) The perception of classroom goal structure with six dimensions hold good internal and external validity. However, high correlations among six first-order factors indicated that there were two second-order factors, classroom mastery goal and classroom performance goal, behind the first-order ones. (2) The perceived classroom goal structure scale was good in cross- validation. It indicated that the measurement of classroom goal was fairly stable. In practice, the six aspects composed of task, authority, recognition, grouping, evaluation, and time could be adopted to form a mastery oriented classroom.
 

The Knowledge Spiral in Community of Practice:Teachers’ Knowledge Transformation in Developing

Meng-Yu Lin, Wu-Lung Chung, & Yueh-Hsia Chang*

This study aims at investigating how knowledge spiral operates in a community of practice in which a group of vocational high school teachers developed innovative science curriculum for science courses. Research data for this qualitative study was obtained through interviews, direct participatory observation, and document analysis. Four modules of knowledge transformation model, including socialization, externalization, combination and internalization, are used to analyze each phase. The analysis shows how implicit knowledge is transformed into explicit knowledge and vice versa. The results also show that when knowledge spiral model is applied to an innovative curriculum development, the phase of developing experimental equipment can be a good starting point. For the development of the innovative curriculum, the curriculum community of practice went through four modes of knowledge transformation: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization, in which each of the four modules possesses its own significance and the lack of any mode will result in setbacks in knowledge development. It is indicated in the findings that knowledge spiral starts off only after the community of practice have involved themselves in organizational learning and it works not only on individual teachers but also in the entire school organization.

A Response to the Perspective of Paulo Freire’s Process of Conscientização: Teaching Methods for Developing Students’ Critical Consciousness

Yi-Huang Shih* 

The idea of conscientização is the core concept in Paulo Freire’s theory of education, and in order to understand the idea of conscientização, its process must be first explored. As there is a close relationship between conscientização and oppression, this study explores the analysis of oppression from Freire’s perspective to better understand conscientização. Freire’s analysis of oppression is based on Hegel’s “dialectic of the lord and bondsman” and Marx’s “analysis of oppression.” For this reason, philosophical literature analysis and theoretical hermeneutics analysis are used. This study first analyzes the origin of Freire’s analysis of oppression and it next analyzes the process of conscientização. Based on this exploration, teaching methods for developing students’ critical consciousness are identified as follows: (1) guide students in the realization of individual freedom, (2) guide students to realize the nature of the ideological myth, (3) recognize that students are individuals with consciousness, (4) understand that teachers and students are all cognitive subjects in teaching activities, (5) teach through problem-posing and dialogue, and (6) develop students’ critical consciousness with a combination of reflection and action.

Constructing Subjectivity in Intersubjectivity:Teaching Praxis by Narrative Inquiry and Dialogue in Critical-Praxis Orientation

Hsiang-Chun Lin* 

Viewing teaching as social praxis and classroom as the place of reform and development, I, the instructor and the action researcher, made a reflective narrative inquiry on my teaching praxis of subjectivity construction for “others” (students with marginalized experience) in the past decade. Students’ predicaments and the context of my action were described. The students indeed unfold their subjectivity by applying the methods of “critical-praxis orientation narrative text writing” and “dialogue in diverse frame-of-seeing”. Knowledge produced from praxis are extracted especially on the profound meaning of “narrative” and “story” and how they are related with “action”. Furthermore, how “reflexivity” plays a critical role in the narrative writing is addressed, and the effect of “dialogue in diverse frame-of-seeing” and how it is operated are illustrated. To promote sttudents’ reflective thinking and to facilitate their social praxis, “a movable classroom” to generate interactions with communities of social diversity would be designed in the next instructional plan.

Hold Me Tight: An Emotionally-Focused Psychoeducational Group for Unmarried Couples

Sung-Hsien Sun* & Ting Liu

The research study adapted the “Hold Me Tight” Couple Intervention Program for Taiwanese dating couples to repair and strengthen their relationships by targeting emotions and facilitating secure attachment in group settings. This program is based on Emotionally Focused Therapy (ETF). The program was lead by two lead facilitators, who have received international certification of Emotionally Focused Therapy, and by four co-facilitators. The intervention program consisted of five 1.5 elaboration-hour units. Each unit included three parts: elaboration of key concepts of EFT, dyadic exercises to help create emotional connections between partners, and group discussion to consolidate the change. This study conducted quantitative evaluations at five time points, including pre-, post-, one-month, three-month, and six-month follow-up assessment after the completion of the intervention program. Evaluations included the adult attachment scale, relationship satisfaction, and social awareness between the couple. Focus group interviews were also held two weeks after the group program ended. In total, 20 couples (total of 40 individuals) participated in the program; among them, 12 females and 11 males completed the quantitative evaluation and 29 participants participated in the focus group interviews. The result showed that participants improved their attachment security, increased the awareness of partners’ interpersonal behaviors, and facilitated sharing and the acceptance of each other’s vulnerabilities. In the focus group interviews, participants reported positive feedback in reducing vicious cycles and established a sense of security with their partners. Limitations of the study and clinical implications specific to this population were discussed for future cultural adaptation intervention practice and research.