Vol. 25-1（2012/6）
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A Study on Dewey’s Moral Practice Curriculum in the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago
Yu-Ching Cheng
Moral education is a learning experience by taking part in life. It is the faith of Dewey who proposed education is life itself. He criticized it was wrong and useless in traditional education system which defined moral education as a subject and infused the moral knowledge into students. This article will review the curriculums and teaching in the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago established by Dewey from the point of view of educational history. The author tries to explore the ideas of Dewey’s moral education and achievements of practice in the laboratory school. There are three major parts in this article, including the moral ideas and practice in laboratory school, Dewey’s criticism of moral education in traditional schools, and the real value of moral practice curriculum in the laboratory school in education history. The author hopes this article will provide readers to know the ideas of ‘learning by doing’ about moral practice education. And finally, the author would like to illustrate the viewpoint of moral education in the laboratory school and share thoughts about how to carry out moral education by practicable curriculums and teaching to educators who are concerned with moral education in school.
Keyword：John Dewey, moral practice curriculum, the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago
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Principles and Skills of the Constructivist Approach in Guiding Mandarin Assignments
Thie-Tzuen Pan
Guiding Mandarin assignments is a vital task for elementary school teachers and practitioners of after-school care and education programs. This paper focused on the guiding principles and skills of the constructivist approach for Mandarin assignments. In addition to citing relevant literature, the author reflected on his own experience and obtained related data through document collection, observation, and interviews. An elementary school where instructors employ the theories of constructivism in guiding students’ assignments has served as the data collection site; the assignment guiding practices of the instructors from grade one through six were gathered. The author then analyzed the assignment guiding principles and skills of the constructivist approach implicated in these data. This paper concludes by proposing guiding principles and skills for Mandarin assignments, targeting four types of inadequacies students commonly demonstrate: “thoughtless and meaningless copying,” “mistakes,” “inability to accomplish,” and “incomplete or could be condensed.” To summarize, teachers may flexibly use comprehensive, interrogative, and prompted questions in the process of guiding assignments. Explanation and demonstration could also be used if necessary. Meanwhile, teachers must create opportunities for pupils to think and explore as well as discover and solve problems independently. Moreover, teachers may guide and encourage pupils to voice their thoughts aloud before writing. These guiding principles and skills may not only assist students in correcting their inadequacies and solving their problems, but may also help develop higher-level mental functions. Such principles and skills are also beneficial in cultivating the attitudes of inquiring actively and writing seriously.
Keyword：constructivism, guidance of Mandarin assignments, Mandarin teaching
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Sheue-Mei Lu
This study aimed to adopted the PISA reading literacy framework to investigate the structures of reading tasks on the English Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students (BCTEST) and to analyze the examinees’ performances on different reading texts and processes from 2001 to 2009 administrations. Major findings were as follows. In terms of the distributions of text format, the percentages for continuous, non-continuous and mixed texts respectively were 72.6%, 22.1% and 5.3%. Among continuous texts, the most frequent categories were narration, conversation and description, with a total around 85%. Among non-continuous texts, the most frequent categories were information sheets and advertisements, with a total around 70%. As for item cognitive processes, the most frequent category for typical reading tasks was retrieving information (75%). For cloze reading tasks, the percentages for reading comprehension and verb tense items respectively were about 50%. In terms of examinees’ performances, there were no significant differences among the performances on different reading text formats; however, there were significant differences for the performances on different processes. As for the performances of different achievement level examinees, the average items passing rates for high achieving (top 25%), average (middle 50%) and low achieving students (bottom 25%) respectively were .96, .70 and .28. Besides, the results showed that large achievement gaps were found among different achieving examinees without exceptions. Implications based on the findings of this study were proposed for test developers, educators, researchers, and policy makers.
Keyword：English Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students, PISA reading literacy framework, reading assessment
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Chia-Chun Hsiao, Pin Fang, & Wen-Hui Chen
The research aims to explore the relationships among psychosocial development, interpersonal relationship satisfaction, extracurricular experience and juniors’ employability in university. The samples are drawn from the survey of juniors of 2005 academic year and 2005 university graduates in the Taiwan Integrated Postsecondary Education Database (TIPED), in which a total of 12,749 are included in the sample. By using Structural Equation Model (SEM), the results shows that the influence of psychosocial development on interpersonal relationship satisfaction and employability, interpersonal relationship satisfaction on extracurricular experience and employability, and extracurricular experience on juniors’ employability are evident. Further more, nterpersonal relationship satisfaction and extracurricular experience have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between psychosocial development and juniors’ employability.
Keyword：employability, extracurricular experience, interpersonal relationship satisfaction, psychosocial development
Yun-Ming Chang, Chih-Hung Wang, Yen-Ju Chen, & Chun-Feei Yang
This research employed a multiple case study approach to explore the experiences of two college Internet addicts who participated in a single session web-based counseling. The Chen Internet Addiction Scale was used to measure the symptoms of Internet addiction during the counseling session and again in a follow-up session to record changes. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect the participants’ experiences of online counseling. The data were coded, reread and interpreted. After establishing inter-coder reliability, the researchers developed a coding framework. Results indicated that Single Session Counseling Model was effective in making positive changes in Internet addicts. Physically, the participants were no longer fatigued and returned to regular living; cognitively, they changed from self-blame to self-confidence; emotionally, they changed from anxiety to calmness; and behaviorally, they changed from out-of-control to autonomy. Single Session Counseling Model strategies that were helpful in alleviating the symptoms of Internet addiction were: (1) Affirm the participants’ help-seeking behavior and develop their courage for dealing with problems; (2) Promote the participants’ self-awareness and cognition of the negative impact of Internet addiction; (3) Enhance the participants’ perception of life meaning and develop their confidence in achieving life goal; (4) Assist the participants in developing alternative activities and accumulating positive changes; and, (5) After counseling termination, use the follow-up session to remind the participants of lessons learned during counseling.
Keyword：cybercounseling, internet addiction, Single Session Counseling Model
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Chien-Hsing Wang
This paper describes the application of learner-oriented movie-teaching to a Life Education course. The teacher-researcher identifies two key elements to facilitate the change of students’ beliefs and attitudes: showing movies relevant to students’ life experiences and engaging students in dialectic conversation within the climate of respect. By incorporating these elements with the learner-oriented approach, students are engaged in the process of active thinking and meaning construction. Furthermore, learner-oriented movie teaching enables learners to learn by doing and to think about the key elements of teaching with movies. However, the study also reveals that the students encounter difficulties regarding proposing issues for discussions, posing questions, and leading discussions. The possible reason might be the lack of guided instructional strategies during the process. Thus, future research can focus on strategies that can promote those abilities of the pre-serviced teachers.
Keyword：film-teaching, life-education, teachers’ education
