Journal of Educational Practice and Research

• Critical Computer Literacy and Schoolchildren’s Web-based Practices: A Case Study of Children’s Summer Computer Camp in a Rural Area

  Yuling Lin

   

   

  Based on critical pedagogy, this study designs a computer literacy course for a summer camp. Also, it examines how children in a rural area, especially indigenous children, learn to create personal webpage when they attended the summer camp. This study finds that computer literacy is a set of social practices. Most children from indigenous and low-income families use web homepages to link up with and speak to the outside world, and to transform their social status. This work acknowledges that children can become critically and culturally competent actors by exploring their social situations through critical literacy. They are able to examine ideological effects of mass texts, rewrite those texts and introduce the local culture in the form of web pages. This study suggests that the design of computer literacy is supposed to concern students’ condition and to choose the user-friendly software to children due to the ability of literacy influenced by learning situation. Also, it suggests that a course of critical computer literacy can help children develop five literacy competences and practices: (1) adopting multiple digital skills and techniques; (2) finding an individual voice; (3) examining ideological effects of cultural texts; (4) affirming one’s self and ethnic identity; (5) transforming social skills and social actions.

   

  Keyword：computer literacy, critical pedagogy, critical literacy, ethnic identity, Web-based practices

• Developing Initial Collaborative e-Learning Environments

  Su-Ju Lu

   

   

  This paper is to propose a learning theory based approach for the design of initial collaborative e-learning environment. This approach attempts to provide a reasonable connection of theoretical perspectives on learning with e-tools, so as to consider technology as well as learning contexts as a whole in the development of e-learning environment. This approach emphasizes the identification of design requirements driven from key attributes that are distilled from learning theories. A functional description of collaborative e-learning environments is modeled and represented in terms of a combination of selected building blocks, in which the space of potential concepts is determined. One contribution of this paper is the development of an embodiment process to derive potential physical descriptions representing e-learning environments. To explore the solution space, a range of potential concept is generated to prevent overlooking valuable concepts. These concepts are then evaluated to select an appropriate one that meets all or most of the design requirements. An example is used to demonstrate the use of the proposed approach in developing a prototype in collaborative learning. The evolution of this environment is a need for continuous improvement based on the approach.

   

Keyword：e-learning, learning theories, design approach, collaborative learning environments, building blocks

• Student Loan System of Higher Education in England and Its Implications for Taiwan

  Chien-Chou Su

   

   

  The English government assisted undergraduate students in paying the fees by the policies of free tuition and living allowances before 1990. However, the government has begun to introduce the system of student loan in order to offset the influence of the insufficient of financial aid on undergraduate students since 1990 and the system of student loan have been reformed three times. To collect implications from the background of the evolvement of “the system of student loan” in England, the author inquires into four main questions. They are: (1) How was the system of student loan established in England? (2) How did the system of student loan evolve in England? (3) What are the similarities and dissimilarities of the system of student loan applied in England and in Taiwan? (4) What can we learn from the application of the system of student loan in England？ The author hopes to offer the Taiwan government some suggestions by inquiring these questions in depth.

   

Keyword：student loan, tuition policy, higher education

• Retrospect and Examination of Recurrent Education Policy in Taiwan

  Pei-Tsuen Tsai & Wen-Ying Wu

   

The term “Recurrent Education” first showed up in 1995 and the goverment has been promoting the policy since then. Ten years have passed, and it is about time to review the policy and the practice. As for the establishment of policy, it combined both the hidden period and the period of formation. In the first period, the practice was only for some particular groups. The implementation was put together with the related law for the the education and lifelong education. While in the second period, it was put into pratice in a concrete policy that is legally authorized. As for the establishment of policy, it combines major affairs of four departments: Department of Social Education, Department of Technoloy and Vocational Education, Department of High Education and Department of Secondary Education. The Ministry of Education diversified the policy by combing all the practices. However, the Recurrent Education faces the dilemma of fairness , integration, market demand, poor quality and low participation of learning. In this article, the author offers these concrete suggestions: emphsizing evaluation, policy integration and concept transit, department integration, quality control, positive integration and overall participation. The goal of Recurrent Education is not only to enhance the intelegence and the technology skill of people, but also to promote the ability of competition.

Keyword：recurrent education, front-end load model, law of lifelong learning,paid educational leave (PEL), learning society

• A Discussion of Moral Education from Evolutional Game Model and Reputation Model: An Application of Frank’s Moral Sentiments Theory

  Jung-Fu Chang

   

This study introduces Robert H. Frank’s moral sentiments theory (1988), and uses it to discuss the role of moral education. Firstly, following Frank’s commitment model and its evolutionary game process, moral education is defined as temporarily strengthening human inner moral emotion to increase the number of cooperator (good behavior) in a society. Two conclusions are found. (1) In a low moral society, the defector’s benefit is smaller than cooperator’s. In contrast, in a high moral society, the defector’s benefit is larger than cooperator’s. (2) Moral education (improving a society’s moral level) does not bring social justice. However, it does bring social benefit. Secondly, following Frank’s reputation model, we argue that because reputation can be a strong signal of individual’s inner virtue, moral education can strengthen individual’s reputation and increase the number of cooperator in a society. In the end, the study suggests that moral education does not need limitation in teaching morality.

Keyword：virtue, moral emotion, moral sentiments, moral education,evolutionary game

• Curricular Innovation: The Integration of Sport Experiences and Moral Education

  Hsiu-Jen Lin & Hsiao-Yuh Ku

   

   

  Sport is a valued human practice, concerned with its origin of play, its own goals and traditions. Summing up the formal characteristics of sport, we might call it a free activity standing outside “ordinary” life. It proceeds according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. Besides, there is a link between spirit and sport. Since sport can make a significant contribution to moral education, the role of the teacher of sports should be regarded as an enlightened leader of students’ character development. But the place of sport in relation to moral education and the curriculum has been neglected in schools for a long time because of the prejudices to sports. This paper aims to explore the importance of sports to moral education and the role of the teachers who teach sports. In the final section, an example is explicated to show how a high school teacher who teaches sport integrates sport experience and moral education.

   

  Keyword：moral education, sport experiences

• Beyond Measurement:Exploring Paradigm Shift in Assessment

  Wen-Tzu Chiang

   

   

  Assessment is undergoing a paradigm shift, from psychometrics to a broader model of educational assessment, from a testing and examination culture to an assessment culture. This article explores three assessment paradigms: psychometric paradigm, contextual paradigm, and personalized paradigm. Understanding different assessment paradigms can help us carefully decide how we attempt to discover what students know and we can do. Furthermore, assessment and learning are intimately intertwined and often indistinguishable from one another. Three relations between assessment and learning are discussed: “assessment of learning”, “assessment  learning”, and “assessment as learning”. These three approaches all contribute to student learning but in vastly different ways. All three assessment approaches have their place; to maintain the right balance is the key challenge. It is important to understand them all, recognize the inevitable contradictions among them, and know which one you are using and why. Finally, implication and reflection on assessment paradigms are discussed.

   

  Keyword：assessment paradigms, paradigm shift, assessment and learning

• “What’s So Great About Writing Your Mother’s Life Stories?”:An Action Research on Knowledge Production About Women

  Jau-Jiun Hsiao

   

   

  This paper attempts to illuminate the interweaving process of gender, power and knowledge in my educational research course. Inspired by Judy Logan’s teaching stories, I invite senior students in my course to conduct in-depth studies in honor of women from their daily worlds. By ways of prolonged engagements and interviews with their respondents, students learn to acquire deeper understandings of these women’s lives, thus, open their eyes to see through the structural oppression of women in the patriarchal society and to think through how they can transform such new understandings for social justice. In addition to writing up their research papers, students learn to make their own quilt as another way of knowledge representation for their research. I also present an honest account of the obstacles encountered in the process of teaching students to produce knowledge about women and of the actions taken to solve these obstacles.

   

Keyword：feminist pedagogy, gender equity education, action research