Jump to the main content block
教育實踐與研究期刊
  1. Home
  2. Online issues

Vol. 17-1（2004/3）

 

The purpose of this study is to do the analysis of Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines –A World-System Institutionalism perspective. The major findings show Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines is in the direction of world norms not only our own unique history or developmental requirements. The national elites define and develop this curricular policy by tending to draw from the best developed models they and their consultants can find. So the structure of the Grade 1-9 Curriculum is very similar to the “world primary curriculum” in terms of curricular categories and allocations of time to these categories. It means Grade 1-9 Curriculum is likely to be filtered through general worldwide conceptions or so-called world-system “institutional environments” so it is more reasonable to believe Grade 1-9 Curriculum’s policy and discourse have a worldwide character and index the commitment of our country to modernization, social development and international participation.

 

Keyword: world-system institutionalism, world system, sociology of curriculum, world primary curriculum, Grade 1-9 Curriculum, Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines

As one of key founders in the field of education and curriculum evaluation, Ralph W. Tyler has been criticized by most of the writers in evaluation. Some criticisms pointed out that his rationale had some theoretical faults. Moreover, those negative criticisms may bring us the imagination that Tyler rationale is traditional, conservative, and out of date. Actually, some of the criticisms were due to the misunderstood, simplified of his rationale, or stereotyped of his early publications rather than full reconsideration of his extension and revision of ideas in his later writings.

This article, firstly, closely discuss those negative criticisms on Tyler’s rationale. Then, I chronologically inquire and explain his rationale on curriculum or program evaluation in his writings, including: Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction in 1949, Specific Approaches to Curriculum Development in 1975, A Rationale for Program Evaluation in 1983, and General Statement on Program Evaluation in 1991. This aims to clarify his rationale on curriculum evaluation, particularly clarifying his extension and revision of rationale in different dates.

 

Keyword: Tyler rationale, program evaluation, curriculum evaluation

 

The Taiwanese government has executed a number of policies to promote computer and information education at various school levels. However, children at kindergarten age seem to be ignored. A few researches have been done on the understanding of implementing information technology in kindergarten. Is there a widespread belief that kindergarten teachers are willing to use computers and to integrate this technology into their curriculum? Do teachers familiarize themselves with computers? What hampers teachers’ using technology to fertilize their teaching? Do parents of young children support or discourage this kind of curriculum? Do they have any concerns for their little ones using computers? This case study is aimed to probe into these issues and to explore the experience of teachers in a public kindergarten in Taipei. Findings are categorized and discussed by different topics, such as kindergarten teachers’ attitudes toward computers, curriculum design, and parents’ attitudes toward young-children computer education. The needs of teaching young children to use computers, designing computer technology curriculum for young children, and the development of pre- and in-service teacher preparation and training are drawn from the findings.

 

Keyword: computer and information education, young children, public kindergartens, kindergarten teachers

 

The main objectives of this study are to survey elementary school teachers’ perception, interpretation and belief toward 9-year integrated curriculum after the past two schools years.

Methodologies are applied in my research, based on the annotation research scheme, mainly by “Interview” approach. The tool is a listed set of outlines for interview that the researcher edited Time slot for interviewing is from July in 2002 to May in 2003. The researcher has visited and talked to 104 teachers of elementary schools at the northern part of Taiwan. The conclusions of this study are listed below: 1. The development of School-Based Curriculum links up with present school administrative system, but lacks a theory to support it. 2. Curriculum designs are still selected and adopted by ”Top-down” model. 3. Many schools adopt coping strategies to establish their own “Vision”, “SWOT Model”, and “Ideal Children Picture”. 4. Visions established by principals, however, have no relationship with curriculum designs. 5. Integrated curriculum does not work out as its original target. 6. Many teachers still rely on textbooks and are not fully capable of developing appropriate skills for designing the curriculum. 7. It is difficult to ensure the students’ basic abilities through such a curriculum design. 8. The problems of curriculum connection about transfer students are still lack appropriate solutions. 9. Team teaching appears hard to adopt in nowadays school circumstances. 10. Flexible curriculums mostly do remedial teaching. Although many teachers appreciate the innovation of 9-year integrated curriculum, their perceptions reveal that the discrepancies between the ideal curriculum, official curriculum, and the perceived curriculum are significant.

Aside from the above results, the researcher doesn’t provide any recommendations, but worry “Vulgar formalism” to prevail and our education to lose orientation.

 

Keyword: elementary school, Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, teachers’ perceived curriculum

This study explored the relations among trichotomous achievement goals, self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning of EFL elementary school students in Taiwan. In the literature, it has been argued that distinctive trichotomous goals, including the mastery, approach, and avoidance goals, would associate with different levels of self-efficacy and self-regulation. However, this argumentation has not been well attested in EFL learning contexts like those in Taiwan. Prompted by this proposition, this study aimed to test a hypothetical model that comprised two propositions: (a) self-efficacy would contribute to the adoption of the trichotomous goals, and (b) mastery and approach goals would lead to more self-regulated learning, whereas the avoidance goals would not exert these effects. To answer these inquiries, a reliable and valid questionnaire that contained three scales to measure goals, self-efficacy, and self-regulation was administrated to 319 Taiwanese EFL sixth-graders who had been randomly selected from a suburban school. Participants’ responses to scale items were gathered, computed, and analyzed by using the structural equation model with latent variables to pinpoint proposed causal relations (SEM: Lisrel 8.51). Results indicated that: (a) the adoption of mastery, approach, and avoidance goals was attributed to self-efficacy of participants; (b) merely the mastery goal contributed to self-regulated learning; and (c) self-efficacy exercised indirect but significant effects on self-regulation. Based on these findings, implications for EFL teaching and learning in elementary schools in Taiwan were provided.

 

Keyword:trichotomous goals, mastery goals, approach goals, avoidance goals, self-regulation, self-efficacy

 

The purpose of this study is to design a microteaching project and to deal with the effects it brings. Two phases are planed in the study. In the first phase, the researcher reviews and analyzes the relevant literature on microteaching, and then proposes a new microteaching project, which has a much broader focus on the acquisition of instructional knowledge, teaching skills, and reflective ability. In the second phase, the project is implemented in a teacher education course—“ Microteaching: Theory and Practice”. At the end of the course, the students evaluate the microteaching experiences by filling out a questionnaire and writing a reflective paper. The results of this study indicate that incorporating a redesigned microteaching into a teacher education program is very beneficial from the student teachers’ perspectives.

 

Keyword: microteaching, teacher education, teaching

 

In Taiwan, primary school English teaching became a concerned topic of foreign language policy because fifth and sixth graders began to learn English from the academic year 2001 and some of the cities and counties in Taiwan began English teaching from the third grade or even from the first grade. Next, because of the severe discrepancy between cities and countries and students’ English proficiency levels, some schools adopted ability grouping instruction, but they were worried about the tag and negative effect. Moreover, due to the open policy of textbooks, schools could select suitable textbooks and materials for their students. The situations of material selection and evaluation as well as the link of materials between primary schools and junior high schools attracted much attention from scholars, teachers, and parents. Besides, education authorities wanted to examine students’ English achievement by conducting English proficiency tests. Many scholars thought that the test would put more pressure on parents and students. It might decrease students’ interest in learning English. In short, since English teaching is an indispensable trend and we have had some problems in the beginning stage of the implementation, it’s necessary to figure out the problems and find out the solutions. This paper first reviewed topics such as English teacher training, the selection of English materials and the situations of English teaching in elementary schools in Taiwan before the academic year 2001. Then, by analyzing questionnaires and interviews collected from teachers in Taipei City and Taipei County, this paper studied primary school English teachers’ distribution and teaching situations, ability grouping instruction, multiple assessments, English achievement tests, and the use of materials. In addition to discussing the results of this study, the researcher gave some suggestions for reference.

First, it is necessary for teacher training institutes to keep on offering teacher training programs and encourage English teachers to take in-serve study.

Second, it is an urgent task for authority to establish a system of licensure and certification for English teachers.

Third, schools should avoid tag effect when applying ability grouping instruction. Fourth, authority should carefully administer English proficiency tests. Fifth, teachers should select and evaluate textbooks and materials professionally.

 

Keyword: Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, primary school English teaching, multiple assessments, ability grouping instruction, English proficiency test

 

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate and delayed effects of peer assessment and the development of criteria on elementary school students’ meta-cognition within a web-based learning environment. The study used a 3 (no peer assessment, peer assessment with teacher-provided criteria, peer assessment with student-constructed criteria）X 3（measuring times） mixed experimental design research method. Participants were 86 fifth-graders from three intact classes from one elementary school in the Kaohsiung county. Participants in this study interacted with a web-based question-posing and peer assessment learning system for seven consecutive weeks to supplement regular science course. Results indicated that students in both peer assessment groups performed significantly better than those in the no peer assessment group on both immediate and delayed posttests of meta-cognition and that the performance of students in both peer assessment groups on both immediate and delayed posttests of meta-cognition was significantly superior to their pretest scores. Finally, suggestions for classroom implementation and future research topics in this area are rendered.

 

Keyword: peer assessment, assessment criteria, metacognition, web-based learning environment

 

The study aims to examine the effects of the CILLS (Cognitive-affectivevolitional Integrated Language Learning Strategies) developed by the researcher. In order to achieve this purpose, 77 eighth-graders participate in the experiment, including 38 students in the experimental group and 39 students in the control group. With the application of such means as the Affection/Motivation Inventory, the Volitional Control Inventory, the Metacognition Inventory, and the English Achievement Tests (both as the pretest and protest), the data thus obtained were analyzed by means of one-way MANCOVA. The research finds out that after the teaching activity, students in the experiment group and the control group were significantly different in their motivation of learning English. Besides, there are also significant differences in other aspects such as their volitional control, metacognition, and learning achievement. Based on this study, the researcher also brings up recommendations for future English language teaching activities.

 

Keyword: affection/motivation, cognitive-affective-volitional integrated language learning strategies, learning achievement, metacognition, volitional control

 

This study explored the relationships among critical thinking disposition, preference of teaching approaches, and learning methods of elementary school students. The sample consisted of 186 students (79 males, 92 females). Data were gathered from their performances on the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, their preference of teaching approaches and learning methods. Findings indicate that the relationship between preference of teaching approaches and learning methods was not significant; furthermore, high-analytic, high-systematic, and high-inquisitive participants prefer learner-centered approaches and high learning-independent methods, whereas the low others prefer teacher-centered approaches and low learning-independent methods. It is suggested that understanding students’ critical thinking disposition is beneficial for selecting appropriate instructional strategies, and applying those strategies should consider students’ distinct thinking characteristics for avoiding their resistance and fear. Then, we could exercise group cooperation to improve their learning involvement. Moreover, we should investigate inferential process to strengthen their core abilities of thinking, and then promote their performance on critical thinking.

 

Keyword: critical thinking disposition, teaching approach, learning method

 

This study utilized WebQA, a website quality testing tool, to assess the accessibility of 125 Chinese online learning web sites of Taiwan. The test results showed that only 14.2% passed the automatic checkpoints of Priority 1. In other words, most of existing web sites still have critical accessibility barriers that make it difficult or impossible for everyone to access information on those web sites.

 

Keyword: web accessibility, e-learning, online learning

 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity issues of performance assessment on identifying gifted children’s problem-solving ability. The three validity indicators are content quality, generalizability, and fairness. 42 children in two elementary schools participated in the study. Two types of the performance assessments were designed based on the directness to gifted curriculum: ill-structured work-sheet activity and dynamic thematic assessment activity. The analyses of the results provide partial evidences of content quality, generalizability, and fairness validity for performance assessment on identifying gifted children’s problem-solving ability.

 

Keyword: gifted children, performance assessment, validity, identification

 

General education is a missing link in the teacher education reforms, and its quality is also unsatisfied and criticized. There is little benefit of general education to achieve the goals of teacher education. These shortcomings are often the causes of ineffective development for teachers. The study explores the teaching quality of general education at National Taipei Teachers College from the evaluation perspective. Teaching evaluations are based on the subjective evaluation of students. Questionnaire survey and interview are used in this study. Findings indicated that the overall quality of general education is low; specifically the performance levels in “teaching outcome” is lower than in other domains. In order to ensure the quality of general education, National Taipei Teachers College must take some reform actions, including: (1) to develop the new concepts of general education; (2) to encourage self-evaluation for general education; (3) to integrate and use the resources and advantages for all departments; (4) to implement the incentive system for increasing teaching quality; (5) to enhance the teaching competence of faculty; and (6) to enlarge and deepen the teaching areas of general education.

 

Keyword: teaching evaluation, teaching quality, general education, Teachers College

 

The present study examined achievement goals as predictors of cognitive/metacognitive strategy use, while controlling for self-efficacy and test study strategies as mediators of the relationship between achievement goals and test anxiety within the Taiwanese classroom. Two hundred and sixty-one sixth graders participated in the study. A self-report measure of student achievement goals, cognitive/metacognitive strategy use, self-efficacy, and test anxiety was administered. The findings revealed that while mastery goals positively predicted cognitive as well as metacognitive strategy use, they were not significant predictors of test anxiety. On the other hand, performance-avoidance goals positively predicted test anxiety and self-efficacy was a negative predictor of test anxiety. Both cognitive and metacognitive strategies mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and test anxiety. In terms of the relationship between performance-avoidance goals and test anxiety, only metacognitive strategies played the mediating role. The factors contributing to Taiwanese students’ reported test anxiety and the implications for teacher practices are discussed.

 

Keyword: achievement goals, self-efficacy, study strategy use, test anxiety

 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the training effectiveness of accountants participating in in-service training by self-appraisal method. The sample of this study is composed of short-term accounting in-service training participants of the Continuous Adult Education Programs of nine universities in Taiwan. Major research methods include literature investigation and questionaire survey. Data collection periods are from January 2000 to February 2001. About eight hundred and sixty questionaires were mailed out and valid responses totaled three hundred and eighty-eight.

The results of this study are summarized as follows: The self-appraisal effectiveness of the participants is satisfactorily high. Statistical significance of the self-appraisal effectiveness is found to exist in terms of marital ststus, age, and work years. In addition, both the paticipation willingness and program design have shown a significant positive correlation with the self-appraisal effectiveness. Finally, from the regression analysis, the two variables of program design and participation willingness, account for about 65.7% explanation of the self-appraised effectiveness.

 

Keyword: accountant, in-service training, accounting education

 

The main purpose of this study was to explore the causal relationship between the latent variables of student costs and education enrollment. The research employed the LISREL to test the causal relationships between those variables. It used the student costs and the ratio of education enrollment for analysis, which were collected from World Bank. It covered up to six time periods (1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995) in this study. Six null hypotheses were tested to pinpoint the casual relationship between the variables of student costs and education enrollment. The results showed that the χ 2 value of these six models were not significant. In addition, the values of AGFI, GFI, NFI, CFI, and IFI were also near or equal 1.0. That is, those models fitted into data well in this study, and it rejected six null hypotheses. It meant that the causal relationships between the latent variables of student costs and education enrollment are well fitted. But, according to other criterions, there were some error terms in the research models. Based on these findings, some suggestions were provided.

 

Keyword: human capital theory, the ratio of education enrollment, student costs, LISREL model

 

he issue of teachers’ compensation of the primary and secondary school system has long been ignored in the discussion of the educational reform in Taiwan. As a result, the compensation system is not able to support organizational goals, structures, and human resource needs presented in schools today. This paper attempts to bridge that gap by considering to develop a new teacher compensation system which aligns with the goals of educational organizational reform. It begins by discussing the concept of strategic compensation, and then examines implications of educational reform strategies on the emergent need of re-designing teachers’ compensation system. With the strategic thinking in mind, the new compensation system proposed in this paper includes several new tools that enable schools to attract, maintain, and motive teachers, on the one hand, and on the other hand encourage teachers to pursue self-growth, innovation in teaching and team work behaviors.

 

Key words: strategic compensation, primary and secondary schools in Taiwan, teacher compensation, skill-and knowledge-based pay, performance-based pay

 

The purposes of this study are to explore the school teachers toward teachers’ union related problems (eg., teachers support degree, participation, organization, operation, and development). To achieve the objectives mentioned above, this study surveyed 500 teachers from 34 elementary and high schools in Kaohsiung City . The conclusions drawn from this study are: (1) most of teachers (78.6%) support to establish teacher union; (2) teacher can choose to join or not; (3) the chairman must be selected by all members; (4) agree to collective bargain; (5) 61% teachers don’t degree to strike; (6) supporting those candidates who are close to teachers’ advantage or teachers’ union endorsement; (7) condition system is necessary; and (8) to collect membership fees.

 

Keyword: teacher union, teacher organization, elementary and high school teachers

 

This article discusses some problems and difficulties in the sense-making process of educational qualitative research as encountered by the author and other researchers in Taiwan. Conceptualizing the process of analyzing data as cutting things apart and the process of interpretation as making attempts to recontextualize, the author points out some typical problems in doing analysis and interpretation, namely, over-categorization, over-dependence on intuitions, a neglect of the constituting property of language use and over-differentiation in doing qualitative research. A lack of sensitivity to linguistic details and being unable to transform the fieldwork into appealing narratives are seen as two major difficulties encountered by some qualitative researchers in Taiwan. The author then introduces and discusses two different ways of making sense in two research approaches: Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) narrative inquiry and Gee’s (2000) discourse analysis. Having gained insights from both approaches, the author suggests using the concept of “doing discourse analysis narratively” as a reminder for qualitative researchers in shuttling back and forth between cutting off the experiences into parts and embracing the experiences as a whole.

 

Keyword: qualitative research, data analysis, interpretation, narrative inquiry, discourse analysis.

 

The purpose of this research was to compare and analyze the dissimilarities between two different projective trajectory of shooting on basketball in kinematics, and to check the precision of initial speed of film analysis. The subjects were composed of ten elite basketball players who major in physical education of National Taipei Teachers College (age 21 ± 1.2yrs,tall 177 ± 2.7cm,weight 67.7 ± 5.1kg). The performance of the subjects was filmed by JVC digital video (30Hz) and to be analyzed on two dimensions in sagittal plane and horizontal axis. These devices were used to document the primary parameters, including horizontal angle of upper arms, initial speed of release, angle of release, the time of projection, the apex of projection, angle of entry and so on. The data were digitized by Silicon Coach vision-6.0; to obtain the parameter of initial speed of release, the projective formula were used. T-test was applied to the parameters to estimate the differences between the two different projective trajectory of shooting, and the level of significance α is .05.With the projective formula, according to the standard error of estimate, the precision of the initial speed of release by film analysis was examined. Finally, the various factors about the horizontal displacement of these two different projective-shooting whether it target or not were compared. Results showed: (1) the parameters of two different projective trajectory of shooting are significant; (2) according to the projective formula, the parameters of the initial speed of release from the filming analysis were extremely precise; (3) on free-shooting, the angles of release on the higher projective-shooting were not within the range of optimum angles of release. On the contrary, the angles of release on the normal projective-shooting were within; and (4) the angle of entry about the higher projective-shooting was much more than the other one, but the percentage of free-shooting was much lower﹒It was because the initial speed of release and angle of release of the higher projective-shooting can not be handled easily, so the horizontal displacement was either more or less than it is from the center of basketball to the center of basket.

 

Keyword: angle of upper arms, initial speed of release, angle of release, the time of projection, the apex of projection, angle of entry

 

This study analyzed 10 badminton games (21 sets in total) of world-class men’s and ladies’ doubles to understand the landing spots of return and their effect due to sex, and win-lose sets. The statistical analysis resulted in the following findings: 1. In Area 1of service, the effect of return on No.6 was better than No.1, and the central court was better than the front and rear courts. 2. In Area 1of service, win sets returned No.8 more frequently, and No.2 less than lose sets did. 3. There were significant differences between men and ladies in the landing spots of return. In Area 1of service, men returned No.2 and No.4 more frequently, and No.7 and No.9 less than ladies did. In Area 4 of service, ladies returned No.1, No.2, No.7 more frequently, and No.8 less than men did. 4. For the effect of return in Area 4, men were better than ladies. 5. For the effect of return in Area 1 and total of service, win sets was better than lose sets.

 

Keyword: badminton, return

 

The majority of sport research on achievement motivation has centered on the motivational implications of achievement goal (Nicholls, 1984, 1989). Urdan and Maehr (1995) have argued for the examination of subset of social goals that should be relevant to variability in achievement striving. They proposed that there are a number of possible social goals such as the goals to gain approval from others, to experience affiliation and develop relationships with others, and to be a productive member of society. The primary purpose of this study attempted to replicate and extend the previous works of goal orientation researches by developing an exercise-specific measure of goal orientation. As previous research has suggested, perceived ability plays an influential role in explaining motivation and achievement-related affect in achievement setting (Covington, 1986). In addition, the secondary purpose of this study was to examine the predictive utility of goal orientations and perceived ability on exercise intrinsic satisfaction.

225 exercise participants (females=190, males=64) with a mean age of 30.02 (SD=10.08) years participated in this study. Of the subjects, 150 came from health and fitness clubs, and the other 105 were college students who voluntarily participated in aerobic dance and in-line skating courses.

A series of exploratory factor analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted and the major findings were as follows: 1. The three prevailing factors were conceptually consistent with the investigators’ design: Task orientation, Ego orientation and Social orientation. 2. Enjoyment and boredom were significantly predicted by task orientation (β =.32 and -.16, respectively, p < .01) and perceived ability (β=.56 and -.16, respectively, p < .01).

Discussions are provided in terms of the findings and theoretical framework. Further research directions are also recommended.

 

Key words: achievement goal theory, social goal

 

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the fitness education model implementation in a real physical education teaching setting. Specifically, this study focused on the cultivation of future exercise habits and the difficulty factors in a self-designed and self-implemented fitness program. A physical educator with seven-year teaching experience, and sixty-four college students (52 females; 12 males) enrolled in an elective “Physical Fitness” course were the participants in this study. The semester duration was 18 weeks. Students met once a week for 90 minutes. Teaching methods included teacher lectures, teaching aids, fitness testing, unit demonstrations and activities, student self-designed and self-implemented fitness program, and group or individualized discussions. The fitness test and questionnaires were administered on the second and last week of the semester. Dependent t-test, content analysis, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings of this study were: (1) cardio-respiratory endurance, abdominal strength and endurance, and flexibility were significantly improved after the course; (2) most students (76.6%) thought the “Physical Fitness” course was helpful to cultivate future exercise habits; (3) the self-designed fitness programs had four common difficulty factors: the control of intensity, the selection of exercise mode, awards and controls, and the arrangement of activity schedules; and (4) the self-implemented fitness programs had three common difficulty factors: laziness or too many excuses, unable to follow the activity schedule, and weather problem.

 

Keyword: curricula, fitness education model, real teaching setting

 

The purposes of the study were to investigate the status of sports injuries and the styles of curing after injury on college-aged female gymnasts in Taiwan. Eighteen female gymnasts, who on average have participated in gymnastic sport for 12 years, volunteer as the subjects. The frequency, events, location, style, and timing of injuries in gymnastics were counted by a questionnaire. The frequencies and percentage were used as the descriptive statistics. The findings are as follows: 1. The frequencies of multiple injuries are more than 6 times in all of the subjects. 2. The most often occurrence of sports injuries in gymnastics events are the floor exercises, and then the balance beam. 3. The most common location of sports injuries in gymnastics is the ankle; the toe and heel are the next. 4. Soreness is the most common style of sports injuries. Sprain is the second commonest style of sports injuries in gymnastics. 5. The reasons for injuries occurrence in sequence are inadequate landing, lack of skill, and worse physical capacity, respectively. 6. Sports injuries occur more often in the C level motions regular training. 7. All of the subjects are following the PRICE principle to take care of acute injuries, and they prefer to choose western style of curing first if sports injuries occur.

 

Keyword: sports injury, female gymnast

 

The organization of writing is a logical arrangement to combine sentences into paragraphs (sentence groups) and then into a piece of writing. Such a logical structure exists in all of the writings. Modern scholars have sorted nearly 40 kinds of organization of writing in Chinese literary works. When reviewing the text of Mandarin for elementary school, I find the principles on the organization of writing also work. The texts I review are subject to the categories of Cause and Effect, Reflection, and Time Arrangement. In this article, I discuss seven of them that appear in the textbooks for elementary school. There are methods to present the correlation between cause and effect, the general and the specific, the positive and the negative, nominative and predicate, now and past, as well as reality and fantasy in respect of time arrangement. And there are descriptive essays, too. I give examples from 14 texts to analyze the seven types mentioned above. I present diagrams of structure analysis by each text and discuss the elaborate design to create these texts. Such analysis will help pupils to learn writing skills and enhance their reading level. On the other hand, teachers will benefit from the methodology on organization of writing. I believe it will deserve further research in this area concerning the development of the Nine–Year Integrated Curriculum.

 

Keyword: organization of writing, structure, text of Mandarin for elementary school, cause and effect, reflection, time arrangement, descriptive method, the method to present correlation between the general and the specific, the positive and the negative, nominative and predicate, now and past, the correlation between reality and fantasy in respect of time arrangement

 

Young Children learn music by humming children’s songs and chanting rhymes. In order to correspond with curriculum, many teachers have difficulty finding proper songs and rhymes to use in class. How pre-school teachers can compose simple children’s songs and rhymes is the main purpose of this research.

Besides the main purpose of this paper, the educational meaning of using children’s songs and rhymes, and the annalysis of children’s songs and rhymes are also included. In writing the lyrics, the methods include changing the original text and brain storming. In composing the melodies, brain storming, dice playing, cards, co-operation ways, and changing melodies can be employed. Besides, children’s songs are limited in certain conditions. For example, the text should match young children's own language as well as their life experiences. The music should not be too long. The range of pitch should match children's voice range. The use of interval range should not be over the fifth. The best choice of meter is 4/4. The major keys are preferred to the minor keys. The accidentals and modulations should be avoided. The long sustained notes are not suitable. One syllable covering several notes should also be avoided.

Finally, this study also reviews the present situation of preschool teachers’ composition and suggests methods of improvement.

 

Keyword: children’s song and rhyme composing, curriculum, music teaching

 

Phonological awareness (PA) training has long been regarded as one of the most important instructional elements for early education due to its critical role in learning to read an alphabetic language. For decades, remedial programs in PA training have been implemented to help reading disabled children, yet little research has been reported for adult learners, especially students at technological university level. The present study investigated the influence of PA training on phonics and vocabulary knowledge for technological university students. A total of 272 university freshmen participated in this study, with 133 of them in the experimental group and 139 in the control group. Each subject was requested to fill out a questionnaire, orally read the El Paso Phonics Survey, and took the Vocabulary Level Test. Students in the experimental group were offered a one-semester supplementary PA training focused on letter-sound correspondence, phonemic awareness, syllable awareness, phonogram identification, and phonetic symbols. The results showed that PA training could effectively improve subjects’ letter-sound correspondence and significantly increase their vocabulary knowledge. Since the majority of freshmen at technological university level had acquired very limited pronunciation knowledge before they were enrolled, it is suggested that English instructors should offer PA training to help students develop vocabulary knowledge.

 

Keyword: phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, phonics, technological university students

 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status and difficulty of carrying out information integration in mathematics teaching for elementary school teachers. Fuzzy scale and Likert’s scale were adopted. Subjects of this study were 246 teachers from northern Taiwan. The findings are as follows: (1)There is significant difference between gender and the experience of using computer in the performance of integrating information to teach mathematics. (2)By means of four indicators to sort out six factors, we find that “Time” is the most difficult factor and “Computer Literacy” is easier than the rest. (3)Using exploratory factor analysis, we find there are two factors: one is internal factor including “Willing and Pressure” and “Computer Literacy”; the other is external factor including “Time”, “Software and Hardware”, “School administrative support” and “Teaching materials”.(4)After using confirmatory factor analysis, we find that fuzzy scale exactly fits the model, but the data from Likert’s scale merely approaches the model.

 

Keyword: information integration in instruction, fuzzy scale, Likert’s scale, factor analysis

 

Objective of the study lies on assisting the professional growth of two practicing teachers through the help of Mathematics Teaching Development Group in one elementary school. Case studies have been conducted at Taipei County on elementary schools in the urban district of Hsin-tien. Information on group meeting analyses, teaching observations, and collections of relevant documents have been gathered to savvy the undergoing-progress of practicing teachers and their reflections on Mathematics teaching since joining the growth group. Influences of the growth group on the professional development of practicing teachers on Mathematics teaching are annotated. Two significant conclusions are derived. Firstly, the group focuses on the empirical teaching of Mathematics rather than on theoretical discussions. The developmental activities done by the growth group can further the Mathematics teaching efficacy of practicing teachers. Secondly, reflections of practicing teachers on Mathematics teaching differ in “quantity” and “quality”; thereby enhancing concerns of teaching by confabulating the empirical teaching of Mathematics; elucidating the relationship between teaching belief and empirical teaching emanated from the activities of Mathematics professional development; maintaining the professional development dynamism through supportive surroundings.

 

Keyword: growth group, professional development, practicing teachers, Mathematics teaching

 

The research is to investigate the operation and problems of a teacher’s first attempt to teach mathematics with high communication. This research uses the method of case study to derive data from observing two class settings and interviews for one semester in order to present the situations of particular teacher’s operation of mathematic classroom with high communication. The results indicate that whether the teacher’s teaching is from lecturing to communicative or from communicative to deeply communicative, the teachers’ main focuses would be different based on their backgrounds and needs. In the process of teaching, the characteristics of teachers’ first attempt of mathematics class with high communication are forming patterns, using previous experiences to handle new materials, attempting to control the direction and connection of materials, practicing the skills of leading communication, figuring out the flexible teaching skills, etc. In addition, the problems found include losing control of the direction and connection of materials, insufficient time, no obvious student improvement, proficiency gap due to different learning materials, interferences of students’ various activities, and teacher’s low trust of rationale. Some problems might be solved within a short time, such as increasing teaching concepts, realizing realistic teaching scenes, forming communicative patterns, etc. However, solutions like forming habits, turning conceptual into realistic teaching, being familiar with the sequences of teaching materials, guiding skills, and flexible teaching management can not be completed in a short time. This study is intended to represent the implemental characteristics of two teachers’ management of mathematic classrooms with high communication in order to provide some empirical references for mathematic teachers.

 

Keyword: Mathematics teaching, communicative Mathematics teaching

 

This paper has completed a study of the development of the science-related curriculum of general education of the National Taipei Teachers College. We collected the framework, the learning areas and the sublearning areas of general education curriculum of some universities in Taiwan. In addition, we interviewed two professors and two elementary school teachers to understand their viewpoints on general eduction and obtained the primary evaluation of the science-related curriculum of general education implemented in 2002 of our college. Finally, we constructed the framework of the science-related currculum of general education of the National Taipei Teachers College by referring to the framework, the learning areas, and the sublearning areas of those implemented by other universities. It includes three sublearning areas: they are Substance Science and Technology, Environment and Life Science, Math and Computer Science and Information respectively. We designed some related subjects in each sublearning areas which can be selected by students.

 

Keyword: general education, framework, learning areas, sublearning areas.

 

This study aims to understand the STS ingredient in three versions of fifth-and-sixth-grade textbooks in Taiwan. Topics with similar theme and with significant different STS ingredient among different versions are selected for comparison. The information can provide insight for textbook writing or improvements in teaching.

Three in-service teachers use STS Teaching Evaluation Indicators as instrument for content analysis. Scorer reliability among these evaluators is 0.96. After the evaluation, topics for further comparison are selected and contents are then analyzed. The research findings include, 1. Themes related to environment and everyday living are more easily integrated with the STS instructional approach. 2. To a similar theme, different versions adopt different approaches. Approaches beneficial to STS are identified. 3. The adoption of (1) societal issues, (2) information collection and problem solving, (3) respecting for oneself and different viewpoints, and (4) anchoring learning with real life situation, will substantially enhance the STS ingredients of science textbooks.

 

Keyword: elementary school, science, textbook, content analysis, science/technology/society, STS

 

The study was attempted to investigate the difference of teaching strategies to affect elementary and middle school students in learning microscope related curriculum by using biology classroom observation. The qualitative research method was used to collect and to analyze the research data, including the records of teaching activities, teaching diaries, students’ notes, interviews, observers’ diaries and TIWM, DODT test results, etc. The result indicated that the elementary school case teacher relied on the textbook for his teaching and emphasized the fun of learning, caring little about the learning effect. Therefore his students kept trying errors, and learned very little. The junior high school case teacher has enough scientism discipline but less teaching experience. Though she could reorganize the teaching material and coordinate teaching aid and media to carry on the teaching, she enumerated too many examples, so her students recited lectures without understanding. The senior high school case teacher has enough teaching experience and could reorganize the teaching material aid computer media to carry on the teaching. The students obtained the science essence because the teacher guided them to discuss and inquire for the science issue.

Because microscope related curriculum had many scientific terms, the junior high school case teacher explained the cell and the cell physiological phenomenon concepts by words. It caused the student to answer the question with intuition, speculation, and the experience of life. The study is intended to develop teaching module of the cell and the cell physiological phenomenon by collecting significant teaching strategies to improve teacher’s teaching and students’ learning.

 

Keyword: biology classroom observation, interpretative analysis, teaching belief, teaching strategy

 

Vegetation cover is an important variable in many Earth system processes. The aim of this research is to analyze spatial variations in vegetation characteristics of North America using principal component analysis. The study area is from 120°W to 50°W and 10°N to 70°N. The results show that the principal components 1, 2, and 3 explain 73%, 25%, and 2% of the variance in the original 4 vegetation maps (evergreen, deciduous, broadleaf, and needleleaf maps). Component 1 is highly correlated with needleleaf and evergreen vegetation. Component 2 is highly correlated with broadleaf and deciduous vegetation. This research used cluster analysis to generate 11 North American vegetation clusters.

 

Keyword: Vegetation cover, Principal Component Analysis, Cluster Analysis, North America.

 

The research was to investigate the influence on 4th-grade elementary students’ understanding of the nature of science through integrating the history of science into elementary school teaching in the domain of “Science & Life-Technology”. Within “ The Power ”, “ The Living Things in The Water ”, “Photosynthesis” and “ The Shape And The Revolution of The Earth ” courses, we chose adequate materials on the history of science, developed the supplementary teaching materials, set the teaching goals and designed the questions to guide students to discuss the nature of science. The participants were the researcher’s students. We conducted the analysis through multiple assessment instruments such as teaching activities, teaching videotapes, students’ workbooks, the survey data, the researching group to develop and revise the quantitative evaluative and interview instrument of the nature of science to understand the change of the students’ understanding of the nature of science.

The results showed that the teaching models integrating the history of science into the elementary school teaching could enhance the participants’ understanding of the nature of science. The researchers also gave suggestions to teaching and research in the future.

 

Keyword: the nature of science, history of science

 

The value of the educational technology is neutral. Its value depends on how to apply it effectively. This study demonstrates the process of second grade students’ self-learning of the course “The Small Dann-Shoei Town” in the Chinese Language Class by using the digital learning Hyperbook system, a tool developed for Computer-Aided Learning(CAL). This system combines the merits of textbooks and CAL tools. It can help learners to adapt to the new digital learning environment. The results show that children can understand the knowledge about the Dann-Shoei city through this digital learning system, and moreover, they can recognize and learn the meaning of new words and expressions.

 

Keyword: Hyperbook system, digital learning, elementary students

 

The purposes of this paper were to examine the current status and needs of elementary social studies teachers for their usage and integration of technology into instruction, including implementation levels, teachers’ attitudes, strategies, and impact factors. Three hundred and seventy five teachers from 28 schools participated in this survey. The valid sample was 316 social studies teachers. The results of this survey were as follows:

1. While implementing technology into classroom, most social studies teachers still put a lot emphasis on information presentation, rather than supporting instructional activities, enhancing interaction and sharing resources. They seldom used spreadsheets, let alone cooperated with other organizations via Internet.. 2. Teachers agreed that implementing technology into classroom might be helpful and they also felt positive toward technology integration. However, they complained that hardware, software and manpower supply were not sufficient. 3. Most teachers were equipped with basic technology and information literacy, but they were short of skills in implementing technology into instruction, especially teaching application ability as well as interaction with students via Internet. 4. The biggest obstacle of technology integration for teachers was no time for class preparation. And, the problems of equipment in regular classroom became the next. 5. Most teachers still used lecturing and discussion methods for teaching social studies. They used multimedia only for information presentation. 6. As to instructional design aspect, most social studies teachers spent much time in writing teaching plans and developing tests with computers. They seldom did analysis and development. Four suggestions were given in the end of this paper, including (1) develop the instructional models and strategies for teaching social studies with computers; (2) provide more supports from school administration; (3) prepare social studies teachers the ability for using technology in teaching; (4) prepare them the ability of multimedia instructional design.

 

Keyword: Elementary Social Studies, technology integrated instruction, teacher’s professional development

Click Num:
Login Success