Transformation for adults in an Internet‐based learning environment—is it necessary to be self‐directed?     

Regina Juchun Chu  Anita Zichun Chu  Cathy Weng  Chin‐Chung Tsai  Chia‐chun Lin 《British journal of educational technology : journal of the Council for Educational Technology》2012,43(2):205-216

This research explores the relationships between self‐directed learning readiness and transformative learning theory (TLT) reflected by the Constructivist Internet‐based Learning Environment Scale (CILES). A questionnaire survey about adult learner's perceptions of Internet‐based learning was administered to adults enrolled in classes in community colleges in Taiwan. A total of 593 valid questionnaires were used for the structural equation modeling analysis. The findings confirmed a second‐order hierarchical factor relationship of TLT (technical, dialectical and emancipatory learning interests) from CILES. Moreover, the three domains of learning interests of transformative learning were proved to have a developmental relationship, moderated by the readiness of self‐directed learning for adult learners in Internet‐based learning.  相似文献   

Development of a personalized educational computer game based on students’ learning styles   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Gwo-Jen Hwang  Han-Yu Sung  Chun-Ming Hung  Iwen Huang  Chin-Chung Tsai 《Educational technology research and development : ETR & D》2012,60(4):623-638

In recent years, many researchers have been engaged in the development of educational computer games; however, previous studies have indicated that, without supportive models that take individual students?? learning needs or difficulties into consideration, students might only show temporary interest during the learning process, and their learning performance is often not as good as expected. Learning styles have been recognized as being an important human factor affecting students?? learning performance. Previous studies have shown that, by taking learning styles into account, learning systems can be of greater benefit to students owing to the provision of personalized learning content presentation that matches the information perceiving and processing styles of individuals. In this paper, a personalized game-based learning approach is proposed based on the sequential/global dimension of the learning style proposed by Felder and Silverman. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a role-playing game has been implemented based on the approach; moreover, an experiment has been conducted on an elementary school natural science course. From the experimental results, it is found that the personalized educational computer game not only promotes learning motivation, but also improves the learning achievements of the students.  相似文献   

Using the Cognitive Apprenticeship Web-based Argumentation System to Improve Argumentation Instruction     

Chun-Yen Tsai  Brady Michael Jack  Tai-Chu Huang  Jin-Tan Yang 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2012,21(4):476-486

This study investigated how the instruction of argumentation skills could be promoted by using an online argumentation system. This system entitled ??Cognitive Apprenticeship Web-based Argumentation?? (CAWA) system was based on cognitive apprenticeship model. One hundred eighty-nine fifth grade students took part in this study. A quasi-experimental design was adopted and qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this online system in measuring students?? progress in learning argumentation. The results of this study showed that different teaching strategies had effects on students?? use of argumentation in the topics of daily life and the concept of ??vision.?? When the CAWA system was employed during the instruction and practice of argumentation on these two topics, the students?? argumentation performance improved. Suggestions on how the CAWA system could be used to enhance the instruction of argumentation skills in science education were also discussed.  相似文献   

Peer effects on academic cheating among high school students in Taiwan     

Chun-Li Tsai 《Asia Pacific Education Review》2012,13(1):147-155

Although academic cheating has been found to be a common phenomenon in high schools, few studies investigate how peers influence individual cheating behavior among high school students. In this paper, we estimate the cross-gender and intra-gender interaction effects on academic cheating among high school students in Taiwan. We detect the evidence of male–male and female–female peer interactions on academic cheating. The female–female interaction effect is stronger than the male–male interaction effect. These results imply girls are more influenced by female peers on academic cheating. The cross-gender interactions (male to female, female to male interactions) are not significant. Whereas, we find that all of the social interaction coefficients become insignificant when this model allows for school-specific fixed effects.  相似文献   

Improving ranking performance with cost-sensitive ordinal classification via regression     

Yu-Xun Ruan  Hsuan-Tien Lin  Ming-Feng Tsai 《Information Retrieval》2014,17(1):1-20

This paper proposes a novel ranking approach, cost-sensitive ordinal classification via regression (COCR), which respects the discrete nature of ordinal ranks in real-world data sets. In particular, COCR applies a theoretically sound method for reducing an ordinal classification to binary and solves the binary classification sub-tasks with point-wise regression. Furthermore, COCR allows us to specify mis-ranking costs to further improve the ranking performance; this ability is exploited by deriving a corresponding cost for a popular ranking criterion, expected reciprocal rank (ERR). The resulting ERR-tuned COCR boosts the benefits of the efficiency of using point-wise regression and the accuracy of top-rank prediction from the ERR criterion. Evaluations on four large-scale benchmark data sets, i.e., "Yahoo! Learning to Rank Challenge" and "Microsoft Learning to Rank,” verify the significant superiority of COCR over commonly used regression approaches.  相似文献   

Assessing South China (Guangzhou) High School Students’ Views on Nature of Science: A Validation Study     

Feng Deng  Ching Sing Chai  Chin-Chung Tsai  Tzung-Jin Lin 《Science & Education》2014,23(4):843-863

Research on students’ views on nature of science (VNOS) in Asian countries such as China is notably lacking. This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument to measure South China high school students’ VNOS. Based on the previously acquired qualitative data, the instrument included seven VNOS dimensions which reflect the crucial aspects of NOS indicated by the literature and/or the dominating ideology in China (i.e., Marxism). A sample (N = 604) was randomly divided into two groups used for exploratory analyses and confirmatory analyses. The results indicated that the instrument expressed satisfactory reliability and validity and the seven NOS dimensions could be explained by a higher-order dimension. That is, the data of this study supported the multi-dimensional framework that treats VNOS as comprising several more-or-less correlated dimensions. Two distinct dimensions, namely “Accumulative-Empirical Source” and “Pragmatic Justification” which have not been explicitly specified in the past literature, were found. In addition, the Chinese high school students generally held a constructivist/relativist-oriented view of all seven dimensions. Differences in gender and grade level were hardly observed in any dimension of the instrument. The findings are further discussed through a socio-cultural lens to enrich the current understanding of VNOS.  相似文献   

Family man in advertising? A content analysis of male domesticity and fatherhood in Taiwanese commercials     

Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai 《亚洲交流杂志》2013,23(4):423-439

This study examines how Taiwanese commercials represent women and men, particularly men, in the family context as spouses and parents. A content analysis of prime-time commercials indicates that advertising representations of gender roles have made only slight and slow progress. Men are much less likely than women to be shown doing housework and taking care of children. When men are shown as nurturant fathers, their involvements with children are limited to playing with offspring.  相似文献   

The Commonalities and Dissonances Between High-School Students' and Their Science Teachers' Conceptions of Science Learning and Conceptions of Science Assessment: A Taiwanese sample study     

Tzung-Jin Lin  Chin-Chung Tsai 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(3):382-405

The main purpose of this study was to concurrently investigate Taiwanese high-school students' and their science teachers' conceptions of learning science (COLS) and conceptions of science assessment (COSA). A total of 1,048 Taiwanese high-school students and their 59 science teachers were invited to fill out two questionnaires assessing their COSA and COLS. The main results indicated that, first, although a handful of different patterns occurred, students and teachers were found to have similar COLS–COSA patterns. In general, students and teachers with COSA as reproducing knowledge and rehearsing tended to possess lower-level COLS, such as learning science as memorizing, testing, and calculating and practicing. In contrast, if students and teachers viewed science assessment as improving learning and problem-solving, they would be prone to regard science learning as increase of knowledge, applying, and understanding and seeing in a new way. However, the students' conceptions did not align with those of the teachers' in certain aspects. The students tended to regard science learning and assessment at a superficial level (COLS as ‘memorizing’, ‘testing’, and ‘calculating and practicing’ and COSA as ‘reproducing knowledge’), while the teachers’ conceptions were at a more sophisticated level (COLS as ‘application’ and ‘understanding and seeing in a new way’ and COSA as ‘improving learning’). It is evident that a dissonance exists between the students' and teachers' COLS and COSA. Based on the results, practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.  相似文献   

Impact of a Scientist–Teacher Collaborative Model on Students,Teachers, and Scientists     

Paichi Pat Shein  Chun-Yen Tsai 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(13):2147-2169

Collaborations between the K-12 teachers and higher education or professional scientists have become a widespread approach to science education reform. Educational funding and efforts have been invested to establish these cross-institutional collaborations in many countries. Since 2006, Taiwan initiated the High Scope Program, a high school science curriculum reform to promote scientific innovation and inquiry through an integration of advanced science and technology in high school science curricula through partnership between high school teachers and higher education scientists and science educators. This study, as part of this governmental effort, a scientist–teacher collaborative model (STCM) was constructed by 8 scientists and 4 teachers to drive an 18-week high school science curriculum reform on environmental education in a public high school. Partnerships between scientists and teachers offer opportunities to strengthen the elements of effective science teaching identified by Shulman and ultimately affect students’ learning. Mixed methods research was used for this study. Qualitative methods of interviews were used to understand the impact on the teachers’ and scientists’ science teaching. A quasi-experimental design was used to understand the impact on students’ scientific competency and scientific interest. The findings in this study suggest that the use of the STCM had a medium effect on students’ scientific competency and a large effect on students’ scientific individual and situational interests. In the interviews, the teachers indicated how the STCM allowed them to improve their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and the scientists indicated an increased knowledge of learners, knowledge of curriculum, and PCK.  相似文献   

High school students’ approaches to learning physics with relationship to epistemic views on physics and conceptions of learning physics     

Guo-Li Chiou  Chin-Chung Tsai 《Research in Science & Technological Education》2013,31(1):1-15

Background and purpose : Knowing how students learn physics is a central goal of physics education. The major purpose of this study is to examine the strength of the predictive power of students’ epistemic views and conceptions of learning in terms of their approaches to learning in physics. Sample, design and method : A total of 279 Taiwanese high school students ranging from 15 to 18?years old participated in this study. Three questionnaires for assessing high school students’ epistemic views on physics, conceptions of learning physics and approaches to learning physics were developed. Step-wise regression was performed to examine the predictive power of epistemic views on physics and conceptions of learning physics in terms of their approaches to learning physics. Results and conclusion: The results indicated that, in general, compared to epistemic views on physics, conceptions of learning physics are more powerful in predicting students’ approaches to learning physics in light of the regression models. That is, students’ beliefs about learning, compared with their beliefs about knowledge, may be more associated with their learning approaches. Moreover, this study revealed that the higher-level conceptions of learning physics such as ‘Seeing in a new way’ were more likely to be positively correlated with the deep approaches to learning physics, whereas the lower-level conceptions such as ‘Testing’ were more likely to positively explain the surface approaches, as well as to negatively predict the deep approaches to learning physics.  相似文献