High School Students In Taiwan Research Articles

Analyzing academic achievement of junior high school students by an improved rough set model

Rough set theory (RST) is an emerging technique used to deal with problems in data mining and knowledge acquisition. However, the RST approach has not been widely explored in the field of academic achievement. This investigation developed an improved RST (IMRST) model, which employs linear discriminant analysis to determine a reduct of RST, and analyzed the academic achievements of junior high school students in Taiwan. An interactive interface was created so that students could answer questions to predict their academic achievement and they could learn essential skills for improving their academic achievement. Empirical results showed that the IMRST model selects crucial information from data without predetermining factors and can provide accurate rates for inference rules. Hence, the developed IMRST model is a promising alternative for analyzing academic achievement data.

Scaffolding and web concordancers as support for language learning

The present study investigates the effects of scaffolding and web concordancers on students' proofreading performance. The study addresses the following research questions: (1) How does a concordancer search enhance students' proofreading performance? (2) How does scaffolding for concordancer searches enhance students' proofreading performance? (3) Does scaffolding have a lasting effect on students' concordance-assisted proofreading performance? (4) Does scaffolding affect students' level of certainty about their proofreading performance? (5) What are the students' perceptions of the effects of the web concordancer and scaffolding? A class of 26 senior high school students in Taiwan participated in this study. The results of the present study showed significant improvement in students' proofreading performance with the support of concordancer searches. Proofreading scores of the scaffolding group were significantly higher than the scores of the non-scaffolding group, and this improvement appeared to remain after the removal of scaffolding. Moreover, the prompts boosted the students' level of certainty about their performance in proofreading tasks. As for the results of the study's questionnaire survey, the students' responses suggested an overall favorable perception.

The Role of Career Barriers in High School Students' Career Choice Behavior in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of career barriers in social cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994). The participants were 584 high school students in Taiwan, Republic of China. The gender differences in perceived career barriers and career self‐efficacy were significant. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that some of the perceived career barriers were significant in predicting individuals' career choice behavior after controlling for career self‐efficacy in certain career types.

Exploring the Structural Relationships between High School Students’ Scientific Epistemological Views and their Utilization of Information Commitments toward Online Science Information

The main purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationships between scientific epistemological views (SEVs) and information commitments (ICs) of high school students in Taiwan. Data were collected from 486 Taiwanese high school students via two self‐reporting instruments: one was the SEV questionnaire, including five scales for representing students’ views toward scientific knowledge; and the other was the ICs survey, involving six scales for exploring their evaluative standards and searching strategies of online science information. Structural equation modelling analysis was used to examine the relationships between the aspects of SEVs and ICs. The results of the measurement model confirmed that both the SEVs and ICs instruments had highly satisfactory validity and reliability. The structural equation modelling analysis further indicated that students’ SEVs guided their evaluative standards and searching strategy when dealing with Web‐based science information. For example, students who viewed scientific knowledge as more changeable and tentative significantly tended to adopt a more sophisticated evaluative standard, such as carefully inspecting the content of web sites for judging the usefulness. The findings in general suggested that students with more constructivist‐oriented SEVs might develop more advanced standards and searching strategy toward online scientific information to derive great benefit from Web‐based environments. Consequently, the role of SEVs should be highlighted as increasingly metacognitive engagement with online science information.

Prevalence of Tobacco Use Among Junior High and Senior High School Students in Taiwan

Tobacco use is a major preventable cause of death in the world. This article describes and compares tobacco use prevalence for students attending junior high schools and senior high schools in Taiwan. This report uses data from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) completed among 4689 junior high school students and 4426 senior high school students in Taiwan in 2004-2005. The GYTS uses a 2-stage sampling design to produce nationally representative data for junior and senior high students in general and vocational schools. Higher smoking prevalence was observed among senior high (10.1% general schools and 15.9% vocational schools) than junior high (5.5%) school students. Smoking prevalence of girls in junior high (3.2%) and senior high schools (4.6% general and 11.1% vocational) was almost as high or higher than adult females' (4.3%) smoking rates. The pattern of smoking intensity across school years and type of school shows that the percentage of smokers who were experimenters (47.1%) was higher in junior high school and the percentage of smokers who were regular/established smokers (over 50%) was higher in senior high school. Smoking prevalence described in this report shows that there are challenges facing the tobacco prevention and control program in Taiwan. The findings suggest that schools should increase their smoking initiation prevention efforts and make available cessation programs and counseling to help students quit smoking. If effective youth tobacco control programs are not developed and implemented in Taiwan, future morbidity and mortality attributed to tobacco will surely increase, especially among women.

Intertextuality in Chinese High School Students' Essay Writing

This paper investigates the intertextual practices developed for writing in Chinese of high school students in Taiwan. On the basis of texts written by Chinese high school students, we investigate these practices within their own cultural context to develop an understanding of intertextual practices into which Chinese learners are socialised. We examine the intertextual features of texts, the evaluations made by teachers of these practices and the teaching approaches adopted by teachers to teach them. It is argued that Chinese practices of intertextuality should not be considered as deviant but rather understood in their own cultural context as valued practices, which constitute and are perceived as aspects of good writing.

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-ll Using the Rasch Model

The authors investigated the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II-C: Chinese Behavioral Science Corporation. 2000) within the Rasch framework in terms of dimensionality, item difficulty, and category functioning. Two underlying scale dimensions, relatively high item difficulties, and a need for collapsing 2 response categories of the BD1- Il-C were identified for high school students in Taiwan.

Learning about seasons in a technologically enhanced environment: The impact of teacher‐guided and student‐centered instructional approaches on the process of students' conceptual change

AbstractTo explore the ways in which teacher‐guided and student‐centered instructional approaches influence students' conceptual understanding of seasonal change, we designed a technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) course to compare, by means of concept maps, the learning outcome of students in two groups: a teacher‐guided (TG) class (with whole‐class presentations) and a student‐centered (SC) class (with individual online learning). The participants were two classes of second‐year senior high school students in Taiwan. Overall, the results showed that most students developed a deep and accessible understanding of the reasons for the seasons after undergoing experiences provided by the TEL course. More importantly, it was found that, in this technologically enhanced environment, the student‐centered approach was more effective than the teacher‐guided approach in altering students' alternative conceptions of seasonal change (F = 28.05, p < 0.001). The conceptual evolution of students in the two groups was plotted and compared. These plots indicated that, first of all, the cognitive processes of contextualization and sense making helped students re‐examine their old ideas about the phenomena, leading them to generate alternative conceptions and undergo both positive and negative conceptual change. The student‐centered approach allows students to more freely test their own hypotheses in the processes of exploration and modeling, and thus move from assimilatory to properly scientific explanations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 92:320–344, 2008

A Study of Reward Preference in Taiwanese Gifted and Nongifted Students with Differential Locus of Control

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether gifted and nongifted students' preferences for different types of reward were affected by differential locus of control. In total, 181 gifted and 107 nongifted junior high school students in Taiwan participated. The Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale was used as a measure of locus of control. A survey of reward preference was designed to look at students' evaluations of the reward systems. The results showed that the gifted students tended to evaluate competition rewards significantly higher when compared to the nongifted students; the nongifted students tended to evaluate chance rewards significantly higher than the gifted students. However, there was no significant difference between the gifted students and nongifted students in their evaluation of performance rewards. An interaction effect between ability and locus of control for chance rewards indicated that the nongifted/moderate and nongifted/external students preferred chance rewards more than the other groups. Irrespective of ability level, however, the findings indicated that the higher the internality, the higher were the students' preferences for the contingent (competition and performance) rewards.

The role of EKG in identification of congenital cardiac defects

Some congenital cardiac defects may go unrecognized in the clinical setting. This is particularly true of atrial septal defects. It is not clear if more routine use of EKG as a screening tool in children would be beneficial in detecting those abnormalities. In this issue of The Journal, Chiu et al report on a school-based study using a simplified 4 lead EKG in first and fourth grade elementary school students and junior high school students in Taiwan. After excluding those with known heart disease, the prevalence of conduction defects was 0.75%.

Initial age of unlicensed motorcycling experience for a cohort of high school students

The aim of this study is to use retrospective data to examine the initial age of unlicensed motorcycling experience for a cohort of senior high school students in Taiwan. The life-table method was applied to estimate the probability of unlicensed motorcycling at different age intervals below the minimum licensing age. The results indicated that an increase in the prevalence of unlicensed teenage motorcycling began at 10 years of age and peaked in the ages between 16 and 17 years. Only 38% of students had no motorcycle riding experience when they reached the minimum licensing age of 18 years. Gender and parental attitude were the factors that had a significant influence on the initial motorcycling age. In addition, we observed a significant difference between licensed and unlicensed students in the following areas: parental attitude, proportion of students using borrowed motorcycles, and riding and accident frequency. The results reveal a number of important implications, such as the promotion of alternative modes of transport, increased parental monitoring, and penalty enhancement, that may help to suppress the tendency of teenagers’ unlicensed motorcycling.

Two-phase survey of eating disorders in gifted dance and non-dance high-school students in Taiwan

Despite a growing body of literature reporting eating disorders (EDs) in non-Western countries in recent years, most of these studies are limited to questionnaire-based surveys or case-series studies. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and correlates of EDs in Taiwanese high-school students. The study subjects consisted of all the female high-school students enrolled in the gifted dance class in 2003 in Taiwan (n=655) and non-dance female students randomly chosen from the same school (n=1251). All the participants were asked to complete self-report questionnaires, including the 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and the Bulimic Investigatory Test Edinburgh (BITE). All the screen positives and an approximate 10% random sample of the screen negatives were then interviewed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders Patient Version (SCID-I/P). The prevalence of individual EDs was much higher in the dance [0.7% for anorexia nervosa (AN), 2.5% for bulimia nervosa (BN) and 4.8% for EDs, not otherwise specified (EDNOS)] than in the non-dance (0.1, 1.0 and 0.7% respectively) students. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that being in the dance class, higher concern about body shape and lower family support were correlates of EDs for all students, whereas lower parental education level was associated with EDs only for non-dance students. EDs were more prevalent in the weight-concerned subpopulation. Although AN is still rare, BN has emerged as a comparable prevalent disorder in Taiwan, as in Western countries.

Social influences and self‐efficacy as predictors of youth smoking initiation and cessation: a 3‐year longitudinal study of vocational high school students in Taiwan

This 3-year longitudinal study examined changes in patterns of risk factors and protective factors of smoking initiation and cessation among vocational high school students in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2000, a total of 2151 10th grade students from 16 vocational high schools were assessed and followed up in the 11th and 12th grades. Self-administered questionnaires were collected in each year to assess the pattern of changes in smoking behaviors, and risk and protective factors. Of the 1654 non-smokers in the 10th grade, 227 students initiated smoking by the 12th grade. Higher risk factors such as peer smoking, peers offering cigarettes, alcohol use and lower protective factors, such as refusal self-efficacy, antismoking attitude and belief in the 10th grade predicted youth initiation by grade 12. Increases in risk factors and decreases in protective factors during the years from 10th to 12th grades were associated significantly with youth smoking initiation. Of the 494 smokers in the 10th grade, 76 students quit smoking by the 12th grade. Lower risk factors and higher protective factors in 10th grade smokers predict youth smoking cessation by grade 12. Decreases in risk factors and increases in protective factors were associated significantly with youth smoking cessation. The risk factors (i.e. social influences) and protective factors (i.e. self-efficacy) examined in this study predict both youth smoking initiation and youth smoking cessation.

Net-friends: Adolescents’ attitudes and experiences vs. teachers’ concerns

This study has three chief purposes: (1) identify Taiwan adolescents' attitudes and experiences regarding their online relationships, (2) understand teachers' attitudes and concerns about students' online relationships, and (3) investigate the discrepancies between students and teachers on these issues. The researchers surveyed 494 middle and high school students in Taiwan and interviewed 21 teachers as well. The results indicated that having net-friends is a part of Taiwan adolescents' social lives. They are quite honest about the personal information they reveal with their online friends and generally have very positive attitudes regarding their online relationships. Some have gone beyond online interactions to meet in person, often without telling their parents or teachers. In contrast, this phenomenon of online friendships is not common for teachers. Most teachers did not have first-hand experiences themselves because they are either too busy or have no desire to use the Internet to form friendships. Teachers generally think students are too young to handle the complicated, anonymous, casual interactions found in cyberspace and they believe students should know more about how to protect themselves in online relationships. Interpretations and comments are discussed and recommendations for future studies are provided.

Factors associated with alcohol consumption, problem drinking, and related consequences among high school students in Taiwan

This research evaluated the risk factors associated with alcohol consumption, problem drinking, and related consequences among high school students in Taiwan. A total of 779 10th grade students from four randomly selected high schools in eastern Taiwan were included in the survey. Survey data were self-reported by students and analyzed using logistic regression methods. The results showed that alcohol consumption and problem drinking was 2.22-2.71-fold greater in male than in female adolescents. Parents and peer groups were the determinants influencing alcohol consumption, and these influences could be enhanced particularly by the drinking behaviors of fathers and peer groups, and the relationship of students with their peer groups. The probability of developing adolescent problem drinking was fourfold greater in students whose fathers had habits of drinking. Ethnicity had a notable impact on the risk of problem drinking. The occurrence of problem drinking among indigenous adolescents was 2.98-fold higher than among Hans, indicating a diversity of biological factors, social norms, and expectation for alcohol drinking between these two ethnic groups. This study suggests that a policy for preventing alcohol abuse among high school students should start by addressing the two major associated problems: a need to earn peer group recognition, and the lack of family support among at-risk students.

Teacher Overinvolvement and Student Depression among Junior High School Students in Taiwan

This study examines depression in students at public high schools in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to examine which student-level and teacher-level variables affect student depression due to teacher emotional overinvolvement and other factors. A survey instrument adapted and translated from existing surveys was distributed to 1,479 Taiwanese adolescents aged 13—15 years and 172 teachers from 10 public junior high schools in the city of Taipei. The hierarchical linear model (HLM) was used for a cross-level analysis of the data. The HLM shows that student-level measures account for most of the variance. Teacher emotional overinvolvement and core self-evaluations are the preponderant influences on student ratings. In terms of teacher-level variables, the effects of teacher involvement, teacher depression, and teacher educational background on student-level variables are strong and significant. The findings of this study recommend the development of a comprehensive counseling system for teachers and students.

Exploring high school students' and teachers' preferences toward the constructivist Internet‐based learning environments in Taiwan

This paper explores high school students' and teachers' preferences towards constructivist Internet‐based learning environments. The study proposes a framework, including two dimensions and five aspects, to illustrate the features of the Internet‐based learning environments. Based upon this framework, the Constructivist Internet‐based learning environment survey improvement (CILESI) was developed, which includes the scales of ease of use, multiple sources, student negotiation, reflective thinking, critical judgement and epistemological awareness. Questionnaire responses gathered from 630 high school students in Taiwan suggested that the CILESI showed adequate reliability in assessing students' preferences. Male students placed more emphasis on the student negotiation, critical judgement and epistemological awareness enhanced by the Internet‐based learning environments than female students did. In addition, the teachers of the sampled students (n = 78) were also surveyed by CILESI. The teachers tended to express stronger preferences on the ease of use of the Internet‐based learning environments than did their students. However, students, when compared with their teachers, seemed to express more preferences towards the features of student negotiation, reflective thinking, critical judgement and epistemological awareness of Internet‐based learning environments.

Role of parents and peers in influencing the smoking status of high school students in Taiwan

Objectives: To assess parental influence on smoking behaviour by high school students in an Asian culture and to compare the relative importance of parental and peer influence. Methods: A 5%...

Developing a Multi‐dimensional Instrument for Assessing Students’ Epistemological Views toward Science

The purpose of this study was to describe the development and validation of an instrument to identify various dimensions of scientific epistemological views (SEVs) held by high school students. The instrument included five SEV dimensions (subscales): the role of social negotiation on science, the invented and creative reality of science, the theory‐laden exploration of science, the cultural impacts on science, and the changing features of science. Six hundred and thirteen high school students in Taiwan responded to the instrument. Data analysis indicated that the instrument developed in this study had satisfactory validity and reliability measures. Correlation analysis and in‐depth interviews supported the legitimacy of using multiple dimensions in representing student SEVs. Significant differences were found between male and female students, and between students’ and their teachers’ responses on some SEV dimensions. Suggestions were made about the use of the instrument to examine complicated interplays between SEVs and science learning, to evaluate science instruction, and to understand the cultural differences in epistemological views of science.

Sensitizing Students to Cultural-linguistic Diversity through English-Language Classes in a Multicultural Taiwan

ABSTRACT Taiwan, once called Formosa (meaning “beautiful island” in Portuguese), is a country with a diverse ethno-linguistic heritage, and therefore it is a multiracial, multicultural, and multilingual country. The society consists of more than 10 different aboriginal communities in addition to the 3H: three different groups of Hun peoples (Hoklo or Minnan group speakers, Hakka speakers, and Holam in Amis language—the latest immigrants). This paper explores how the different cultural backgrounds of senior high-school students in Taiwan in a multilingual classroom that promoted multilingualism allow them to come to value other languages spoken in their classes or in their communities. Evidence supporting students' attitudes and motivation in learning community languages and English came from close analysis of interactional patterns with peers and teachers in classes and informal settings, from students' explanations of their school experiences in group work, and from interviews with students, parents, community figures, and educational leaders over a four-month period during the process of the course. Sensitizing students to cultural-linguistic diversity through English language classes in a multicultural Taiwan has the potential to promote multilingualism and pluralism in minority and majority group students who study several languages at a time in a multilingual classroom.