Taiwanese College Research Articles

Professional qualities of an effective English language teacher: as seen by Taiwanese university students

An effective teacher plays a crucial role in the process of learning English as a foreign language (EFL) when students’ opportunities to English exposure outside the classroom are limited. The aim of this study was to examine professional characteristics that an effective EFL teacher should have as perceived by Taiwanese university students. A four-section questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument, and the study sample included responses from 68 senior students majoring in EFL. The results show that the three most significant characteristics of an effective teacher of English in the eyes of Taiwanese university students are not related specifically to the teacher’s knowledge of the subject or English proficiency level. Those characteristics can be attributed to any teacher, and they include providing clear grading guidelines, giving clear explanations, and preparing each lesson well. The findings may contribute valid information on college students’ expectations of EFL teachers in the Asian educational context and help make the language learning process more effective.

Problem-Based Learning and Capstone Course Teaching Strategies for University Social Responsibility: The Case of a Packaging Design Course

Most design courses in Taiwanese universities still follow the traditional teaching methods that cannot address the complex and interdisciplinary problems of the real world. In response to this, this study tries to integrate problem-based learning and capstone course approaches with university social responsibility to packaging design courses. It expects the hybrid teaching model will allow third-year college students to gain problem-solving skills, practical experience, and awareness of social responsibility in the design process. Therefore, this paper aims at addressing the following purposes: (1) explore each teaching approach’s features and the influence on design education; and (2) identify the implementation process for the new hybrid teaching method. This study uses qualitative research to obtain primary information, including authors’ observation and reflection and semi-structured interviews with 12 students and four clients. After three years of data collection and analysis, this study validates that the hybrid teaching method is suitable for design education and proposes a seven-stage implementation model applied to professional design courses. Adjustment according to the needs of different fields, providing a reference for teachers’ future curriculum planning and practice is included.

Enhancing online learning environments using social presence: evidence from hospitality online courses during COVID-19

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has flipped traditional face-to-face exchanges. This quickly prompted involuntary changes that required appropriate pedagogical strategies suited to online courses. This study explored the experiences, interactions, and social presence (SP) of participants involved in the 2020 spring term postgraduate program in a Taiwanese university. Through the interviews with instructors and students, SP was analyzed in terms of affective association, community cohesion, instructor involvement, and interaction intensity. Results showed that SP was perceived favorably by students while teachers have attempted to enhance the learning environment by augmenting the SP indicators. This study advances the understanding that despite having low perceptions on community cohesiveness and interaction intensity, there is some emerging evidence to suggest that SP has been observed by learners even under the pressures and limitations imposed by COVID-19 on HEIs. Theoretical and practical contributions are provided to assist universities navigating their way out of COVID-19.

Relationship between ‘employability’ and ‘higher education’ from global ranker and accreditor’s perspectives—does a gap exist between institutional policy making and implementation in taiwan higher education?

ABSTRACT Driven by global rankings and national quality assurance (QA) initiatives, Taiwan’s higher education institutions were encouraged to develop strategic plans and initiatives, in order to improve graduate student employability. The purpose of this study is to explore the polices and strategies adopted by Taiwanese higher education institutions, with a particular focus on ‘employability’, in terms of standards and indicators of QS ranking and Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) programme accreditation in 2017. This paper analysed strategic plans and self-assessments reports from 20 Taiwanese universities in order to determine the impact of ranking and QA on employability initiatives and associated implications for institutional policy. The study presents three major findings. First, the emergence of global ranking and national quality assurance systems pressured Taiwanese universities to situate several employability initiatives within their institutional strategic plans. Second, Taiwanese universities applied varying approaches to the integration of graduate employability into institutional policies and strategic plans, according to ranking and national accreditation standards. Third, the gap between institutional policy making and actual implementation of employability initiatives exists in the Taiwanese context.

A Personality-Driven Recommender System for Cross-Domain Learning Based on Holland Code Assessments

Over the past few decades, AI has been widely used in the field of education. However, very little attention has been paid to the use of AI for enhancing the quality of cross-domain learning. College/university students are often interested in different domains of knowledge but may be unaware of how to choose relevant cross-domain courses. Therefore, this paper presents a personality-driven recommender system that suggests cross-domain courses and related jobs by computing personality similarities and probable course grades. In this study, 710 students from 12 departments in a Taiwanese university conducted Holland code assessments. Based on the assessments, a comprehensive empirical study, including objective and subjective evaluations, was performed. The results reveal that (1) the recommender system shows very promising performances in predicting course grades (objective evaluations), (2) most of the student testers had encountered difficulties in selecting cross-domain courses and needed the further support of a recommender system, and (3) most of the student testers positively rated the proposed system (subjective evaluations). In summary, Holland code assessments are useful for connecting personalities, interests and learning styles, and the proposed system provides helpful information that supports good decision-making when choosing cross-domain courses.

Use of Knowledge Transfer Theory to Improve Learning Outcomes of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills of University Students: Evidence From Taiwan.

Previous studies have explored a multitude of factors influencing student learning outcomes based on various theories. Knowledge transfer theory was adopted to develop the antecedents of student learning outcomes in the complete learning process. This study aims to explore the conspicuousness between various factors within the structural model, such as knowledge transfer, student orientation, and absorptive capacity, by combining marketing and management concepts with higher education studies. This study takes Taiwanese University students as its research samples, and purposive sampling is adopted. A total of 873 questionnaires are collected in this study. PLS-SEM was used to verify the structural relationship in data analysis via running of SmartPLS. The results indicate that knowledge transfer and student orientation have significant impacts on students' absorptive capacity and learning outcomes and that students' prior knowledge has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between knowledge transfer and absorptive capacities. Based on these findings, the researchers propose feasible suggestions for related issues and future research.

Motivation for learning Chinese in a study abroad context: Vietnamese students in Taiwan

ABSTRACT This article examines Vietnamese students’ motivation for learning Mandarin Chinese during their study abroad in Taiwan and their construction of self in relation to this language learning motivation. A combination of several concepts of ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, instrumental motive, integrative motive, linguistic capital, and multiple self-aspects is used as a theoretical lens to gain insights into the students’ Chinese learning motivation. The study employs a qualitative research approach in which semi-structured interviews with English-medium students from five Taiwanese universities were conducted. Findings reveal that the students’ motivation for learning Chinese contributed to portraying their ideal and ought-to Chinese selves, which subsume their different instrumental and integrative motives for language learning. The ideal Chinese self they would like to become possesses Chinese linguistic capital, which would confer on them advantages pertaining to their study, career development and social relations. The students’ ideal Chinese self also incorporates and reinforces their (desired) cultural, economic and social selves. Implications for supporting international students’ motivation for out-of-class language learning and their construction of self at the institutional level are then discussed.

Exploring the Differences in Taiwanese University Students’ Online Learning Task Value, Goal Orientation, and Self-Efficacy Before and After the COVID-19 Outbreak

To date, researchers have not yet incorporated some prominent motivation theories to scrutinize and dissect learners’ motivations of online learning, especially in this period of time under the influence of COVID-19. This study aimed to explore 558 Taiwanese university students’ various online learning motivations, and to compare the salient differences before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. A survey named “COVID-19 Online Learning Motivation (COLM)” questionnaire was developed to thoughtfully evaluate the students’ online learning task value, goal orientation, and self-efficacy. The results indicate that, first, the COLM questionnaire was valid and reliable for adequately probing the students’ various online learning motivations. In general, the students expressed substantial increase in agreement for Attainment value, Utility value, Mastery-approach goal, Mastery-avoidance goal, Performance-avoidance goal, and Functional self-efficacy after the COVID-19 outbreak. This study further compared the two groups of students’ scores on the COLM scales based on whether they had actual online learning experiences during the pandemic. The findings suggest that the students who had experienced comprehensive online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic may have held lower expectations regarding the personal relevance and anticipated future practicality of adopting online learning before the pandemic. Interestingly, these preexisting differences on the two scales seemed to diminish after the outbreak of COVID-19, implying that this distressing pandemic which occurred worldwide did indeed have some impacts on how the Taiwanese university students valued the personal relevance and the future expected returns of adopting online learning in higher education.

Factors Related to Intentions to Commit Dating Violence among Taiwanese University Students: Application of the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior.

Dating violence (DV) constitutes a major public health and safety issue worldwide; however, only limited research into this important subject has been conducted in Taiwan. This study examined university students’ intention to commit DV, based on the expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB), with a history of family violence and gender stereotyping also included as further factors in the original TPB model. A total random sample consisting of 450 university students from four universities in four regions in Taiwan, namely, the northern, southern, central, and eastern regions, participated. Of these participants, 365 (81.1%) completed all of the parts of the questionnaires, which included a survey of demographic data, such as any history of family violence; a gender stereotyping questionnaire; and a DV behavioral intention questionnaire. The results showed that the three main variables of the TPB—that is, subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control—significantly related to university students’ intentions to commit DV. More specifically, university students’ attitudes and subjective norms emerged as significant related factors of their intention to commit DV behaviors. Overall, the expanded TPB explained 30.4% of the variance in DV intentions, and attitude was the most significant factors after controlling the background variables. These findings can hopefully be used to help design and implement programs for the prevention of DV behaviors among university students.

Polish – just like “another english”: perceptions of translanguaging and other bilingual practices in English and Polish FL classrooms in Taiwanese universities

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how English and Polish FL learners in Taiwan perceive translanguaging and other bilingual practices implemented in university classrooms. Around 70% of the questionnaire respondents were positive about monolingual instruction, however, only 7% though it should prevail. More than 90% accepted the usage of more than one language in class. Among the main benefits of single-language instruction, efficiency of the learning process and promoting one’s listening and speaking skills were mentioned. Deeper understanding and easier self-expression were seen as the main benefits of the bilingual approach. Different in-class activities that should be carried out in the target/native language have also been listed. Generally, the participants preferred mixed-language instruction, although they were aware of the benefits of the monolingual approach. Thus, teachers may consider including more diversified techniques to answer to the varying needs of Taiwanese EFL and PFL learners.

Enhancing metacognition through thinking instruction: A case study in a Taiwanese university

Enhancing metacognition through thinking instruction: A case study in a Taiwanese university

Cultural variations in global and local attention and eye-movement patterns during the perception of complex visual scenes: Comparison of Czech and Taiwanese university students.

Previous research on cross-cultural differences in visual attention has been inconclusive. Some studies have suggested the existence of systematic differences in global and local attention and context sensitivity, while others have produced negative or mixed results. The objective in this study was to examine the similarities and differences in holistic and analytic cognitive styles in a sample of Czech and Taiwanese university students. Two cognitive tasks were conducted: a Compound Figures Test and a free-viewing scene perception task which manipulated several focal objects and measured eye-movement patterns. An analysis of the reaction times in the Compound Figures Test showed no clear differences between either sample. An analysis of eye-movement metrics showed certain differences between the samples. While Czechs tended to focus relatively more on the focal objects measured by the number of fixations, the Taiwanese subjects spent more time fixating on the background. The results were consistent for scenes with one or two focal objects. The results of a correlation analysis of both tasks showed that they were unrelated. These results showed certain differences between the samples in visual perception but were not as systematic as the theory of holistic and analytic cognitive styles would suggest. An alternative model of cross-cultural differences in cognition and perception is discussed.

The relationships between internal quality assurance and learning outcome assessments: challenges confronting universities in Japan and Taiwan

ABSTRACT This study probes the execution of internal quality assurance vis-à-vis learning outcome assessments in Japanese and Taiwanese universities. To this end, it applies Elken and Stensaker’s theoretical framework of ‘quality work’ to ascertain the following: (1) how universities build internal quality assurance; (2) what learning outcome assessments are embedded in internal quality assurance mechanisms; (3) how universities perceive internal quality assurance in relation to learning outcome assessments. Both nations offer shared perspectives on the correlations between internal quality assurance and learning outcome assessments: (i) tasks are simultaneously performed; (ii) internal quality assurance is the purpose and learning outcome assessment is a means to achieve it; (iii) the two tasks are decoupled. However, only Japan evinces the internal quality assurance as supply (assessment) and demand (outcomes). The finding initiates discourse on the purpose of internal quality assurance and cautions against their construction solely in response to external requirements.

The Psychological Well-Being of Newly-Arrived Indonesian Students in Taiwan

A study abroad program is of great interest among high school leavers globally. Indonesian school leavers are no exception. This study investigates the psychological well-being of Indonesian students studying at Taiwanese universities. Informed by a phenomenological approach, sixteen Indonesian participants who studied in Taiwan were recruited for this case study. Data were garnered from semi-structured interviews and observations. The findings of the study show that the students were unable to manage their emotions (e.g., culture shock, a feeling of being isolated) and adapt with different cultures and languages.

Facilitating English L2 learners’ intercultural competence and learning of English in a Taiwanese university

This article reports on a practitioner research study that adopted the intercultural approach to integrating Vietnamese and Indonesian cultural issues into Taiwanese university classes for English as a foreign language (EFL). A content-based course design was developed to infuse cultural topics including food culture, lifestyle and interpersonal interaction into an 18-week English curriculum with a dual focus on facilitating students’ intercultural competence and learning of English. This study recounts the teacher researcher’s process of developing and implementing this course; it also evaluates the effects of the course by analysing students’ perceptions based on data collected from an intercultural competence scale, a course evaluation survey and a semi-structured interview in two consecutive semesters. Based on the results, the students showed obvious growth in their intercultural competence; many of them also perceived that the course facilitated their learning of English. Overall, this study offers English language teachers novel insights with regard to developing and administering an EFL course featuring the teaching and learning of intercultural issues.

Fostering Low English Proficiency Learners’ Reading in a Freshman EFL Reading Class: Effect of Using Electronic and Print Textbooks on Taiwanese University Students’ Reading Comprehension

This study investigated differences in university students’ academic reading comprehension performance, reading strategy use, and perception of the effects of two textbook mediums. Eighty-one students participated in this study. Two textbook formats, hard copies and soft copies of the same textbook were used. A mixed-method research design was used for data collection with paired sample t tests adopted to compare the reading comprehension of two textbooks versions in immediate learning and summative learning on the same group of students, and a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed to probe students’ perceptions. The results indicated that the participants performed no differently on the summative reading comprehension tests, but performed significantly better on immediate tests using the e-textbook. The questionnaire and the interviews showed that half of the respondents still preferred to use print compared to e-textbooks. This study concluded that e-textbooks were not yet positioned to replace print textbooks for university students in Taiwan. Nonetheless, pedagogically, since e-textbooks provide more interactive features than print, they should be considered an integral part of reading instruction.

Effects of augmented reality technology in a mobile touring system on university students’ learning performance and interest

In this study, we proposed an augmented reality- (AR-) based mobile touring system for an authentic learning activity, which enables students to observe and learn key information regarding cultural heritage sites. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, we conducted an experiment in a cultural heritage course at a Taiwanese university. A total of 72 students were divided into two groups and randomly assigned to an experimental group who learned with the AR-based mobile touring system and a control group who learned with a conventional mobile touring system. The experimental results show that the AR-based mobile touring system significantly improved the students’ memorising dimension of learning achievement, as compared with a conventional mobile touring system. Moreover, the positive impact of the proposed system on students’ actualised interest and task-based interest factors provide a particularly encouraging result for outdoor experiences. These experimental results also suggest the potential of AR technology to increase students’ learning interest and improve their learning achievements in outdoor settings. Therefore, we suggest that, when applying an AR-based mobile touring system in authentic learning activities, AR virtual objects should be designed appropriately, in order that the content recall performance and learning interest are enhanced.
 Implications for practice or policy:
 
 Teachers may need to consider using an AR-based mobile touring system for outdoor learning activities.
 First-year student learning achievements and interest can be improved by an AR-based mobile touring system.
 First-year student learning performance and interest can be improved by AR technology.
 The usefulness of AR technology can be proved through a comparison of experimental designs.

The Effects of Team-Game-Tournaments Application towards Learning Motivation and Motor Skills in College Physical Education

Physical education (PE) helps form lifelong learning and exercise habits; therefore, PE courses should be designed to enhance student motivation. Team-game tournaments (TGTs) enable learning in heterogeneous groups and involve positive interdependence, individual accountability, social skills, face-to-face interaction, group processing, and equal opportunities. Therefore, this quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test study investigated the effects of the TGT on learning motivation and motor skills. In this study, 108 students who enrolled in an advanced basketball course from two classes in a Taiwanese university were recruited as participants. Experimental teaching was implemented based on the class patterns, during which the students were divided into experimental and control groups. The control group, consisting of 56 students (46 male and 10 female), received conventional PE. In the TGT experimental group, constituting 52 students (40 male and 12 female), the TGT learning program was implemented. After a 12-week basketball teaching session, the TGT teaching strategy significantly improved student motivation but not motor skill acquisition. Competency level, however, did not significantly affect motivation but was significantly related to motor skill acquisition. Interaction effects between teaching strategy and competency level were non-significant. Despite TGTs enhancing learning motivation, PE teachers are still responsible for teaching rules, knowledge, and skills, engaging team members, and ensuring sufficient time for skill practice.

Intercultural Interaction in English: Taiwanese University Students' Investment and Resistance in Culturally Mixed Groups.

Despite increased diversity on campuses worldwide, research has documented a lack of intercultural interaction among university students. Culturally mixed groups have been found to be a promising m...

How to Safely Reopen Colleges and Universities During COVID-19: Experiences From Taiwan

Reopening colleges and universities during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a special challenge worldwide. Taiwan is one of the few countries where schools are functioning normally. To secure the safety of students and staff, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan established general guidelines for college campuses. The guidelines delineated creation of a task force at each university; school-based risk screening based on travel history, occupation, contacts, and clusters; measures on self-management of health and quarantine; general hygiene measures (including wearing masks indoors); principles on ventilation and sanitization; regulations on school assemblies; a process for reporting suspected cases; and policies on school closing and make-up classes. It also announced that a class should be suspended if 1 student or staff member in it tested positive and that a school should be closed for 14 days if it had 2 or more confirmed cases. As of 18 June 2020, there have been 7 confirmed cases in 6 Taiwanese universities since the start of the pandemic. One university was temporarily closed, adopted virtual classes, and quickly reopened after 14 days of contact tracing and quarantine of possible contacts. Taiwan's experience suggests that, under certain circumstances, safely reopening colleges and universities this fall may be feasible with a combination of strategies that include containment (access control with contact tracing and quarantine) and mitigation (hygiene, sanitation, ventilation, and social distancing) practices.