Higher Education In Taiwan Research Articles

Clustering algorithm for proximity-relation matrix and its applications

In this paper, we present a new algorithm for clustering proximity-relation matrix that does not require the transitivity property. The proposed algorithm is first inspired by the idea of Yang and Wu [16] then turned into a self-organizing process that is built upon the intuition behind clustering. At the end of the process subjects belonging to be the same cluster should converge to the same point, which represents the cluster center. However, the performance of Yang and Wu's algorithm depends on parameter selection. In this paper, we use the partition entropy (PE) index to choose it. Numerical result illustrates that the proposed method does not only solve the parameter selection problem but also obtains an optimal clustering result. Finally, we apply the proposed algorithm to three applications. One is to evaluate the performance of higher education in Taiwan, another is machine–parts grouping in cellular manufacturing systems, and the other is to cluster probability density functions.

East-Asian teaching practices through the eyes of Western learners

Many East-Asian countries are actively positioning themselves as receiving countries of international students. Consequently, the number of international students in these countries is steadily growing. Given the differences between Eastern and Western conceptions of teaching and learning, it could be expected that Western learners studying in the region may encounter educational practices that are foreign to them. This study sought to understand contemporary East-Asian teaching practices as experienced by Western students. Specifically, it explored Anglo and Hispanic students' perceptions of the pedagogic approaches they encountered at a Taiwanese university. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 degree-seeking students in different fields of study. The findings indicate that despite the government's continuous initiatives to foster less traditional pedagogic approaches, a transmission model of instruction still looms large in Taiwan's higher education context. It was also found that the students in this study were ill-adapted to this form of teaching practice.

Hierarchical Models of Self-Concept across Genders and Sciences/Humanities for College Students in Taiwan

The aim of this study is to examine the hierarchical model of self-concept (SC) using two operations (Models A and B). In Model A, global self-concept (GSC) is the higher-order factor of field-specific self-concepts (FSCs). In Model B, GSC is the predictor of the correlated FSCs. The data of 28,824 college students are obtained from the national database for higher education in Taiwan. The two models are examined by the use of total-group hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis (HCFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), respectively. Multigroup HCFA and SEM are used to test whether the two models demonstrate measurement equivalence and structural invariance across female and male college students and across college students coming from different fields of study. The results of the analysis reveal three major findings. (1) The data fit Models A-B well for all the students as a whole. (2) Females and males are found not to be equivalent in the structure of both models. (3) Females from female-dominated humanities fields (education and business) are different from those in male-dominated sciences fields (engineering and natural sciences), while males from the four fields are similar in both models.

Bullying in Higher Education in Taiwan: The Taiwan Higher Education Faculty Survey (THEFS)

Over the past several decades, educational systems in many parts of the world have undergone manifold changes that have significantly affected the work environment of educators. Among other negative impacts of the globalized reforms in higher education has been the increasing prevalence of workplace bullying. The purpose of this research note is to serve different purposes: (1) examine the causes behind the changing landscape of higher education; (2) discuss previous and current research on workplace bullying; (3) introduce the methodology of the Taiwan Higher Education Faculty Survey (THEFS); (4) outline its anticipated outcome.

Dan as a discourse marker, metadiscourse device and metapragmatic marker: Examples from the evaluation reports of Taiwan's higher education sector

This study explores the Chinese contrastive marker dan in order to better understand how and why it is used to imply a contrast in discourse. It analyzes the marker as used in the evaluation reports on Taiwan's university programs, including their curriculum designs and teaching quality. The data consist of eighteen paragraphs selected from the evaluation reports on nine English Departments. The study shows that dan may be used as a discourse marker to indicate one of five potential relationships between the two discourse segments it conjoins. Based on an experiment, it examines whether such segments have an “inherent” contrastive relationship or contrast is better treated as related to perception and stance. The results support the latter. The study then considers dan as a metadiscourse marker, which has the interpersonal function of engaging and persuading the reader and the textual function of organizing the text. Next, the study proposes to view dan or its equivalent in Mandarin (e.g. wei, danshi, or ran) as a metapragmatic marker inasmuch as it indexes the writer's main concern. Overall, the study shows how dan can be used in the discourse to (i) mark contrast, (ii) mark the presence of the writer's voice, (iii) help the reader interpret two information segments, (iv) counteract a potential face-threatening act, (v) help the writer perform the act of evaluation, and (vi) signal the act of “pre-advice”.

Exploring the Relationships among Service Quality, Customer Loyalty and Word-Of-Mouth for Private Higher Education in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to determine the nature of the relationships between service quality perceived by students, and word-of-mouth based on the proposed model on a university campus. In this study, the survey method was used to explore those relationships and data were collected through self-administrated questionnaires from the case university. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the research hypotheses and analyze the model. The results showed the best-fit model identified a number of relationships that were expected and unexpected and indicated that only one direct effect path existed from perceived service quality to word-of-mouth. The students must be satisfied by service quality they perceived first and then create loyalty to generate word-of-mouth behaviors. Thus the top management of the university should make efforts to ensure that their students develop positive word-of-mouth.

How Does Paternalistic Style Leadership Relate to Team Cohesiveness in Soccer Coaching?

I examined the relationship between a soccer coach using a paternalistic style of leadership and the cohesiveness of the team. I found that the biggest group of soccer players in higher education in Taiwan are male, approximately 19 years old, forward players, and interested in participating in Division 1 of the University Soccer League. These players trained with a coach for 2 to 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Team performance differed under a soccer coach according to whether the paternalistic leadership style was benevolent, virtuous, or authoritarian. There was a significant correlation between soccer coaches who had a paternalistic style of leadership and team cohesiveness.

Different Missions of Community College Systems in Two Different Countries: Community Education in Taiwan Versus Vocational Education in Turkey

Long seen as adaptive, responsive, and flexible higher education institutions in the face of educational, economic, and social changes, the American community college model has been adapted in many parts of the world. However, the extent to which the American community college model could be successfully adapted and implemented depends on the political, educational, and socioeconomic contexts of each country. Therefore, to better understand how the American community college model has been adapted by other countries requires critical analysis of these systems case by case. This article aims to critically analyze how American community college models are adapted in other countries, particularly focusing on the systems in Taiwan and Turkey. The article starts with a literature review on the community college systems around the world and the accompanying challenges that these countries face in the adaptation process. Before presenting the Taiwanese and Turkish community college models in detail, their American counterparts are introduced to provide a theoretical/conceptual context for understanding international case studies. This article concludes with discussions on the commonality and differences of this form of higher education in Taiwan and Turkey and highlights emerging themes that draw attention to community college researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

College students’ perceptions of studying abroad and their readiness

This study aims to determine what college students believe is essential on studying abroad and investigates which programs they prefer for outbound study. The trend of globalization and expansion of higher education have resulted in changes for studying abroad programs in numerous Asian countries. In particular, the overprovided undergraduate and graduate education system in Taiwan raises questions on how college students perceive such outbound study. This paper collected survey data from 219 college students at 2 universities in Taiwan to analyze their opinions and levels of readiness on studying abroad programs. This study applied fuzzy methods to transform the data and interpret the results, and the findings showed that gender and college major influence student perceptions on the importance of studying abroad, as well as their readiness to study abroad. Typically, women exhibit more preparedness for studying abroad than their male counterparts. Following the expansion of higher education in Taiwan, more students are considering studying abroad programs for short-term stay in foreign countries. According to the patterns of perception, this study built fuzzy models to explain the consistency of importance and levels of readiness on studying abroad. The results reveal that fuzzy statistics can be used for proper interpretation of the factors influencing students to study abroad and their readiness.

Implementation of the Harvard case method through a plan–do–check–act framework in a university course

In 2005, the Harvard Business School began to promote the Harvard case method (HCM) within the Asian region. Because of differences in classroom culture between Asian and Western countries, Asian participants’ reaction to the HCM implementation is of interest. This study explores how the western initiated method was implemented in one of the Asian areas, Taiwan, and how the participants perceived the instructional approach. The plan–do–check–act (PDCA) concept was adopted to implement the case method. The data collection consisted of surveys, interviews and class observations. The study results indicate that both the instructors and students showed rather positive attitudes toward HCM. Although obstacles are yet to be overcome, disseminating the case method in higher education in Taiwan appears promising. To more effectively implement HCM, a suggested PDCA framework is provided.

A case study on the reforms of dance in higher education in Taiwan

This case study focuses on a group of teachers’ and students’ opinions regarding the recent reforms in the dance department of Tainan University of Technology (TUT) in Taiwan. The author uses Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of forms of capital and symbolic violence to probe for the motivation, process and consequences of the changes brought about by reform, and her analysis exposes a form of symbolic violence derived from social aesthetic preferences. This is most clearly manifested in the cultural capital assigned to certain dance genres (ballet, modern dance or Chinese dance) at the expense of others. A serious consequence of this has been the reproduction of an unequal power structure at TUT and in Taiwan’s dance field in higher education in general, as those dancers specialising in the perceived ‘low’ forms are unable to obtain a university degree since dance majors are not offered in these low-ranking genres. Interviews with the respondents reveal that a rising awareness of the situation has led some agents to change their practices and perceptions of dance, though the current power structure may endure well into the future.

Impact of excellence programs on Taiwan higher education in terms of quality assurance and academic excellence, examining the conflicting role of Taiwan’s accrediting agencies

Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) was established in 2005 and began to accredit 76 four-year comprehensive universities and colleges in Taiwan in 2006. Commissioned officially with a dual mission, HEEACT has been encouraged to conduct various ranking research projects, including global and national ones starting in 2007. One of the HEEACT’s most influential rankings is “Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities.” Given the fact that more and more national accrediting bodies are developing ranking systems, these dual roles like in the HEEACT case have led to many discussions and raised severe criticism in the quality assurance community due to their different aims and approaches. Therefore, the purposes of the paper are to provide an understanding of the functions of varying quality assessment tools in higher education, to analyze their impact on Taiwan higher education and to examine the conflicting roles of HEEACT while conducting both accreditation and rankings over the institutions that have been granted the two major national Research and Teaching Excellence Programs.

Present and future: a trend forecasting and ranking of university types for innovative development from an intellectual capital perspective

In today’s knowledge-based economy, by well intellectual capital (IC) managing to enhance innovative ability and performance has become critical as many nations struggle to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge, innovation, and IC are at a university’s core. Given its function of cultivating innovative assets, R&D researchers, hi-tech professions and interdisciplinary talent, universities have become a critical factor in building sustainable competitive advantages worldwide. The important role universities play is particularly essential in Taiwan. The hi-tech industry, as the most profitable industry sector, directly impacts the growth of the Taiwanese economy. However, as global competition in higher education becomes fierce, higher education in Taiwan is losing its competitive standing and global market share for students and, additionally, Taiwan is losing its overall competitive advantage in the global economy. Universities today face significantly unbalanced student enrollment numbers and several universities have failed to keep operating from late 2008 to 2009. In order to understand both current and future development trends in higher education and to conquer above difficulties, it has become crucial to understand the manifestation of innovative development with respect to IC for different university types. In this regard, the aim of this study was to explore the rankings of five university types in terms of innovative development from an IC perspective and to provide recommendations for future improvements, taking basic development trends into account. Trend forecasting from Grey Model (GM) was initially used to investigate and forecast current and future Taiwanese birth rates and the basic development trends of five university types. After that, VIKOR was utilized to rank the five university types in accordance with opinions from twenty senior experts with regard to IC. In agreement with the research findings, universities in Taiwan are encouraged to improve their innovative ability from an IC perspective in order to regain a sustainable competitive advantage globally in the future.

Evaluation of International Student Satisfaction using Fuzzy Importance-Performance Analysis

This paper aimed to discover the dynamics attracting foreign students to pursue higher education in Taiwan. Internationalization in higher education has long been a topic of interest for many researchers. A significant body of literature has focused on the dynamics behind student mobility. In general, these studies used pull-push terminology to explain student mobility, as well as suggesting that there were factors in the host countries pulling the students to choose particular destinations and/or push factors in home countries pushing the students to choose a particular host country. What attracts students from developing or developed countries to choose a developing country for higher education study remains something of a mystery, however. This research used the Stratified Random Sampling Method and selected 130 international students from northern, southern and central Taiwan as a sample. Fuzzy Importance-Performance Analysis revealed the degree of importance and satisfaction of the international students with the chosen education environment. The findings could help to attract international students to study at universities in Taiwan.

Tablet PC Language Learning Game in Taiwan Higher Education

The tablet PC (TPC) is increasing in popularity and becoming more common for instructors to utilize (Stickel, 2009). The tablet PC (TPC) device can promote teaching and learning in students through interaction, collaboration, active learning, class engagement, and high-quality feedback (Klara, 2009; Steinweg, 2006). The background-knowledge language game helps students understand and enjoy game-based texts. A non-experimental, quantitative, SPSS 17.0 research design explores the relationship between background demographic characteristics, learning styles, class atmosphere, foreign language class anxiety, technology acceptance, and language proficiency. A sample survey of 250 higher education students was developed with six components.

Enhance low-achieving students' learning involvement in Taiwan's higher education: an approach via e-learning with problem-based learning and self-regulated learning

This study explored the effects of web-enabled pedagogies on students' involvement in learning. A series of quasi-experiments were conducted to investigate whether students' involvement increases over time if intervened, respectively, by problem-based learning (PBL), self-regulated learning (SRL), and their combinations. Two classes of 102 first-year students at a vocational school in a one-semester course were chosen for this empirical study. The results were generally supportive. The authors further discuss the implications for schools, scholars, and teachers engaged in e-learning.

Developing reflective cyber communities in the blogosphere: a case study in Taiwan higher education

The purpose of this study is to highlight the possibilities and challenges that underlie efforts to integrate blogs into teacher-education programs in Taiwan higher education. The participants were 12 pre-service teachers undertaking Master's level study in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. The outcomes of the blogging project were highlighted in terms of pre-teachers' professional development on the blogs, their difficulties encountered, problem-solving strategies employed, and the students' perception of blogging. The results suggested that blogging could encourage pre-service teachers to actively and reflectively engage in knowledge sharing, knowledge transformation, and knowledge generation. Blogging also encouraged the development of numerous strategies to cope with difficulties encountered in the blogging process. Overall, pre-service teachers held positive attitudes toward blogging as a support for their professional development and were conscious of audience considerations, and so tended to select and respond to blog content deemed interesting and useful to their audience.

Undergraduates' Intentions to Take a Second Language Proficiency Test: A Comparison of Predictions from the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theory

English competency has become essential for obtaining a better job or succeeding in higher education in Taiwan. Thus, passing the General English Proficiency Test is important for college students in Taiwan. The current study applied Ajzen's theory of planned behavior and the notions of outcome expectancy and self-efficacy from Bandura's social cognitive theory to investigate college students' intentions to take the General English Proficiency Test. The formal sample consisted of 425 undergraduates (217 women, 208 men; M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.3). The theory of planned behavior showed greater predictive ability (R2 = 33%) of intention than the social cognitive theory (R2 = 7%) in regression analysis and made a unique contribution to prediction of actual test-taking behavior one year later in logistic regression. Within-model analyses indicated that subjective norm in theory of planned behavior and outcome expectancy in social cognitive theory are crucial factors in predicting intention. Implications for enhancing undergraduates' intentions to take the English proficiency test are discussed.

Decentralization of higher education and its implications for educational autonomy in Taiwan

This article primarily aims to investigate the effects of decentralization on educational autonomy in Taiwan through historical and documentary analysis. To draw an analytical framework, it begins with a brief examination of the concept of autonomy. This is followed by an examination of how decentralization has influenced the state-institution-individual relationship in Taiwan's higher education by using a three-level hierarchical model. After analyzing decentralization as empowering practices, it argues that the emergence of a performativity culture has generated an antinomy of the decentralization reforms, in which decentralization has formed a new ecology of education administration in Taiwan on the one hand, and simultaneously has brought the issue of bureaucratization in education on the other.

Quality assurance at a distance: international accreditation in Taiwan higher education

In response to the global competitiveness in higher education, the government, in recent years, has encouraged Taiwan colleges and universities to seek international accreditation, which raises several questions, such as jurisdiction over national accreditation, a single set of standards for local and global quality assurance, demand for the mutual recognition of review outcomes, etc. With the looming pressures for change that international accreditation will likely pose on a Taiwan national framework of quality assurance, multiple impacts on institutions and national accrediting agencies in Taiwan are now beginning to be increasingly felt. Hence, this paper examines current academic international accreditation programs and institutions, recognizes Taiwan’s accrediting organizations, and analyzes the challenges that institutions and national accrediting agencies are facing.