Psychosocial Predictors of Taiwanese Secondary Students' Self-Esteem

This study investigated the relationships between psychosocial factors and self-esteem 1,672 Taiwanese senior high school students (779 boys, 893 girls). Students from Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, completed a Chinese version of the Secondary Student Questionnaire (SSQ), which measures self-esteem, depression, anxiety, stereotyped thinking, personality, and satisfaction with nonacademic performance at school. Students were categorized into four groups: (a) high academic achievement/low self-esteem (HALS); (b) high academic achievement/high self-esteem (HAHS); (c) low academic achievement/ low-self esteem (LALS); and (d) low academic achievement/high self-esteem (LAHS). Results showed that two variables, personality/satisfaction and anxiety, were predictive self-esteem for all four groups. Depression was predictive for all groups except low achievement and high self-esteem (LAHS). Research recommendations and educational implications are discussed.Cette étude porte sur les liens entre des facteurs psychosociaux et l'estime de soi de 1 élèves taïwanais du secondaire (779 garçons, 893filles). Des élèves de Kaohsiung City, Taiwan ont complété une version chinoise du Secondary Student Questionnaire (SSQ) mesure l'estime de soi, la dépression, l'anxiété, les attitudes stéréotypées, le caractère et la satisfaction quant à la performance nonacadémique à l'école. Quatre catégories d'élèves ont été créées : (a) performance académique élevée/estime de soi pauvre (HALS) ; (b) performance académique élevée/estime de soi élevée (HAHS); (c) performance académique pauvre/estime de soi pauvre (LALS) ; et performance académique pauvre/estime de soi élevée (LAHS). Les résultats indiquent que deux variables, caractère/satisfaction et anxiété, étaient prédictives de l'estime de soi pour les quatre groupes. La dépression était une variable prédictive chez tous les élèves sauf pour le groupe caractérisé par une performance académique pauvre/estime de soi élevée. Nous discutons de recommandations de recherche et d'implications pédagogiques

Exploring Taiwan citizens’ scientific literacy, interest in, and engagement in learning science

This study explored Taiwan citizens' scientific literacy, interest in, and engagement in learning science. By using the stratified random sampling strategy, 1,831 citizens in the age group of 18-70 years were selected to respond to a questionnaire survey along with a paper-pencil test. For exploring the relationship between Taiwan citizens' scientific literacy and their interest in science, the participants were divided into four groups on the basis of their scores for scientific literacy and interest in science. According to the essential results, the high scientific literacy and high science interest (HH) group was mainly represented by males, young citizens, and citizens with higher educational degrees. Conversely, the low scientific literacy and low science interest (LL) group was dominated by females, elderly citizens, and citizens with only a secondary school diploma. Among the four groups, citizens in the HH and LH groups exhibited higher frequency of engagement in science activities. Finally, citizens with high science interest tended to be enthusiastic in learning science and technology. This study contributed a novel insight that the interest in learning science plays a critical role in promoting adults' engagement in learning science. Future studies are recommended for focusing on the citizens in the LH group to investigate how high engagement in learning science influences their scientific literacy

The effect of interest and engagement in learning science on adults' scientific competency and environmental action

Although existing research has documented the significant relationship among student interest, engagement, and learning outcome, limited studies have investigated how adults’ interest and engagement in learning science are related to their scientific competency and environmental action. This study used 2012 and 2015 national datasets which were collected from face-to-face interviews representing how the interest and engagement of Taiwan citizens in understanding and exposure to science in society synergistically interact with their scientific competency and environmental action. Results showed that engagement in learning is more predictive to scientific competency and environmental action than interest. In addition, engagement in visiting science museums appears to be a superior venue for promoting adults’ environmental action than watching science related TV programs. These findings reveal an effective strategy of promoting adult environmental action through science communication and the importance of deep science learning

建構中小學初任輔導人員職前培訓機制：戴明循環觀點之應用

The purpose of this study applied the Deming Cycle perspective on evaluating the pre-service training mechanism. First, a pilot study and field observation were conducted, then we purposively selected seven experts who are in charge of the training programs or service as lectures (Mean of relevant working experience = 20.3 years, SD = 11.1 years) in years of 2015 to 2017. All of them were individually interviewed for collecting deep information, total interview hours up to 715 minutes. An initial result found that the current programs rarely conducted assessment and setting goals, the implementations were mixed with different background of participants, the lack of inspection for training results and curriculum planning, and need to strengthen the system cooperation and learning gap. We suggested: (1) The pre-service training program’s "Plan" should pay more attention on overall thinking and expert team, assess the needs of organizations and individuals, and set training objectives from learners and practitioners; (2) The pre-service training program’s "Do" should establish a dedicated unit and a single contact window, design two-track and blended learning modules, flexible adjustment of curriculum structure and using case teaching methods; (3) The pre-service training program should "Check" training program and training effectiveness; (4) The pre-service training program’s "Act" will be able to develop a standardized mechanism and actively creates a cycle of cooperation through systematic cooperation. This study provides an additional insight of pre-service training program

Bridging the gender gap of children’s engagement in learning science and argumentation through a modified argument-driven inquiry

This quasi-experimental mixed-methods design examined the effects of a Modified Argument-Driven Inquiry (MADI) on elementary school boys’ and girls’ engagement in learning science (ELS) and performance of argumentation. Thirty-two children were randomly selected to participate in a two-semester 24-h intervention, forming an experimental group (EG, 13 boys, 19 girls); another 36 children were also randomly selected from the same two schools as a comparison group (CG, 20 boys, 16 girls). All participants completed pretest and posttest at the beginning and 1 month after each semester’s intervention. A well-structured student questionnaire was used to assess the participants’ ELS and quality of argumentation. In addition, four target children with the highest or the lowest scores on pretest were purposively recruited for weekly classroom observations and two-wave interviews for triangulation and consolidation of quantitative findings. The results from the repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the EG boys and girls made significant and continuous improvement in the quality of argumentation from the first to the second semesters. In contrast, the CG girls presented significantly lower scores than the boy counterparts. In addition, the results of the ANCOVA measures indicated that the EG girls of high engagement made a significant improvement in the quality of argumentation than the girls of low engagement. This study provides a fresh insight to support the use of a MADI intervention as an effective strategy for improving girls’ continuous ELS and high quality of argumentation

The impact of socio-scientific issue discussions on student environmentalism

A one group pretest-posttest design of study was used to investigate the impact of Socio-Scientific Issue (SSI) discussion on college students’ awareness of and self-efficacy toward environmental issues, responsibility for sustainable development, and environment-related activities. Thirty-nine students with different majors from a comprehensive university participated in the semester-long SSI intervention study. The teaching intervention is focused on empowering students to develop reflection and argumentation through watching contextual videos of current environmental issues, justifying personal standing position and achieving group consensus, and evaluating and critiquing peer group’s presentations. After 17 weeks of SSI discussion and argumentation, the quantitative results revealed that students’ awareness of environmental issues, responsibility for sustainable development, self-efficacy for environmental issues, and environment-related activities had been significantly promoted. Additional qualitative findings indicate that the SSI discussion has gained the leverage of changing students’ decision-making and standing position on environmental issues from emphasising economic development to supporting environmental protection and sustainability. Overall, this study provides empirical evidences and original insights about the effect of SSI discussion on environmental education through highlighting the importance of engaging students in practicing reflection and argumentation

An investigation of Taiwanese college students’ personality traits and self-worth

This study investigated a model of the associations between personality traits of male and female college students in Taiwan and their self-worth using structural equation modeling (SEM). College students (1,305 males and 1,494 females) were stratified randomly selected from 12 universities to complete the College Students Questionnaire. SEM results supported the model and network of paths amongst these participating students’ self-worth and the Big-five personality traits. Results indicated significant positive predictive pathways between self-worth and extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness and a significant negative predictive pathway between self-worth and neuroticism. The results of restricting measurement weights indicated that the Big-five traits and self-worth model was adequate for all college students of different ages. In addition, it was found that males had significantly higher academic/general competence and athletic competence/physical appearance scores than females, while females had significantly higher close friendship, conduct behavior, and extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism traits than males. Older college students had significantly higher academic/general competence, close friendship, conduct behavior, job competence, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness mean scores than their younger counterparts, whereas they had significantly lower neuroticism scores than the younger participants. Finally, the results suggest that self-worth was important in the development of positive personality traits in college students

Supportive conditions and mechanisms of teachers’ professional development on inquiry-based science teaching through a learning community

Background and purpose: As clear mechanisms for motivating and engaging teachers in learning and working collaboratively with colleagues are scarce, this study explored supportive conditions of promoting teacher professional development on inquirybased science teaching in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) and examined how teachers’ professional development impacted their students’ learning outcomes. Design and methods: Two apurposively selected lead teachers along with their PLC colleagues and students participated in this study. Results: The qualitative results reveal that the interactive domain, in which PLC teachers work collaboratively in sharing teaching lessons and developing assessment items, plays a critical role in promoting their professional development. The quantitative results, indicating that the students of the two lead teachers outperformed their counterparts on scientific competencies, Provide support that advancement of teacher's professional development is beneficial to student learning outcome. Conclusion: These results strengthen our understanding of the essential supportive conditions and mechanisms that an effective model must have for teachers’ professional development, which can lead to better student learning outcomes

Exploring the significant predictors of convergent and divergent scientific creativities

Despite that the importance of scientific creativity has been emphasized in literature, limited attention has been paid to the identification of multiple path estimates of scientific creativity. This two-stage study investigated significant predictors and pathway effects of divergent and convergent scientific creativities. Stage one was focused on the development and validation of instruments. At stage two, convenience samples of 307 elementary students from four different schools were asked to respond to the creativity learning environment questionnaire, scientific creativity test, and science inquiry test. The results of structured equation modeling analyses supported that there is a synergistic effect of creativity learning environment and performance of science achievement on student performance of science inquiry and scientific creativity. In addition, this study identified that creativity learning environment and performance of science achievement are significant predictors of divergent scientific creativity while science inquiry plays a critical role on student convergent scientific creativity