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This paper comments on issues of quality in early child care and education from an international perspective, asserting that questions about how to determine quality are as complex for early childhood programs as for all other professional services. The paper's introduction discusses the world wide trend of expansion in the amount of out-of-home care offered, the variations in training and government supervision, and the common problems of defining the objectives of early childhood provisions and of providing quality and affordability. The paper then lists five perspectives on assessing quality and states that criteria representing all of these perspectives merit consideration in determining the quality of provisions for the care and education of young children. Each perspective is discussed in detail: (1) the top-down perspective, which typically assesses selected characteristics of the program, setting, equipment, and other features, as seen from above by adults in charge of the program or by those responsible for licensing it; (2) the bottom-up perspective, which attempts to determine how the program is actually experienced by the participating children; (3) the outside-inside perspective, which assesses how the program is experienced by the families it serves; (4) the inside perspective, which considers how the program is experienced by its staff; and (5) the outside perspective, which takes into account how the community and larger society are served by the program. The paper then discusses implications suggested by this formulation of quality assessment, including discrepancies between perspectives, issues of accountability, and the use of high- versus low-inference variables (for example, having to infer deep feelings of participants versus measuring the staff-to-child ratio). The paper concludes that answers to the criteria proposed for each perspective can be used as a basis for decisions about the kinds of modifications to make to the program, but that efforts must continue in developing, adopting, and applying an accepted set of professional standards of practice for which practitioners can fairly be held accountable. Contains 22 references. (EV)

Three categories of vocational education and training exist in Taiwan: technological and vocational education (TVE), public training (PT), and enterprise training (ET). Together, the TVE programs provided in senior vocational schools, junior colleges, and institutes/universities of technology constitute a complete system that parallels the academic education system. PT is provided through 13 public vocational training institutes that provide approximately 90 programs and 8,600 training slots annually. The institutes are affiliated with various government agencies and supervised by three administrative bodies. The main role of TVE and PT is to develop a diverse technical and managerial work force. Taiwan's Ministry of Education standardizes and promulgates the country's TVE curricula and revises TVE curriculum standards approximately every 10 years. The standards are currently being revised, and several research and development projects to improve the TVE curriculum design process are now under way. The possibility of bilateral exchanges and cooperation between Australia and Taiwan has been explored, and the following possible forms of cooperation/exchange have been proposed: exchange of information about innovations and experience in VET curriculum design and textbook development; joint studies of VET provision; and exchanges of VET teachers/trainers and student teachers/trainers. (English and Chinese versions of the paper are included.) (MN)

According to Taiwan's Teacher Preparation Law, anyone who has met the following requirements must pass certification examinations and internship to become a qualified vocational school teacher: graduation from a normal university or teacher college or other college or university with a major in a program designed to train vocational school teachers. A transcript evaluation approach is also in use. The preservice teacher preparation curriculum has three principal components: general/liberal coursework, technical/specialty coursework, and pedagogical/professional coursework. To help inservice vocational teachers develop their competencies, educational authorities offer many inservice professional training and development opportunities. In recent years, vocational teachers have been encouraged to make industry visits during summer breaks and take skill tests. Some problems confronting technical/technological and vocational education (TVE) teachers and vocational teacher education have been identified. The problem of an overabundance of qualified teachers in public vocational schools but a shortage in private vocational schools must be solved. More rational accreditation or evaluation of teacher preparation programs should be sought to ensure the high vocational teacher quality. TVE teachers must be required to have work experience in their specialization area to reflect industry and business needs effectively. (A Chinese version is attached.) (Contains six references.) (YLB)

In Taiwan, curriculum standards for senior vocational schools and junior colleges are administered and promulgated by the Ministry of Education approximately every 10 years. Curricula for institutes of technology are principally school based. As a result of critiques of the current top-down or administration-based approach system of curriculum standard revision, five technological/technical and vocational education (TVE) curriculum development centers have been established. Senior vocational curriculum standards are under revision to reflect the need to strengthen students' basic academic skills by expanding the provision of basic skills courses; relieve students' study load by lessening the number of required courses; and encourage school-based curriculum development by allowing schools to design a part of their curricula to meet local needs. Current junior college curriculum standards have been in effect since the 1995 school year. The main ways in which relevance of the TVE curriculum and its development can be ensured areas follows: critical exploring or planning processes must be completed before every curriculum standard revision; performance standards should be developed to guide TVE curriculum development; criteria must be set and evaluated conducted to guarantee effective curriculum development; a school-based curriculum should be implemented; and greater involvement of industry and inclusion of work-based learning should be pursued. (A Chinese language version is attached.) (Contains six references.) (YLB)

This includes a contrastive study of English and Chinese noun phrases, verbal phrases, and word order and discusses common mistakes made by English speakers learning Chinese. Mistakes often made by English speakers due to differences between the two languages are divided into three categories: the first is mistakes in word order where the English speaker transliterates English word order directly into Chinese (e.g., "Thank you very much" becomes "syeh syeh ni fei chang" whereas the correct Chinese word order is: "fei chang syeh syeh ni"); the second, errors in grammatical structure, showing: (1) influence of English in noun phrases, verbal phrases, conjunctions, and others; (2) the difficulty points in Chinese; (3) complications due to prepositional phrases; (4) adjectives used as predicates; and (5) misuse of adverbs; and the third category is inappropriate use of words in various forms: noun, adjective, verb, auxiliary, adverb and "other," which is a "catch-all" category for problems that are hard to classify. Some general rules for both languages are provided in the conclusion. Contains 17 references. (WW)

Many researchers in the field of education and psychology have been aware of the tremendous impact of the environment as a complex system on human development. By providing and creating the most favorable environment for children, active and wholesome social development is promoted. Three principle areas of concern in creating a quality early childhood education environment are: (1) the environment's effect on the social development of children; (2) the creation and provision of the physical setting; and (3) the provision of a psychological environment. The physical setting includes a pleasant safe and hygienic environment, arrangement of activity space, and material provision for activities. The psychological environment, denoted as the interpersonal relationships and general psychological atmosphere of a preschool, is the most important aspect in a preschool situation. Key components are: interaction between teacher and children, establishment of a caring and loving atmosphere among peers, and teacher-to-teacher interaction. As important as the preschool environment is to social development of children, a family's socioeconomic status, member make-up, mode of interaction and methods of education also weigh heavily in a child's social development. Preschool teachers must be aware of the family environment and use it to promote wholesome social development in children. (LBT)