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師資培育為專業化的歷程，師資培育課程在其中所扮演的角色與功能，更是重要的環節之一。本研究主要目的為探討我國師資培育課程發展，並以美國、澳洲及新加坡的師資培育機構為例，分析其小學師資培育課程與國家認證制度對我國師資培育課程之啟示。研究結果發現，臺灣小學師資培育課程改革受限於歷史路徑依賴的舊習、包班制概念不清，未能以多學科的能力作為小學師資培育課程的主軸、實踐課程未能階段性且持續性地落實於實際教學場域，以及師資培育評鑑無法確保各校課程實施前是否符合國家規範、實習與教師檢定考試無法發揮課程修習之加乘效果。最後根據三個國家之經驗，提供國內師資培育課程制度革新 之啟示，包括：重視師資培育課程品質保證機制，確保課程實施前的品質；強化師資生具備國民小學包班與學習領域之學科知能專業能力；階段性且持續性地增加教育實踐之機會；依據課程性質與重要性，建立適切的學習結構。 The cultivation of teachers is a professional process, and the role of the teacher education curriculums is one of the crucial factors. This study aimed to understand the development of Taiwan’s primary school teacher education curriculums as well as to analyze the teacher education curriculums and accreditation systems in the United States, Australia, and Singapore. The results indicated that reforms to Taiwan’s primary school teacher training curriculums are limited by the old habits of historical path dependence and that the course fails to plan for the basic teaching abilities required for preservice teachers. The practical curriculum has not been implemented in a phased and continuous manner, and the teacher training assessment does not ensure that the school curriculum complies with national regulations before implementation. Finally, the relevant experience in the three included countries provides a reference for improving domestic teacher education — including the need for attention to the teacher education quality assurance mechanism, the strengthening of qualifications for primary school preservice teachers’ proficiency, the application of theory at the educational scene in a phased and continuous manner, and the establishment of an appropriate learning structure based on the nature and importance of the course.

Despite the recognized importance of grammar knowledge to the reading comprehension of EFL learners, research findings on the relationships among grammar knowledge, vocabulary, and reading comprehension are inconclusive. Attention needs to be paid to issues such as the distinct roles of the two grammar knowledge components of form and meaning, and the direct and mediating roles of vocabulary in EFL reading comprehension. This study recruited 1,149 sixth graders as research participants to evaluate these issues. The measurement tools were standardized EFL competence tests for vocabulary size, grammar forms and meanings, and reading comprehension. Structural equation modeling (SEM) regression models indicated that vocabulary played a more-significant role in reading comprehension than grammar knowledge; moreover, the effects of grammar knowledge were reduced but still significant when grammar meanings were excluded. The SEM mediating model of this study also indicated that grammar knowledge not only exerted a direct effect on reading comprehension but also indirectly influenced reading comprehension via vocabulary.

While common, computer presentations given during classroom lectures do not always improve learning effects; thus, this study incorporated three elements into technology-assisted classroom lectures: emphasis, augmentation, and integration. These three elements cannot be implemented simultaneously when using PowerPoint (PPT) presentations during classroom lectures. Therefore, the virtual and physical integration of augmented reality (AR) was employed to establish an assisted course lecturing tool for implementing these three elements. Teachers can refer to important content from textbooks (emphasis) while lecturing, and students can then use an AR device to scan the content and to call out related supplementary materials (augmentation) in facilitating their learning. These scanning and calling out functions of AR enable teachers to integrate technology-assisted tools with textbooks to enhance the effectiveness of classroom lectures. The pre- and posttest quasi-experimental research design was used to determine differences in the learning outcomes of two groups of AR-assisted and PPT-based course lectures. The experimental results indicate that the AR-assisted lecture was significantly more effective than the PPT-based lecture, and a similar result was obtained from a delayed test. According to interviews held with students, during the AR-assisted lecture, the students tended to focus on only one teaching medium and on the textbook content. By contrast, students of the PPT-based lecture became distracted while focusing on two different media sources simultaneously, resulting in the textbook content often being neglected.

Popular scientific reading books, as the bridge between scientific academic research and general public’s knowledge capital, could raise scientific literacy and facilitate comprehension for general public. Popular scientific reading books could attract children to read because of vivid exhibition of text and illustrating graphs. However, some scientific reading books are still too difficult for children to read since they are not designed for children particularly in Taiwan and reading capacity among children are heterogeneous. One promising education strategy is to recommend more scientific reading books corresponding to textbook lessons, which could raise children’s interest in exploring science and further reading. In US, Lexile framework for reading has been developed and applied for English books to assist in more efficient and objective text leveling. For recent years, Chinese Readability Index Explorer (CRIE) has been developed for Chinese text. The main research question here is, for Chinese scientific reading books, whether there are differences in text leveling between system’s (CRIE) and experts’ identification. In our research, we invite teacher librarians to recommend popular scientific reading books, identify the grade levels, and assign these books to corresponding textbook lessons. We not only discuss the principles and criteria of experts’ leveling, compare the different results between CRIE and experts’ opinions, but also investigate the reasons behind these differences. (Article content in Chinese with English extended abstract)

Worksheets are often used during field trips and utilize a learning cycle with three stages (exploration, concept introduction and concept application) to engage learners in the learning activities...

本研究檢視臺灣國小畢業生英語詞彙量與閱讀理解之間的相關性，依此推估臺灣國小畢業生欲展現該學習年段閱讀理解程度所需要達到的詞彙閾值（lexical threshold），並探究臺灣國小畢業生英語詞彙量的分布狀況，以提供具體證據來評估當前國小英語詞彙學習目標（應用300個字詞）是否合理。本研究運用英語能力診斷及認證系統（Diagnosis and Certification of English Competency, DCEC），對1,903名國小畢業生進行詞彙和閱讀兩子測驗施測。本研究有三重貢獻：第一為瞭解臺灣小學生畢業時的詞彙量分布概況；其二為闡明設定詞彙量、詞彙閾值對於設計理想英語文課綱與課程的重要性；其三為彌補英語文課綱詞彙量設定時未採用實徵證據之不足。倡議詞彙量之設定，應從語言技能運用的觀點，先提出各階段所欲達成的語言技能層次，再探討獲致該語言技能層次所需的詞彙閾值（最小詞彙量），最後以該詞彙閾值作為課綱詞彙量設定之參考。 In this study, we examined the relationship between the vocabulary size and reading comprehension of Taiwanese elementary-school graduates. We identified a lexical threshold that they need to cross to demonstrate adequate reading comprehension. We investigated the English vocabulary sizes of Taiwanese elementary-school graduates to provide solid evidence of whether the current English vocabulary-learning goal (300 words) is reasonable. We employed the Diagnosis and Certification of English Competency (DCEC) as the main assessment tool and administered the DCEC-Vocabulary Size (DCEC-VS) and DCEC-Reading Comprehension (DCEC-RC) subtests to 1903 elementary-school graduates. This study has three crucial contributions. The first contribution is evidence that explains the distribution of the vocabulary sizes of Taiwanese elementary-school graduates. The second contribution is proof of how crucial vocabulary size and lexical threshold are for an ideal curriculum. The third contribution compensates for a lack of empirical evidence regarding a lexical threshold at the elementary-school level. We propose that the application of language skills should be the main consideration when setting a lexical threshold. The degree to which specific language skills should be acquired at each level should first be proposed, followed by an exploration of the lexical threshold (minimum vocabulary size) required to match goals for specific language skills at each level. Finally, the lexical threshold proposed should be used as reference when determining the vocabulary size in the curriculum.

Using mobile devices to support the process and products of learning activities is a trend in inquiry-based learning, which is culminating in the formation of the subfield of mobile inquiry-based learning (m-IBL). However, even though mobile devices have been widely used in IBL activities in recent years, evaluative evidence for their substantial contributions to IBL is still deficient. Therefore, this study collected and analyzed 40 peer-reviewed journal articles published during 2001 to 2017 involving 3,542 participants and further discovered that m-IBL has produced meaningful improvements for IBL with an overall mean effect size of 0.803, with a 95% confidence interval [0.61, 0.99]. In addition, moderator variables such as control group types, learning outcomes, inquiry types, teaching methods, and domain subjects were related to different effect sizes. Finally, the results of the meta-analysis were discussed along with their implications for future research and practice.

Students of middling achievement who achieve intermediate results on the Basic Competence Test, a national high-stakes entrance examination in Taiwan, experience the highest test anxiety. The prese...

本研究欲將個人特性納入既有的中學生考試壓力架構之中，並檢驗中學生之考試壓力與其個人特性之關係，驗證高考試壓力且中成就的學生，其個人特性上有特定的組型，包含較高的不確定性、神經性、低自尊、外控性，以及較低的外向性。本研究採分層隨機抽樣，共 召募了 1,858 名臺灣九年級學生完成問卷填答。在問卷上，本研究採用中學生考試壓力量表，以測量學生考試壓力的程度，同時以自編之 26 題二元計分的個人特性問卷，作為個人特性的測量；在學業成就方面，本研究以學生在 2014 年之國中教育會考分數作為指標；在資料分析方面，本研究以潛在類別分析，以學生考試壓力、學業成就及個人特性之作答資料，將學生進行分類。結果發現，以本研究所蒐集之資料而言，將學生分為四類最為適當，並將這四類學生分別命名為高壓中成就組（22%）、中壓高成就組（26%）、低壓中成就組（32%）及低壓低成就組（20%）。相較於中壓高成就組及低壓中成就組的學生，高壓中成就組的學生有較高 的不確定性、神經性、低自尊、外控性，以及較低的外向性，此結果與先前理論相符。同時，研究結果也發現，低壓低成就組的學生亦有較高的低自尊，以及程度中等的不確定性及外控性。研究結果顯示，中學生的考試壓力與其個人特性有關聯性，除了驗證先前理論可能影響壓力的神經性、外向性、自尊及外控性等個人特性之外，也說明學生的不確定性可能是影響考試壓力的其中一項個人特性。本研究將就中學生考試壓力與個人特性的關係進行討論，並提出教育實務上的建議。 In this present study, we explore whether examination stress among 9th graders in Taiwan is related to their personal characteristics, specifically whether students subject to high levels of examination stress have a certain pattern of characteristics. The sample consists of 1,858 9th graders in Taiwan. The Examination Stress Scale (ExamSS) was used as a measure of examination stress. Scores from the Comprehensive Assessment Program (CAP) 2014, the largest standardized achievement test for junior high school students in Taiwan, were used as an index of academic achievement. A questionnaire compiled by the researcher and comprising 26 dichotomous questions was used to measure personal characteristics, including uncertainty, neuroticism, extroversion, low self-esteem, and locus of control. A latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to categorize students according to the data of ExamSS, CAP 2014, and personal characteristics. The LCA results show that the data best fit a four-classes model, classifying students into high-stress-medium-achievement (22%), medium-stress-high-achievement (26%), low-stress-medium-achievement (32%), and low-stress-low-achievement (20%). The profiles of these four classes show that, by comparison with the medium-stress-high-achievement group and the low-stress-medium-achievement group, the high-stress-medium-achievement group has higher rates of uncertainty and neuroticism, lower extroversion and self-esteem, and greater tendency to externalize the locus of control. In the other hand, the low-stress-low-achievement group is shown to have low self-esteem, and medium uncertainty and external locus of control. In this study, we have found that examination stress is correlated with personal characteristics, such as uncertainty, neuroticism, extroversion, low self-esteem, and external locus of control. According to the results of this present study, some suggestions were proposed, hoping that educational policy can be used to change social atmosphere and provide counselling in schools where it is needed so as to effectively reduce examination stress among adolescents.

The application of word associations has become increasingly widespread. However, the association norms produced by traditional free association tests tend not to exceed 10,000 stimulus words, making the number of associated words too small to be representative of the overall language. In this study we used text corpora totaling over 400 million Chinese words, along with a multitude of association measures, to automatically construct a Chinese Lexical Association Database (CLAD) comprising the lexical association of over 80,000 words. Comparison of the CLAD with a database of traditional Chinese word association norms shows that word associations extracted from large text corpora are similar in strength to those elicited from free association tests but contain a much greater number of associative word pairs. Additionally, the relatively small numbers of participants involved in the creation of traditional norms result in relatively coarse scales of association measurement, whereas the differentiation of association strengths is greatly enhanced in the CLAD. The CLAD provides researchers with a great supplement to traditional word association norms. A query website at www.chinesereadability.net/LexicalAssociation/CLAD/ affords access to the database.

Abstract. Assessing work values with high school students is a critical component of career counseling practice, however it remains a relatively understudied area of research. The purpose of this study was to develop and provide psychometric evaluation of a Work Values Assembly (WVA) scale for assessing high school students. This study employed a mixed methodology to gather research data and conduct data analyses. In the first study, 30 participants were involved in focus-group interviews about their work values. The interview data were analyzed through a grounded theory approach and a framework of seven-dimension work values was derived. In the second study, the WVA scale was constructed based on the descriptions and dimensions of the first study. Seven hundred fifty three high school students participated in the pilot study. The revised scale was then administered to 896 high school students in a formal test. The exploratory- and confirmatory factor analyses re-verified the quality of the items and the construct validity of the WVA scale. The scale also demonstrated good test-retest reliability and criterion-related validity. Finally, 896 and 592 participants from high schools and colleges, respectively, participated in a test of measurement invariance between the two groups. Implications for counseling as well as suggestions for future research were discussed.

Physical education is a course that integrates knowledge of sports with skill drilling. Augmented Reality (AR)-assisted instruction has infrequently been applied in sport skill drilling. Vi...

Situational Judgment Tests for Teachers (SJTTs) were developed as an alternative to the existing evaluation programs for selecting student teachers. A Situational Judgment Test for Middle-school Te...

Text readability assessment is a challenging interdisciplinary endeavor with rich practical implications. It has long drawn the attention of researchers internationally, and the readability models since developed have been widely applied to various fields. Previous readability models have only made use of linguistic features employed for general text analysis and have not been sufficiently accurate when used to gauge domain-specific texts. In view of this, this study proposes a latent-semantic-analysis (LSA)-constructed hierarchical conceptual space that can be used to train a readability model to accurately assess domain-specific texts. Compared with a baseline reference using a traditional model, the new model improves by 13.88% to achieve 68.98% of accuracy when leveling social science texts, and by 24.61% to achieve 73.96% of accuracy when assessing natural science texts. We then combine the readability features developed for the current study with general linguistic features, and the accuracy of leveling social science texts improves by an even higher degree of 31.58% to achieve 86.68%, and that of natural science texts by 26.56% to achieve 75.91%. These results indicate that the readability features developed in this study can be used both to train a readability model for leveling domain-specific texts and also in combination with the more common linguistic features to enhance the efficacy of the model. Future research can expand the generalizability of the model by assessing texts from different fields and grade levels using the proposed method, thus enhancing the practical applications of this new method.

Pretesting is the most commonly used method for estimating test item difficulty because it provides highly accurate results that can be applied to assessment development activities. However, pretesting is inefficient, and it can lead to item exposure. Hence, an increasing number of studies have invested considerable effort in researching the automated estimation of item difficulty. Language proficiency tests constitute the majority of researched test topics, while comparatively less research has focused on content subjects. This paper introduces a novel method for the automated estimation of item difficulty for social studies tests. In this study, we explore the difficulty of multiple-choice items, which consist of the following item elements: a question and alternative options. We use learning materials to construct a semantic space using word embedding techniques and project an item's texts into the semantic space to obtain corresponding vectors. Semantic features are obtained by calculating the cosine similarity between the vectors of item elements. Subsequently, these semantic features are sent to a classifier for training and testing. Based on the output of the classifier, an estimation model is created and item difficulty is estimated. Our findings suggest that the semantic similarity between a stem and the options has the strongest impact on item difficulty. Furthermore, the results indicate that the proposed estimation method outperforms pretesting, and therefore, we expect that the proposed approach will complement and partially replace pretesting in future.

本研究編製一份教師工作價值觀量表，期望未來幫助師資培育單位檢視師資生的教師工作價值觀，以提供學業成就之外的指標。研究一以30 位資深教師，透過四場焦點團體之內容分析及文獻整理，初步整理出18個向度作為量表編製之依據；研究二分為預試階段及正式施測兩個階段。在預試階段方面，經由200 位大學生之預試結果，最後保留76 題，共10 個向度之正式題本，其向度分別為「專業自我實現」、「專業自我成長」、「思考與挑戰性」、「引導 陪伴學生」、「社會貢獻」、「公平正義」、「人際互動與管理」、「藝術體能活動」、「工作條件與福利」及「社會地位」。在正式施測方面，召募800 位大學生作為參與者，進行信度及效度之檢驗。從折半信度及內部一致性之結果，顯示教師工作價值觀量表具有良好的信度。從驗證性因素分析之結果，本研究提供教師工作價值觀之構念效度證據，並針對教師工作價值觀編製之結果，提出未來實務應用上之建議。 This study developed a work values scale for teachers (WVST) to enable teacher education institutions to inspect the work values of student teachers. In Study 1, we employed focus groups and examined the literature. Through conducting a content analysis of four focus groups comprising 30 experienced teachers and comparing the analysis results with the literature, we assembled 18 dimensions to form the basis of the WVST. In Study 2, we conducted scale evaluation, which was divided into a pilot-test stage and a formal-test stage. In the pilot-test stage, we recruited 200 university students as participants. After conducting an item analysis and an exploratory factor analysis, we retained 76 items and ten dimensions, namely professional self-realization, professional self-growth, reflection and challenges, guiding students, social contribution, equality and justice, interpersonal interaction and management, artistic and physical activities, working conditions and benefits, and social status. In the formal-test stage, we recruited 800 university students to complete the WVST in order to determine scale reliability and validity. The results for split-half reliability and internal consistency reliability revealed that the WVST achieved favorable reliability. The results from confirmatory factor analysis also indicated the construct validity of the WVST. On the basis of these results, we provided suggestions for future practical applications of the WVST in measuring the work values of teachers.

Traditionally, the visual analogue scale (VAS) has been proposed to overcome the limitations of ordinal measures from Likert-type scales. However, the function of VASs to overcome the limitations of response styles to Likert-type scales has not yet been addressed. Previous research using ranking and paired comparisons to compensate for the response styles of Likert-type scales has suffered from limitations, such as that the total score of ipsative measures is a constant that cannot be analyzed by means of many common statistical techniques. In this study we propose a new scale, called the Visual Analogue Scale for Rating, Ranking, and Paired-Comparison (VAS-RRP), which can be used to collect rating, ranking, and paired-comparison data simultaneously, while avoiding the limitations of each of these data collection methods. The characteristics, use, and analytic method of VAS-RRPs, as well as how they overcome the disadvantages of Likert-type scales, ranking, and VASs, are discussed. On the basis of analyses of simulated and empirical data, this study showed that VAS-RRPs improved reliability, response style bias, and parameter recovery. Finally, we have also designed a VAS-RRP Generator for researchers' construction and administration of their own VAS-RRPs.

This study used a computer-based teaching system to investigate the effectiveness of stroke-order learning and writing exercises in promoting the ability of Chinese-as-a-foreign-language (CFL) learners to recognize and write Chinese characters. This study included a 2 (stroke-order and non-stroke-order) × 2 (writing exercise and non-writing exercise) × 2 (test point) mixed factorial design involving a total of 91 participants. We compared the difference in their Chinese character learning, including Chinese character recognition and handwriting, based on the learning conditions. We found that CFL learners who practiced writing the characters had improved accuracy in their Chinese writing assignments and meaning assignments compared with students who did not practice writing, indicating that writing exercises helped students to memorize the orthography and output of Chinese characters. Writing exercises also helped improve memorization of the meaning of Chinese characters. However, the traditional emphasis on the correct stroke order, which has been considered helpful for learning Chinese characters, demonstrated no significant impact on the effectiveness of recognizing and writing Chinese characters.

由於近年來行動裝置與教育應用軟體的快速發展，探討行動裝置輔助學習效果的實驗研 究大量增加。然而，目前尚缺乏以評估實驗研究品質為主題所進行的回顧性研究。因此，本 研究的目的即為廣泛蒐集 ERIC 和 SSCI 資料庫自 2003 年至 2013 年間，197 篇以行動裝置輔 助學習的實驗研究，並探討其在實驗設計嚴謹度、統計考驗之過程與結果的正確性，以及成 效評估工具的品質等議題。研究結果顯示，實驗設計以準實驗研究占最多數（61%），但有四 分之一的準實驗研究未考量實驗組與控制組之起點能力均等性問題。統計結果效度部分則發 現，半數以上研究未符合統計基本假設，七成研究所採用之樣本數偏低，使其統計考驗力低 落，效果值估計情形未臻精準。成效評估工具品質部分，則發現半數研究者未提供相關的測 驗信度與效度資訊。最後，本研究根據研究結果與討論，對未來研究者提出相關建議。 Because of the substantial development of mobile devices and educational software in recent years, the results of mobile learning–based interventions represent a popular research topic for investigation. Although experiment quality is the basis of empirical research, few studies have explored this issue. Thus, the present study investigated the shortfalls in existing experimental research designs related to mobile learning over the past decade and offers suggestions in this paper. The researchers collected data from all 197 experimental studies on mobile learning published in the Education Resources Information Center and Institute of Science Index from 2003 to 2013. The findings of the present study are described as follows: (1) Quasi-experimental designs represent the most frequently used design type (61%); however, among the quasi-experimental studies, 25% did not consider baseline equivalence. (2) Over half of the studies may not have met basic statistical assumptions, and approximately 70% used insufficient sample sizes, leading to low statistical power and imprecise effect size estimation. (3) Half of the studies did not provide information on test reliability and validity. Finally, this paper discusses the results and their implications for future research and practice.

Readability is referred to as the degree of difficulty to which an given text (article) can be understood by readers. When readers are reading a text with high readability, they will achieve better comprehension and learning retention. However, it has been a long-standing critical challenge to develop effective readability prediction models that can automatically and accurately assess the readability of a given text. When building readability prediction models for the Chinese language, word segmentation ambiguity is often a knotty problem that will inevitably happen in the pre-processing of texts. In view of this, we present in this paper a novel readability prediction approach for the Chinese language, building on a recently proposed, so-called Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers (BERT) model that can capture both syntactic and semantic information of a text directly from its character-level representation. With the BERT-based readability prediction model that takes consecutive character-level representations as its input, we effectively assess the readability of a given text without the need of performing error-prone word segmentation. We empirically evaluate the performance of our BERT-based readability prediction model on a benchmark task, by comparing it with a strong baseline that utilizes a celebrated classification model (named fastText) in conjunction with word-level presentations. The results demonstrate that the BERT-based model with character-level representations can perform on par with the fastText-based model with word-level representations, yielding the accuracy of 78.45% on average. This finding also offers the promise of conducting readability assessment of a text in Chinese directly based on character-level representations.

Background The objective of the current study was to examine whether the relation between aerobic fitness and academic achievement during adolescence is subject-dependent, and to investigate cumulative and recency effects. Methods This study made use of two nationwide datasets. The first was the aerobic fitness profile of junior high school students collected by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. The second contained the scores on the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students (BCTJH). The sample consisted of 382,259 students who completed the BCTJH in the 5 years between 2009 and 2013. Data on each student’s aerobic fitness during their three years of junior high school were matched with their exam results at the end of this period. Results The results revealed that students classified as highly-fit during at least one of the three years had higher BCTJH scores than those who never achieved this level, with the size of effect increasing with the length of time that fitness was maintained. Additionally, aerobic fitness in the final year was more closely linked to BCTJH scores than that in the earlier two years. Fitness was also more strongly associated with exam performance in math, science and social science, relative to language-related subjects. Conclusions Our findings suggest that while aerobic fitness is positively related to academic achievement in Taiwanese junior high school students, the relationship depends on academic subject, as well as the length and time of being aerobically fit. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12887-018-1384-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Writing assessments make up an important part of the learning process as one masters the important linguistic skill of writing. However, this process has not been implemented effectively or on a large scale because the task of essay scoring is very time-consuming. The solution to this problem is AES, where machines are used to automatically score essays. In fact, the application of AES to English learning has been successful. Due to differences in linguistic characteristics, a redesign is needed before AES can be applied to Chinese learning. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce ACES, an automated system for scoring Chinese essays, and explain the basic framework, design principles, and scoring accuracy of the system. Unlike some end-to-end AES systems, ACES’ basic framework is designed to provide more interpretative features. The experimental results show that the performance of the ACES system is stable and reliable, and on par with other commercial English AES systems.

Exploring the career-interest profiles of students has both practical and theoretical significance; however, a minimal amount of research has been conducted to address this issue. The present study combined latent profile analysis and differentiation values to investigate the career-interest profiles of 13,853 junior-high-school students. The results indicate that while the students' interests could be stratified into 25 profiles, 44.6% of students could be classified the as having low-differentiation profiles (such as like or dislike all types of vocational activities) and 24.9% of students could be classified the as having the artistic-social (like both artistic and social types of activities) profile. In addition, the proportions of females and males differed significantly among the profiles, but different grades did not. The proportion of males was higher for all three low-differentiation groups than of female proportions. Implications for career practices and future research are proposed.

Previous studies have indicated that there is a negative correlation between test anxiety and performance. However, how the type of anxiety/stress, the examinees’ personal characteristics, and the method of assessment affect this relationship remained uninvestigated. Thus, the present study examined the relationship between test anxiety and learning achievement among secondary-school students, as well as tested two anxiety-performance relationship models. The analysis of test-anxiety scores and the standardized entrance examination scores of 1931 Taiwanese ninth-graders revealed an overall coefficient of 0.18 for the correlation between anxiety and achievement. Students in the lower-achievement group (i.e., ranked from percentile 1 to percentile 50, PR1–50) exhibited a positive correlation between anxiety and achievement ( r = 0.22), which is consistent with the motivational enhancement model, whereas students in the higher-achievement group (PR51–99) exhibited a negative correlation ( r = −0.16), which corresponds to the cognitive interference model. This study also found that although girls report experiencing higher test anxiety than boys, the correlations between test anxiety and achievement are the same among boys and girls. Because both the motivational enhancement and cognitive interference models could not completely explain the results, we proposed a “stress-of-uncertainty” model to explain the inverted-U shape of the anxiety for students.

為提供師資培育單位在甄選師資培育學生時，更多元的參考依據，本研究建置教師情境判斷測驗，並進行信度及效度之檢驗。研究一自2010 年起，進行教師情境判斷測驗的建置，並蒐集3,133位實習教師及正式教師之施測資料，以試題反應理論（item response theory, IRT）進行分析，檢驗測驗之信度及效度。研究一共建置75 題試題，且試題之中有90.67%與Rasch模式適配。研究二自2014 年起，進行試題的擴充，並蒐集了3,039 位大學生之施測資料。經由試題分析，研究二共建置105 題試題，總題數為180 題。除試題分析外，研究二亦分析修習不同教育學程的學生，檢驗其在測驗分數之差異，提供已知團體差異之效度證據。此外，研究二利用資深教師團隊座談會之質性資料，進行內容分析，探討資深教師在面對教師工作上問題時，其作法判斷背後之意涵，提供更多的建構效度證據。本研究將就教師情境判斷測驗的概念、試題特性，以及編製實務等議題進行討論。 According to the ideal of having multiple measures of teacher education, this study developed the teacher situational judgment test (TSJT) for selecting student teachers. The TSJS was based on the hypothesis that the more similar a student’s thinking is to senior and high-performing teachers, the more likely that student is to become an effective teacher. In Study 1, we collected data from 3,133 intern-teachers and teachers to determine the reliability and validity of the TSJT. On the basis of the analysis of the pilot test and formal test, we retained 75 items. Furthermore, the internal consistency reliability of three of the TSJT booklets was exceeded .7. Additionally, the Rasch model analysis showed that 90.67% of the TSJT items fit the Rasch model. In Study 2, we developed 150 new items to expand the TSJT item bank, and recruited 3,039 college students for an item analysis. Subsequently, we further retained 105 items for the TSJT item bank, totaling 180. The reliability of each booklet was between .47 and .74. For the test validity, the analysis of variances indicated that the TSJT scores of student teachers were significantly higher than those of nonstudent teachers. This provided known-group differences validity for the TSJT. Furthermore, in Study 2, we also conducted a qualitative content analysis to provide additional evidence of the construct validity. This present study discusses the development and practical applications of the TSJT.

Studies on teaching of reading strategies have found that summarizing is of tremendous help to reading comprehension. However grading students’ summary writings is laborious, but given the importance of summarizing, an effective summarizing learning module is important. This study developed an automatic summary assessment and feedback system based on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) to provide score, concept and semantic feedback, and then investigated the effects of concept and semantic feedback on the writing of summaries by students in the sixth grade. The design involved two between-subject factors: semantic feedback (with, without) and concept feedback (with, without). 120 sixth-grade students from an elementary school were recruited for the study, and then were randomly assigned to each group. The overall results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system in improving the summary writing skills of students. The effects of semantic feedback and concept feedback were also discussed.

Mobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones have become a learning tool with great potential in both classrooms and outdoor learning. Although there have been qualitative analyses of the use of mobile devices in education, systematic quantitative analyses of the effects of mobile-integrated education are lacking. This study performed a meta-analysis and research synthesis of the effects of integrated mobile devices in teaching and learning, in which 110 experimental and quasiexperimental journal articles published during the period 1993-2013 were coded and analyzed. Overall, there was a moderate mean effect size of 0.523 for the application of mobile devices to education. The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed and the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning in different levels of moderator variables were synthesized based on content analyses of individual studies. The results of this study and their implications for both research and practice are discussed. This is a meta-analysis and research synthesis study for mobile-integrated education.110 published journal articles that were written over a 20-year period were coded and analyzed.The application of mobile devices to education has a moderate mean effect size.The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed.The benefits and drawbacks of mobile learning were synthesized.

The purpose of this study was to understand children's visual attention during shared storybook reading when the print and picture area sizes are identical, as well as to understand which electronic storybook design is best able to increase children's attention to the print and their print awareness. To this end, we modified the electronic storybook's design, measured children's print awareness, and used an eye-tracker to measure children's visual attention during reading. Sixty-one 4–5 year old Taiwanese children's data were analyzed in this study. This study was conducted over a 6-week period: one week for pretest, four weeks of intervention, and one week for posttest. After the pretest stage, the kindergartners were split into three groups: traditional storybook, highlight synchronization (implicit instruction), and print discussion (explicit instruction). The results suggested that: First, when the print and picture area sizes were identical, children spent more than 19% of their time looking at the print area, substantially higher than previous studies (e.g. Evans & Saint-Aubin, 2005; Justice, Skibbe, Canning, & Lankford, 2005; Roy-Charland, Perron, Boulard, Chamberland, & Hoffman, 2015); second, the highlight synchronization design did entice children to look at the print more (from 19% to 38% reading time); third, exposure to either the reading highlight synchronization or the print discussion storybook designs for four weeks improved the children's print awareness.

The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between different components of physical fitness across 3 years of junior high school with academic performance assessed at the end of the period. Two nationwide representative datasets were used. The first was the physical fitness profile assessed at the beginning of each of the three school years. The second contained the scores on a standardized test administered at the end of the third year. All data were standardized by calculating percentile rank (PR). Students were classified as “High-fit” if their fitness scores ≧ top 25% PR on the age- and sex-adjusted norms. All other students were classified as “not high-fit”. The relationships between fitness and exam performance were tested adjusting for sex, body mass index, and level of urbanization. Students who were in the high-fit group in both years 1 and 3 academically outperformed those who were outside this classification during both assessments. The degree of outperformance was greatest for those who were aerobically fit, followed by those who were high-fit in terms of muscular endurance, muscular strength, and flexibility, respectively. It is therefore concluded that the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance in Taiwanese junior high school students is strongest in the case of aerobic fitness.

This study was designed to determine if language acquisition can occur in a virtual situation in the absence of explicit instruction. After spending 1 year establishing a virtual community, the authors observed and analyzed interpersonal interactions and the development of Chinese communication competence, communication models, and interaction frequency. The results revealed that (1) language acquisition can be improved autonomously in a virtual situation; (2) communication competence occurs in a loop of processes that include receiving, exploring, dialogue, assimilation, adaptation, asking questions, problem solving, and conversation; (3) social interactions and a friendly environment are the most crucial factors in a virtual community; (4) community consensus, individual motivation, individual personalities, speaking behaviors, language competence, and leading techniques affect how individuals develop communication competence.

Language learning has undergone rapid changes over the past several years, from computer-assisted learning to the more recent mobile-device-assisted learning. Although mobile devices have become valuable language-learning tools, the evident substantial contribution of mobile devices to language learning have not yet been investigated. The present meta-analysis of 44 peer-reviewed journal articles and doctoral dissertations that were written over a 20-year period (1993–2013), with 9154 participants, revealed that mobile-device-assisted language instruction has produced a meaningful improvement with an overall mean effect size of 0.55. Different effect sizes for moderator variables, such as learning stages, hardware use, software used, intervention settings, teaching methods, intervention durations, learning skills, target languages, and L1/L2, were also reported. The results are discussed, together with their implications for future research and practices on the use of mobile devices in language learning.

Textual analysis has been applied to various fields, such as discourse analysis, corpus studies, text leveling, and automated essay evaluation. Several tools have been developed for analyzing texts written in alphabetic languages such as English and Spanish. However, currently there is no tool available for analyzing Chinese-language texts. This article introduces a tool for the automated analysis of simplified and traditional Chinese texts, called the Chinese Readability Index Explorer (CRIE). Composed of four subsystems and incorporating 82 multilevel linguistic features, CRIE is able to conduct the major tasks of segmentation, syntactic parsing, and feature extraction. Furthermore, the integration of linguistic features with machine learning models enables CRIE to provide leveling and diagnostic information for texts in language arts, texts for learning Chinese as a foreign language, and texts with domain knowledge. The usage and validation of the functions provided by CRIE are also introduced.

A number of previous studies on Chinese relative clauses (RC) have reported conflicting results on processing asymmetry. This study aims to revisit the prevalent debate on whether subject-extracted RCs (SRC) or object-extracted RCs (ORC) are easier to process by using the eye-movement technique. In the current study, the data are analyzed in terms of the gaze duration and regression of eye-movement in three critical areas: head noun, embedded verb, and RC-modifying noun phrase as subject. The results show an ORC preference for the processing of RC structures, which supports the word-order account and the Dependency Locality Theory, and a better cross-clausal integration for SRC, which supports the perspective-shift account. The processing asymmetry in Chinese RCs are discussed under relevant theoretical accounts, such as structure-based, memory-based, and perspective shift accounts. We argue that the findings are associated with the syntactic nature of Chinese (a head-initial language with pre-nominal RCs).

Selecting appropriate texts for L2 (second/foreign language) learners is an important approach to enhancing motivation and, by extension, learning. There is currently no tool for classifying foreign language texts according to a language proficiency framework, which makes it difficult for students and educators to determine the precise difficulty/complexity levels of an unclassified text. Taking the Chinese language as an example, this study aimed to create a readability assessment system, called the Chinese Readability Index Explorer for Chinese as a Foreign Language (CRIE-CFL), in order to level-that is, to sort by proficiency level-texts that will be used for instructional purposes. The framework of choice in this project is the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). A team of expert CFL teachers first classified 1,578 CFL texts into their appropriate CEFR levels. A set of 30 CFL readability features was then developed or drawn from previous research, and sorted according to importance using F-scores. In addition, a support vector machine model was trained by sequentially integrating the features into the model to optimize accuracy. The empirical evaluation of CRIE-CFL revealed average exact- and adjacent-level accuracies of 74.97% and 99.62%, respectively, for predicting the expert classification of a text. The functionalities of CRIE-CFL are introduced and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constructed a situation-based career interest assessment (SCIA) that is suitable for applying to junior high school students. The assessment framework is based on Holland’s theory of vocational interest. The subjects for the pilot study and the formal test were 1,072 junior high school students and 1,136 junior high school students, respectively. The results of reliability tests produced correlation coefficients between .77 and .95, exploratory factor analysis produced factor loadings between .32 and .92 for six factors, and confirmatory factor analysis produced relative fit indices of .95 across the comparative fit index and nonnormed fit index, indicating a satisfactory goodness of fit. Convergent and discriminant validity analyses indicated that the SCIA has acceptable construct validity. Multidimensional scaling analysis, internal correlation, and randomization test showed that the interest structure of adolescents and the relationship among interest types are only partially consistent with Holland’s theory.

The tools used for measuring examination stress have three main limitations: sample selected, sample sizes, and measurement contents. In this study, we constructed the Examination Stress Scale (ExamSS), and 4,717 high school students participated in this research. The results indicate that ExamSS has satisfactory reliability, construct validity, and measurement-invariance validity.

One of the trends in collaborative learning is using mobile devices for supporting the process and products of collaboration, which has been forming the field of mobile-computer-supported collaborative learning (mCSCL). Although mobile devices have become valuable collaborative learning tools, evaluative evidence for their substantial contributions to collaborative learning is still scarce. The present meta-analysis, which included 48 peer-reviewed journal articles and doctoral dissertations written over a 16-year period (2000–2015) involving 5,294 participants, revealed that mCSCL has produced meaningful improvements for collaborative learning, with an overall mean effect size of 0.516. Moderator variables, such as domain subject, group size, teaching method, intervention duration, and reward method were related to different effect sizes. The results provided implications for future research and practice, such as suggestions on how to appropriately use the functionalities of mobile devices, how to best leverage mCSCL through effective group learning mechanisms, and what outcome variables should be included in future studies to fully elucidate the process and products of mCSCL.

Test validity is a property of the interpretation assigned to test scores. To provide an objective validating evidence for a standard-referenced assessment is especially important. In this study we utilize a statistical technique, cluster analysis, to explore the validity of one of the expert judgement technique-Yes/No Angoff standard setting method. We first segregated each examinee ability cluster using the hierarchical clustering (HC). Assume that each ability cluster is a Gaussian distribution and that the distribution of each test subject data can be modeled by mixture of Gaussians (MoG), where the mean, variance and the proportion of each cluster were initialized by the HC results. Finally, the ability clustering was implemented by the expectation maximization (EM) method. The results from the traditional standard-setting procedure and cluster analysis were compared. The study concludes that cluster analysis appears useful for helping to set standards on educational tests. In addition, it suggested that cluster analysis could be applied as a support tool to provide validating information in the process of standard setting for high-stakes achievement tests.

The theory of spatial thinking is relevant to the learning and teaching of many academic domains. One promising method to facilitate learners' higher-order thinking is to utilize a web map mind tool to assist learners in applying spatial thinking to cooperative problem solving. In this study, an environment is designed based on the theory of spatial thinking and developed to help learners engage in project-based learning that utilizes the proposed web map mind tool for tour planning. The participants were 66 college students, and a quasi-experimental research design was employed. This study examined the differences in the learning performance and project performance between participants using the web map mind tool (the experimental group) and ordinary Internet search engines (the control group). The results indicate the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in terms of both learning performance and project performance. In addition, we found that the students in the two groups held a positive learning attitude toward the project activity of tour planning. In terms of students' attitude toward the use of a mind tool, this study only conducted a survey for the experimental group. The results indicated that learners in the experimental group held a positive attitude toward the use of the web map mind tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing instruction on spatial geometry, specifically how to calculate the surface areas of composite solids, challenges many elementary school teachers. Determining the surface areas of composite solids involves complex calculations and advanced spatial concepts. The goals of this study were to build on students’ learning processes for basic and composite solids and employ Google SketchUp, an Internet resource tool, to develop and implement surface-area instructional and learning strategies (SAILS) for composite solids, and then measure its effect on learning achievement and attitudes. The fifth-grade students (N = 111) who were enrolled in this study were divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group (N = 56) received SAILS instruction, whereas the control group (N = 55) received traditional instruction. The results indicated that students who received SAILS instruction exhibited better performance on both immediate and maintained surface-area learning achievement tests compared to those who received traditional instruction; furthermore, this effect was more prominent among boys than girls. Low- and moderate-ability students who received SAILS instruction exhibited significantly greater improvement of attitudes toward learning mathematics compared to those receiving traditional instruction with physical teaching aids.

a b s t r a c t Representational Change Theory claims that participants form inappropriate represen- tations at the beginning of the insight problem solving process and that these initial representations must be transformed to discover the solution (Knoblich, Ohlsson, Haider, & Rhenius, 1999; Knoblich, Ohlsson, & Raney, 2001; Ohlsson, 1992). The theory also claims that all participants are trapped by inappropriate representations, regardless of the result, but it is easier for successful participants to transform their initial representations. However, the transformation of representations is not the only critical factor. This study investigates the hypothesis that the process of fixedness averting plays an important role in insight problem solving and is helpful for representational change. To verify the influence of fixed- ness averting on representational change processes, matchstick arithmetic problems were employed as an experimental model. In experiment 1, insight problem solving results could be predicted within the first third of the duration of the task. The gaze duration in the fix- ation region of successful participants was shorter than the gaze duration of unsuccessful participants. In experiment 2, participants' foci of attention were experimentally manip- ulated by presenting different animated diagrams to guide their attention. We found that the rate of correct responses was significantly reduced when participants' attention was guided to the fixation region. Representational Change Theory declares that changing inap- propriate initial representations is necessary for solving insight problems. The present study demonstrates that in addition to representational change, fixedness averting is also crucial to problem solving.