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In 2011, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education issued a policy on the internationalisation of schooling. The policy assumes that being 'international' has become necessary in order to maintain economic competitiveness in a globalising world. It was published in two languages: Mandarin, the official language in Taiwan, and English, presupposed as a "lingua franca." Treating 'policy as discourse', the article analyses internationalism and its performativity through the publication and specific textual construction of this policy. The analysis considers the layout, target readerships, conceptual translation, and spatial representation and construction of 'Chineseness' in the two policy texts. This attempt at internationalisation is related to the very specific historical and geopolitical conditions of Taiwan and its liminal position in the globe. The significance of the article rests in expanding ideas of 'translation' in education policy studies and in the analysis of the specific geopolitics of East Asia.

The present study aims to identify the most productive countries, journals, authors, institutions and the most used keywords in the field of special education during 2011-2020, based on the WoS database. The widespread effects of the papers and how they are related were analyzed with the bibliometric analysis method. The findings of the study showed that the USA is inarguably the most productive country, followed by England and Australia. On the other hand, there was a very strong positive correlation (r = 0.929) between the number of papers published by countries and their h-index, a similar finding was also found to be present between the countries' h-index and GDP per capita (r = 0.790). Moreover, it was found that the journals with the highest quartile (Q1 and Q2) in the field of special education published significantly more papers than the journals with the lowest quartile (Q3 and Q4). Matson, JL (USA), Sigafoos, J (New Zealand) and Lancioni, GE (Italy) were determined as the most prolific authors, respectively. Autism, intellectual disability, and Down syndrome were the phrases most frequently used as keywords. Our findings provide key information regarding the developments that the research direction of special education field has recently taken. This study also serves a potential roadmap for future studies.

Drawing on interviews with nine PhD students and twelve PhD graduates from a research university in Taiwan, this paper explores students' motivational profiles for pursuing a PhD at a time when that degree is increasingly decoupled from academic employment. Using self-determination theory as a conceptual lens, the paper identifies common enrolment motivations in the PhD crisis era. Amidst the doctoral enrolment crisis in Taiwan, where the traditional employment path for PhD graduates (i.e., academia) is more of a mirage than a reality, the motivations of students to pursue a PhD do not differ much from those found in the literature concerning the era of PhD expansion. Two typical motivational profiles are predominant, one dominated by the accumulation of career advantages and the other by the search for personal growth. The findings show that the first profile tends to be on the minds of most students. The second profile tends to be adopted by those who have few career concerns or those who have a greater need for self-improvement. We also find that these motivations have unique nuances, meanings and consequences for universities and doctoral education in the PhD crisis era.

Purpose: Microteaching is a teacher training method based on microclasses (groups of four or five students) and microlessons lasting no more than 5-20 min. Since it was first explored in the late 20th century in experiments at Stanford University, microteaching has evolved at the interdisciplinary level. The purpose of this paper is to examine the networks found via an analytical bibliometric study of the scientific output related with microteaching in teacher training, through a study and examination of the Web of Science database. Design/methodology/approach: This research was conducted with the VOSviewer tool for content analysis through data mining and scientific network structure mapping by means of the normalisation technique. This technique is based on the association strength indicator, which is interpreted as a measurement of the similarity of the units of analysis. Findings: Two hundred and nine articles were thus obtained from the Web of Science database. The networks generated and the connections among the various items, co-authorship and co-citation are presented in the results, which clearly indicates that there are significant authors and institutions in the field of microteaching. The largest cluster is made up of institutions such as Australian Catholic University. The most often-cited document is by Rich and Hannafin. Allen (1968), who defines microteaching as a technique based on microclasses and microlessons, is the author most often cited and has the largest number of connections. Research limitations/implications: This research's limitations concern either aspects that lie beyond the study's possibilities or goals that have proved unattainable. The second perspective, which focuses on skill transfer, contains a lower percentage of documents and therefore has a weaker central documentary structure. Lastly, the authors have also had to bear in mind the fact that the scientific output hinges upon a highly specific realm, the appearance and/or liberalisation of digital technologies and access to those technologies in the late 20th century. Originality/value: This research shows that microteaching is a promising area of research that opens up vast possibilities in higher education teacher training for application in the realm of technologies. This paper could lead to several lines of future research, such as access to and the universal design of learning from the standpoint of different communication and pedagogical models based on microteaching.

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

Involving the global issues as listed in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is necessarily done in the education process, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. Exposure to global issues is known to improve students' understanding, awareness, and ability to solve urgent issues faced by global society. This paper aims to find out the trend of research on the coverage of SDGs in students' learning process. This systematic literature analysis was done by applying Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Method. A total of 25 studies were recognized through a systematic search by using Sustainability, SDGs, and EFL as keywords. The result shows that the trend of associating SDGs with EFL settings was done mostly in Indonesia. In the recent year 2022, it reached the highest number of studies in the particular matter with 7 total of research. It was also found that the study involving SDGs on EFL learning was mostly done in the tertiary setting, compared with K-12, junior high school, secondary, high school, and other educational institutions. It was also discovered that the specific area of study enhances EFL students' learning achievement, environmental awareness, global citizen values, as well as students' levels of self-norms, beliefs, and self-value.

The review article presents an analysis of the literature on environmental literacy in sustainable development. By utilizing techniques to examine multiple documents published between 2013 and 2023, including citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, subject area analysis, and keyword analysis, this study aims to provide valuable information and insights into the research landscape surrounding environmental literacy and its contribution to promoting sustainable development. A systematic search was conducted to gather several scientific articles, conference papers, and publications from the Scopus database from 2013 to 2023. The findings of this analysis shed light on authors, influential institutions, and active research groups that contributed to the study of environmental literacy and sustainable development. This comprehensive review offers an understanding of the state of research in this field while identifying areas for further exploration and research gaps. The insights gained from this study can be highly beneficial for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to advance knowledge and take action toward promoting literacy's role in sustainable development. This analysis is a foundation for advancing our understanding of literacy's significance while emphasizing its vital role in sustainable development efforts.

Maintaining the abilities and utilizing, even developing the potential of older adults is currently one of the important issues in an aged society, and participation in education is an important method to maintain and develop the abilities of older adults. Exploring the factors that discourage older adults from participating in learning activities is important in promoting their educational participation. Therefore, this paper focuses on understanding why older adults may be reluctant to participate in learning activities. This study utilized an interview approach to gain an in-depth understanding of the perspectives of older adults, with 24 participants involved in the study. The interview data was analysed using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding for qualitative data analysis and to draw conclusions. The results indicated that older adults may be reluctant to participate in education, which may be influenced by factors such as age, physical condition, education level, economic status, lifestyle, interpersonal relationships, transportation, and the types of courses available. According to the findings, two important issues regarding older adult education were identified: personal difficulties and curriculum structure. Based on the research results, this study provides suggestions for future reference in planning older adult education.

The aim of this study is to identify the most prolific countries in the field of special education and to discuss the widespread impact of their papers by taking into account the country's h-index. Through a bibliometric analysis, the data were collected in the Web of Science Core Collection category "Education, Special" in the Social Science Citation Index during 2011-2020. The 25 most prolific countries in the field of special education were determined in terms of paper productivity, and it was seen that the leading country was undisputedly the USA (54.42%). Meanwhile, a strong positive correlation was found between the h-index and the number of papers published by the countries (r=0.864). On the other hand, when the ranking in terms of the number of papers was reconfigured by the h-index, it was relatively changed. The possible reasons for this change for the countries with the most changing rankings were discussed by considering some definitive criteria such as the journal quartiles, the percentage of international and domestic, and the percentage of open access papers. This study reports a positive correlation between the quality and quantity in the field of special education for the publications of countries. It has been shown that where the positive correlation deviates, then especially, the journal quartiles, the percentage of international collaboration and the percentage of open access papers have a significant effect. The bibliometric findings may be useful to enrich the discussion about the widespread impact of papers and debate whether the use of h-index is acceptable for cross-national comparisons.

The higher education efficiency evaluation model using the data envelopment analysis method has interested many researchers. This paper uses bibliometric analysis on publications extracted from the Scopus database to provide a comprehensive overview of research publications on the measurement of higher education efficiency based on data envelopment analysis: its growth rate, major collaboration networks, the most important and popular research topic. A total of 169 related publications were collected and analyzed from 1988 to 2021. The analysis results show that: Publications published every year have increased sharply in the last six years; The quality of publications is relatively high as publications tend to be published in journals with high-ranking indexes; Countries with the most influence in studies on this topic are: Italy, China, Spain, the USA, and the United Kingdom; Authors with the most influence in this research direction are Agasisti T., Abbott M., Doucouliagos C., Avkiran N.K., and Johnes J.; The research cooperation among countries and among affiliations is not strong. Finally, the paper has provided recommendations for future studies based on the findings.

This paper examines the discursive construction of Taiwan's envisioned identity as a Mandarin-English bilingual nation, encapsulated in its recent "2030 Bilingual Nation" policy. Through the lens of imagined community, this paper analyzes the blueprint for the policy to parse out the kinds of (international) ties the Taiwanese government is trying to forge for the nation and the role English plays in this top-down imagination. The findings highlight the dominance of English in the policy and show how these imagined national identities and bilingual strategies are constructed largely in relation to English as the language of the global economy. The analysis further identifies three prevalent discourses that help frame this top-down imagination, particularly the urgency for Taiwan to be English-proficient. Based on the findings, the paper warns against taking the value of English for granted, urges policy makers to take a critical and practical stance on the promotion of English, and provides implications for future research.

Drawing on Conversation Analysis, this paper investigates how an English native speaker interviewer utilizes clarification requests as a form of recipient design during an interview to resolve problems of non-understanding. This data is contrasted with interviews between English language learners at a private university in Taiwan. The findings reveal that learners resolve these problems of misunderstanding through ignoring requests for clarification. It is argued that this represents a lost opportunity to further participation in L2 discourse and hence a forsaken opportunity for L2 language learning. This data illustrates that discourse markers and displays of epistemic status (Heritage, 2012) aid in achieving intersubjectivity and displaying alignment between speakers, furthering language use and participation. This paper investigates how understanding the way in which clarification requests are formulated in interviews between native speakers of English can be utilized to teach EFL learners how to negotiate clarification requests during spoken interaction. This paper adopts the position that pedagogy can be informed by findings generated through Conversation Analytic methods when comparing examples of authentic usage and L2 learner data and that particular discourse patterns should be taught to EFL students through CA-informed classroom tasks and teaching materials related to clarification requests.

The major analytical research question addressed in this paper is: What are Thailand's strengths and weaknesses as an international education hub for students from the Asian region? The key descriptive research question is: What is the nature of the educational experience of Asian students in Thailand? The two major research methodologies of the study are mixed research methods and comparative case studies, with the use of in-depth interviews of influential experts, surveys, and an autoethnography. In terms of major findings, there has been a dramatic growth of Asian students at Thai universities during the past two decades. Thailand's major advantages relate to low costs, location, quality campus facilities, and a welcoming attitude toward outsiders, while major disadvantages are the quality of many of Thailand's international programs often related to low English language capabilities. The paper concludes by presenting a creative new architecture for thinking about Asian study abroad in Thailand.

The increasing internationalization of Higher Education Institutions has facilitated universities from East Asian countries like Taiwan, Korea, and China to value university rankings more in enhancing their admissions and reputation. Especially when Taiwan and China are all considered belonging to Chinese social community, returnee doctorates are assumed to possess international experience that is theoretically helpful to improve their research productivity and university employers generally prefer foreign-trained doctorates. However, there is little research to prove that returnee doctorates are more productive than local doctorates because of more frequent international mobility. This research examines a University in Taiwan, a prominent academic research university, credible for its research productivity. From the perspective of bibliometrics, this study used the Scopus International Academic Database to identify publications, citations, and Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) as credible indicators of research productivity, controlling for personal background, doctoral training, international mobility, and research collaboration. We hope that the differences in research productivity between local and returnee doctorates can be measured more comprehensively and objectively. The results of this study found that there is a significant difference in the higher FWCI score of research publications between local and returnee doctorates, and further found that there is a significant positive relationship between local doctorates, published papers during doctoral studies, prestige of supervisors, and international and domestic research collaboration on research productivity. Those that identified international mobility in careers had a stronger impact on research productivity compared to those of the doctorate educating stage, and both international and domestic research collaboration were important for research productivity. The results based on empirical analysis broke the myths of returnee doctorate corresponding to high research productivity in this study, and can serve as a reference for faculty recruitment and research environment enhancement in research-oriented universities in Taiwan and other Asian countries. Policy implications are also discussed.

This paper explores the leadership styles of fourteen elected female politicians in executive government positions, as communicated through the official Instagram accounts that were in use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven of them are, or were, heads of government, six are or were mayors, and one is the president of an autonomous region in Spain. These women are Angela Merkel (Germany), Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Sanna Marin (Finland), Mette Frederiksen (Denmark), Erna Solberg (Norway), Katrin Jakobsdottir (Iceland), Tsai Ing-Wen (Taiwan), Anne Hidalgo (Paris), Virginia Raggi (Rome), Ada Colau (Barcelona), Claudia López (Bogotá), Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico City), London Breed (San Francisco) and Isabel Díaz Ayuso (Madrid Region). A comparative content analysis of 2,330 units was conducted over a 6-month period. The study analyses the hard or soft leadership style conveyed by the women politicians selected in relation to four variables: political ideology, generational affiliation, level of government and techniques used in communication. The results show that the values of the variables affect leadership styles; therefore, the assumption that all female politicians have a single leadership style is erroneous and related to gender stereotyping.

This paper presents an analysis of quality culture (QC) development in Taiwan which has recently undergone major reforms of quality assurance (QA) policies. The implementation of internal quality assurance (IQA) initiatives has been an indispensable condition to form a QC in higher education which contributes to a fundamental and comprehensive evolution of Taiwanese higher education. To explore the government's policy strategies and transformation of QA approaches, this paper interviews policymakers, QA experts and academics. This paper identifies common features and distinct characteristics of QC in Taiwan's higher education, and its relations to QA mechanisms. These perspectives offer a different way of conceptualising QC in QA policies. Furthermore, QC development has not only served the purpose of enhancing quality in higher education but has also acted as a driver for QA and higher education changes.

Teach For All (TFAll) is global network of programs based on Teach For America. Since 2007, TFAll has spread to more than 60 countries and had a considerable impact on educational policy across educational jurisdictions. Scant research, however, has examined 'shadow' programs based on this model but unaffiliated with TFAll, such as Teach For Taiwan (TFT). This paper engages in a critical policy analysis of TFT and examines both its emergence and (mis)alignment with educational policy. Our analysis first highlights the inspiration and support TFT has drawn from TFAll and its affiliate programs, despite its unofficial status. The paper then examines how TFT is aligned strategically with recent policy shifts toward deregulation in Taiwanese education. We also find that TFT is misaligned with key educational structures, including the national salary scale for teachers and teacher education system, resulting in a new category of transient teachers who are uniquely positioned in the teaching roles they assume but largely unable to continue teaching beyond TFT. We argue that more attention within education policy studies should focus on the impacts of (un)official TFAll programs -- particularly given their disproportionate power and positioning to effect global educational change -- and their (mis)alignments with national systems.

In this conceptual paper I examine how current understandings of English medium instruction (EMI) can be refined to inform language policy-making and practice in higher education. Starting from a set of EMI definitions (Dafouz, E., & Smit, U. 2020. "ROAD-MAPPING English medium education in the internationalized university." Palgrave Macmillan; Macaro, E. 2018. "English medium instruction." Oxford University Press; Pecorari, D., & Malmström, H. 2018. At the crossroads of TESOL and English medium instruction. "TESOL Quarterly, 52"(3), 497-515) and the language-content spectrum that was first put forward by Met (1998. Curriculum decision-making in content-based language teaching. In J. Cenoz, & F. Genesee (Eds.), "Beyond bilingualism: Multilingualism and multilingual education" (pp. 35-63). Multilingual Matters), I highlight how EMI has been approached in existing literature and how it may converge or diverge with other bilingual labels. Using an institutional case as an example, I argue that the conceptualisation of the language-content duality could be expanded to better reflect the different manifestations of EMI in reality, and to provide space for tracing terminological movements in the process of policy implementation. To do so, a dynamic language-content model is introduced, drawing attention to different "depths" of integration based on what is controlled (e.g. language and/or content) and how much control is taken (e.g. in curriculum-planning, teaching, and/or assessment). The model can be viewed as a second generation of the language-content continuum, complementing existing EMI definitions while opening up wider possibilities for dealing with the interplay between language and content in university settings. The paper closes with implications for EMI policy-making and practice.

Chinese is a highly complex language with internal variation unprecedented in most other languages. Yet, that does not mean Chinese is unique in the sense that it cannot be compared to other languages and new concepts need to be introduced for the description of it. This paper is dedicated to the question of how to apply the notion of pluricentricity to the Chinese language whilst at the same time keeping Chinese comparable to other pluricentric languages. Attempts have been made to see Chinese through a pluricentric lens, yet they have not incorporated the entirety of Chinese with its various Fangyán or have introduced concepts that distort the discussion on Chinese from its linguistic reality. To ensure comparability across pluricentric languages, this paper acknowledges that the term "Chinese" is an umbrella term that does not refer to any single Fangyán but that encompasses all of them. Hence, instead of Chinese, Fangyán are used as a point of departure for the application of pluricentricity. This paper proposes an inclusive framework of Chinese pluricentricity comprising 15 standard varieties: two Cantonese, three Hokkien and five Mandarin varieties as well as two varieties of the Chinese script and three varieties of Mandarin phonetisation systems.

This study examined the effectiveness of guided data-driven learning (DDL) activities on helping technological university students with a lower-intermediate proficiency level to learn grammar and vocabulary topics for the TOEIC test. The question of whether inductive learners make more progress than deductive learners was also addressed. A total of fifty-one non-English majors in a freshman English class participated in the study. Five computer-based and four paper-based DDL lessons were developed to increase students' awareness of the usage of particular grammar items and the distinction between three sets of synonyms. In order to determine the effects of the treatments, all the participants took pre-tests and immediate posttests. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-tests on grammar and vocabulary. However, inductive learners did not outperform deductive learners. As for students' perception of the treatments, it is noteworthy that they tended to take a neutral to less than positive attitude towards this DDL experience even though such an experience helped them significantly improve. The results suggested the existence of a gap between students' perceived satisfaction and their actual achievement. Pedagogical implications of these findings were discussed to improve the efficacy of DDL in Taiwan's EFL context.

Many educational strategies have been proposed to improve students' learning motivation and outcomes. This paper reports the student learning outcome results of a three-year study centered on the Electronics course at the Department of Physics of National Taiwan University. In the first year, peer instruction (PI) with in-class lectures was implemented. In the second year, in-class lectures were replaced with online lectures in a flipped classroom (FC) approach, and PI in class was maintained. In the third year, PI-based conceptual questions (CQs) were scored as part of in-class homework to enhance motivation for online lecture preview. Learning performance was evaluated based on cumulative percentage of correct answers to CQs and summative assessment. The results revealed improved student performance on summative assessment with PI and FC approaches combined. Furthermore, when CQs were scored, overall learning outcomes were significantly enhanced. In addition, an advantage of using a PI plus FC approach over using PI alone is that more course materials can be covered in online videos, which prevents a loss of lecture content to the time-consuming, in-class discussions involved in PI. Our study indicates that when students' motivations to prepare before class are reinforced using graded CQs, the learning outcome enhancement of PI plus FC is even more significant.

In this paper, to handle the problem of the quick evolution of cyber-security attacks, we developed the iMonsters board game and proposed the attack and defense knowledge self-evolving algorithm. Three versions of the iMonsters were launched in 2013, 2017, and 2019, respectively. Accordingly, the cyber-security ontology can be refined by the ontology fusion-or-splitting procedure for the newly collected cyber-security incidents, as well as the roles and rules of the iMonsters can be refined by the gaming portfolio mining procedure for the collected portfolio. Furthermore, we conducted game-based learning (GBL), a quasi-experiment of pre/post-testing, and concept map testing using the iMonsters board game in a children's summer camp. The experimental results indicate that the students can acquire up-to-date cyber-security knowledge with the iMonsters better than students who learn in a traditional classroom setting, and the students' satisfaction with acquiring cyber-security knowledge with the instructional design of the iMonsters is better compared with learning in a traditional classroom setting. Satisfaction with the new version has continuously increased. Besides, the results of the in-depth interviews show that the new version was easier to learn. Thus, we may conclude that using the self-evolving iMonsters can improve learning effectiveness and participation in GBL.

Recent studies have shown contradictory results on the influence of digital technology on the level of reading comprehension performance in college students. This paper examines the existence of differences in reading comprehension between the use of digital technology and traditional support in college students. A meta-analysis of international publications between 2012-2022 is carried out with a total sample of 481 students. The results indicate that technology has not an average positive effect on reading comprehension. The study evidences improvement in students' reading comprehension with printed medium with an effect size of 0.19. The practical implications should be aimed at stimulating research with new digital resources and increasing educational actions on teaching methodology in the classroom.

Since the late 1980s, Taiwan has moved away from Mandarin-only language policy in favour of greater recognition of local Taiwanese languages as part of a greater localisation movement. While continuing to implement language policies aimed at promoting local Taiwanese languages, in December 2018, Taiwan announced intent to implement a bilingual language policy to incorporate English by 2030, titled "Bilingual Nation." Applying Ball's (1993) "policy as discourse" framework, this paper endeavours to investigate the "Bilingual Nation" policy planning and rhetoric so as to shed light on Taiwan's official conceptualisation of national identity. The case study finds that English is the primary focus of "Bilingual Nation" policy documents and is relegated to the discursive arenas of internationalisation and global economic competition. English is rarely discussed in tandem with any other specific language or language category, with little consideration for the interaction of English and Taiwan's official national languages. In sum, "Bilingual Nation" acts as an affirmation of the current status quo in Taiwan's official conception of national identity: muddled, with the assumption of Mandarin at its centre. Questions remain for "Bilingual Nation" and its ability to push beyond a symbolic state effort for internationalisation or unproductive labours for international status.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the current situation of education for sustainable development, climate change education and environmental education in a nationwide context. Methodologically, this study calls for more research to go beyond case studies and take a similar approach to examine university curricula and facilitate cross-country comparisons. Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines the status of climate and sustainability curricula in Taiwan's higher education system. Using the course catalog for the 2020-2021 academic year, the authors constructed a unique data set that includes 1,827 courses at 29 major universities in Taiwan. In each institution, the authors search for course titles that include "climate," "sustainable/sustainability" and "environment/environmental" as keywords and code the courses according to their disciplines. Findings: The finding highlights the variations across institutional types and subject matters. Public universities have an average of 4.94 related courses per 1,000 students, whereas private universities have only 3.13. In general, the relevant courses are more concentrated in the STEM and bioscience fields. The curricula, however, are seriously constrained by the disciplinary structure and foster few transdisciplinary perspectives. Originality/value: The authors seek to go beyond case studies and offer one of the most comprehensive curricula samples at the national level. Taiwan adds an important data point, as the current literature focuses heavily on the USA and Europe.

In this paper, we use the "Family Resemblance Approach" (FRA) as a framework to characterize how scientists view the nature of science (NOS). FRA presents NOS as a "system" that includes clusters or categories of ideas about the cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional aspects of science. For example, the cognitive-epistemic aspects include aims and values such as objectivity and scientific methods such as hypothesis testing. Social-institutional aspects refer to a range of components including social values such as honesty about evidence and institutional contexts of science such as research institutions. Characterized as such, NOS is thus a system of interacting components. The initial account of FRA was proposed by philosophers of science and subsequently adapted and extended for science education including through empirical studies. Yet, there is little understanding of the extent to which FRA coheres with scientists' own depictions about NOS. Hence, an empirical study was conducted with scientists to investigate their views about FRA as well as their views of NOS using the FRA framework. In so doing, the research sought to explore the utility of FRA from scientists' point of view. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of 17 Taiwanese scientists' responses to a set of written questions indicates that scientists are in agreement with the FRA account of NOS, and they detail all aspects in their reference to NOS, although the social-institutional aspects are underrepresented in their depiction. Implications for further studies and science education are discussed.

Purpose: Podcasting is a new mobile technology application for language learning. Drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response model and the interest driven creator (IDC) theory from e-learning, this study aims to develop and test an integrative conceptual framework. This study investigates contextual and environmental stimuli effects (content richness [CR], self-directed learning [SDL] and situational interest [SI]) from a podcast English learning context on learners' experience states (cognitive absorption [CA], pleasure [PL] and arousal [AR]) and their subsequent responses (continuance learning intention [CLI]). Design/methodology/approach: Using 416 valid responses from five universities located in North Taiwan, data analysis is performed using a structural equation model. Findings: The results show that most of the interest factor stimuli (CR, SDL and SI) have significant impacts on learners' experiences (CA, PL and AR), which in turn affect their CLI. Practical implications: The findings provide useful insights for English show podcasters and operators to invest in establishing learners' interest factor and stimulating experiences to improve their CLI. Originality/value: This paper contributes to a better understanding of students who use contextual factors of podcast English learning and how these factors influence their CLI via a framework of stimulus-organism-response and the IDC theory.

In this article, Charlie Taylor offers a commentary on Yang et al.'s 2021 "Reading in a Foreign Language" article, "Text Difficulty in Extensive Reading: Reading Comprehension and Reading Motivation." In their study, Yang et al. analyzed the effects of text difficulty on the reading comprehension and motivation of high school students participating in an EFL extensive reading program in Taiwan. The researchers provided one experimental group with graded readers that were one level below their current vocabulary level, and another with books that were one level above. The authors' stated aim was to determine the optimum reading level for students by testing two hypotheses: The automaticity principle (Day & Bamford, 1998), and the Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1982). They claimed that these two hypotheses are "contrastive" (Yang et al., 2021, p. 79) because the automaticity principle recommends students read below their current vocabulary level, whereas the Input Hypothesis implies students should read above their current level. In this commentary, Taylor briefly examines the authors' claim that because the group reading lower-level texts made greater comprehension gains in this study, the results "may not support the postulate of the Input Hypothesis that input at one level beyond learners' capacity may promote acquisition" (Yang et al., 2021, p. 91). [For Yang et al.'s study "Text Difficulty in Extensive Reading: Reading Comprehension and Reading Motivation," see EJ1296460.]

Early childhood is a period of rapid development and growth, and regardless of physical, psychological, and social abilities, young children at this stage have great plasticity and strong imitation ability. Childhood is a critical period for individual learning; so preschool teachers must provide young children with appropriate moral education at this time. This paper is to discuss the importance of moral education for young children in Taiwan, analyze the relevant literature, and review the teaching concepts and methods of moral education. Moral education of young children is important because the ultimate goal of early childhood education is to shape the character of young children; so its content must focus on moral education, which cultivates moral values in young children. Moral education also develops an understanding of empathy and social responsibility for young children. This paper argues that preschool teachers must (1) respect young children's moral subjectivity; (2) understand that early childhood is a critical period in which moral behavior is shaped, and (3) organize young children's moral teaching from the concrete to the abstract. In terms of the optimal teaching methods, this paper proposes that preschool teachers use: (1) moral storytelling, (2) instructional media, (3) picture books, (4) discussion of moral issues, (5) peer learning, (6) moral narratives, (7) modeling moral behavior, (8) incorporate young children's life experience, and (9) invite young children's parents to participate in moral education. This study contributes to the literature on early childhood moral education and provides an insight into the praxis of moral education for young children in Taiwan.

The paper examines the role of organizational commercial slack (OCS) in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer (KT) in universities. The paper identifies two types of commercial slack in the university setting: financial and promotional. Four research hypotheses are proposed. Pooled data, that is, a combination of a questionnaire survey of 110 Taiwanese universities with a data set of university KT effectiveness from the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, are collected to test the aforementioned research hypotheses. The empirical results indicate that the EO of a university enables the university to provide appropriate OCS. Furthermore, the commercial slack of a university positively mediates the relationship between EO and KT effectiveness. The paper concludes that developing EO and OCS are crucial for improving the KT effectiveness of a university. Moreover, some managerial and policy implications for promoting EO and OCS in universities are suggested.

Climate change induced partly by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) is an urgent issue worldwide, calling for advanced methods of carbon sequestration. Since CO2-emitting industries often generate alkaline waste, sequestrating CO2 by mineral carbonation of alkaline waste is promising both for carbon capture and utilization, and for preventing waste disposal. Here we review the principles of mineral carbonation and we discuss mineral carbonation of alkaline waste and byproducts in Taiwan. We focus on wastes such as iron and steel slag, cement and concrete waste, incineration ash, coal combustion ash, and paper waste. We evaluate the CO2 reduction potential to reveal promising materials and industries. We found that 4.2 Mt CO2 can be directly sequestered annually. Moreover, the use of alternative materials in the cement and concrete industries can indirectly facilitate CO2 sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study reports on the early implementation of bilingual education by teachers working in pre-tertiary contexts in Taiwan, with a specific focus on perceived challenges and the resulting bilingual education arrangements. Taiwan's public schools have begun to implement bilingual education in response to the Bilingual 2030 policy. Several scholars have identified potential challenges that may affect implementation. However, little is known about the challenges perceived by teachers and their effect on the implementation of bilingual education. This study addresses this gap using data collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers from various academic disciplines in five primary schools and five junior high schools in northern Taiwan. Three challenges and six bilingual education arrangements were reported by the participating teachers. The paper discusses how these challenges may produce varying arrangements that are designed to achieve different outcomes, highlighting the need for policymakers to clearly define the intended outcomes of the bilingual education policy.

To explore knowledge co-construction patterns and learning motivation within virtual EFL co-creation environments, this study examined behavioral patterns and motivation in three different co-creation environments (paper-based, 2D digital, and 3D VR co-creation) through sequential behavioral analysis and ANCOVA. The study utilized a quasi-experimental research design with a total of 66 tenth-grade students from two English classes at a public senior high school in northern Taiwan. Based on the visualized behavior transition diagrams, the task-switching behaviors between dissonance identification and knowledge negotiation as well as the isolated behaviors of applying newly-constructed knowledge are the core of knowledge co-construction. Particularly, 3D VR co-creation was characterized by the highest number of higher level isolated acts and lower level circular continuity, both of which reflect VR co-creators' efforts to gain familiarity with advanced technology as well as the intention to exchange information and reach community consensus to overcome task complexity, form community consensus, and lower anxiety. Such behavioral patterns echoed the results of ANCOVA on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; that is, on either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, the influence of 3D VR co-creation was the greatest, followed by that of 2D digital co-creation and paper-based cocreation. For future co-creation instruction and research, it is suggested that the instruction of VR co-creation be invested with abundant time to allow mature higher level knowledge co-construction dialogues to occur. Moreover, to gain an even deeper understanding of the social structure embedded in knowledge co-creation, it is suggested that social network analysis (SNA) be employed in future research.

While increasing productivity and economic growth, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) may ultimately require millions of people around the world to change careers or improve their skills. These disruptive effects contribute to the general public anxiety toward AI development. Despite the rising levels of AI anxiety (AIA) in recent decades, no AI anxiety scale (AIAS) has been developed. Given the limited utility of existing self-report instruments in measuring AIA, the aim of this paper is to develop a standardized tool to measure this phenomenon. Specifically, this paper introduces and defines the construct of AIA, develops a generic AIAS, and discusses the theoretical and practical applications of the instrument. The procedures used to conceptualize the survey, create the measurement items, collect data, and validate the multi-item scale are described. By analyzing data obtained from a sample of 301 respondents, the reliability, criterion-related validity, content validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity, and nomological validity of the constructs and relationships are fully examined. Overall, this empirically validated instrument advances scholarly knowledge regarding AIA and its associated behaviors.

This empirical study attempted to examine cultural and national values in relation to the teaching of musical multiculturalism, which is defined as music from regions around the world, as well as Taiwanese nationalism (i.e., a desinicized version of national identity based on Taiwan's localization movement) in school music education. Data were drawn from questionnaires completed by 70 in-service and 40 pre-service teachers between February and October 2018. Two major questions will be explored in this paper in response to the changing society of Taiwan: (1) how do teachers feel about music teaching related to diverse music cultures; and (2) how have they reacted to Taiwanese nationalism in school music education? The findings indicated a significantly higher preference for teaching traditional Western music versus that of other cultures among all the teachers. In addition, the participants with more experience exhibited a significantly greater preference for teaching traditional Chinese music and national education compared to their less experienced counterparts. Based on the survey data, this paper will argue that there is a cultural gap between teaching traditional Chinese music, Taiwanese local music, and other music cultures alongside the question of nationalism in contemporary music education in Taiwan.

This paper introduces a relatively novel theoretical approach to investigate cross border student mobilities in East Asia, a region growing in importance as a provider of international education. It does so by bringing Sara Ahmad's writings on the sociality of emotions, with Jacques Derrida's analyses of hospitality. We draw on empirical data from a cross national study to explore the emotions that shape student decisions to choose East Asian study destinations. By problematising the gift of the scholarship, using Derridean understandings of hospitality, we reveal the limits of contemporary forms of international education. Reflecting on histories of Asia-focused student mobilities, the paper highlights the entanglements of hostility and hospitality, and the inseparability of hosts and guests. It is this realisation that will enable ethical, non-exploitative forms of education.