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Gestalt perception relates to inferring a holistic scene from separate elements. Using this theory, an application game named Gestalt Puzzle was designed for students to play by recognizing a few parts of an image to reason the whole image of a particular object. Cognitive style can be divided into field independence (FI) and field dependence (FD) depending on individuals' ability to identify minor components of a whole image. To understand the gameplay learning effect, this study explored how players' field-independent cognitive style (FI-CS) interacted with their gameplay performance as the two types of cognitive styles were mediated by their self-efficacy and gameplay anxiety in a competition setting. Data from 112 sixth-grade students were collected for confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling. First, participants completed a trial to familiarize themselves with the functions and mechanism of the game; second, all of the participants were divided into teams to compete against each other for 15 minutes by identifying Chinese paintings; they then completed a questionnaire. The results of this study indicated that FI-CS was positively related to gameplay self-efficacy, but negatively related to gameplay anxiety; perceived utility value could be positively predicted by gameplay self-efficacy, but negatively predicted by gameplay anxiety; and perceived value was positively related to game performance. Moreover, FI-CS was positively related to perceived value mediated by gameplay self-efficacy and gameplay anxiety. The implication of this study is that the Gestalt perception game may engage FI-CS learners with higher levels of gameplay self-efficacy, perceived value, and performance, but a lower level of gameplay anxiety. The present study findings imply that teachers can use Gestalt perception games to promote students' learning of Taiwanese culture.

Insect phobia may last for a lifetime and needs to be overcome. This study aimed to design an application, Insect Garden, for students to learn about and experience how to raise four types of insect: Giant Asian Mantis, Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle, Formosan Stag Beetle, and Seven-Spotted Ladybug. It also investigated how the players' self-confidence in interacting with insects could be enhanced. Additionally, to understand the affective factors related to gameplay, this study explored the correlates between personality, insect phobia before gameplay, gameplay interest and self-confidence enhancement in interacting with insects. Data were collected from 211 eighth-grade students, from whom 175 useful data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results revealed that Extraversion is positively related to gameplay interest but not to Insect phobia, whereas Neuroticism is positively related to Insect phobia and gameplay interest. Insect phobia is negatively related to self-confidence enhancement in interacting with insects, but gameplay is positively related.

Different types of gamification can be advantageous to enhancing students' learning. In contrast to the extant gamification literature focusing on designing reward systems and/or facilitating teachers' gamification of learning contents, this study focuses on the gamifying of learning content by students. To verify the efficacy of gamification as a learning activity, the effects of students posing and gamifying questions in relation to second language grammar learning are explored. A gamification platform called "TipOn" was designed to allow students to pose and gamify questions according to different game modes to facilitate their classmates' practicing English grammar. To examine the emotional regulation effects of posing and gamifying questions on learning performance, this study explored the effectiveness of gamifying content by examining how participants' two types of epistemic curiosity (i.e., interest-type epistemic curiosity (IEC) and deprivation-type epistemic curiosity (DEC)) related to posing questions affected their attitude towards gamification (ATG) and their learning progress. In this experiment, participants had to pose English grammar questions related to verb tense, and gamify the questions using TipOn. They then played games using other students' content. Data were collected from 96 ninth-grade students, and the correlations between constructs were evaluated using the path-analytical technique. The research results indicated that, first, English learning anxiety is negatively related to the two aforementioned types of epistemic curiosity. Second, IEC had no significant impact on ATG; however, DEC was positively associated with ATG. Third, ATG could positively predict students' learning progress. The results imply that teachers could use this gamifying system in a flipped classroom to motivate students to tap into their epistemic curiosity to increase their content learning and enhance the effects of learning.

To understand how information communication technology (ICT) educational policies have been put into practice in educational settings, we used the acceptance model to analyze the role of teacher characteristics in their acceptance of educational policies. By reframing the present technology acceptance model for the context of ICT educational policy, we employed two external factors to explore the correlates of perceived ease of understanding policy (ease of understanding) and perceived ease of incorporating policy (ease of incorporating) into teaching settings to predict the perceived value of the students' learning (value to students). Questionnaires were delivered by email to those participants who attended in-service professional development programs in Taiwan, and data of 372 teachers were collected for confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results showed that personal traits (self-efficacy and innovativeness in information technology) were positively related to ease of understanding and ease of incorporating; both ease of understanding and ease of incorporating were positively related to value to students; and value to students was positively related to attitude toward implementing future ICT educational policies. The findings of this study may be particularly useful to policy-makers in those countries which often change their ICT educational policy.

The scientist-practitioner gap refers to the phenomenon of individuals with a scientific background exhibiting non-scientific beliefs. Informed by the social-cognitive process model, this study aimed to develop a more coherent understanding of how such non-scientific beliefs can be predicted by individuals' cognitive flexibility mediated by their epistemic curiosity. A questionnaire was administered to 332 undergraduate students majoring in science at 2 universities in Taiwan. It included items on cognitive flexibility, 2 types of epistemic curiosity, and non-scientific beliefs. After the reliability and validity of the items and constructs were validated, structural equation modeling was applied to verify the research model. Results indicated that the 2 types of epistemic curiosity, interest-type and deprivation-type, were positively predicted by cognitive flexibility but were negatively reflected in the students' non-scientific beliefs. The study also tested the gender difference for each factor and found that female students majoring in science tended to have stronger non-scientific beliefs than their male counterparts. The results imply that if a higher level of cognitive flexibility is attained, the scientist-practitioner gap may be reduced.

In science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), hands-on making is the interplay of the sensuous forces of object-free and object-related intelligence transcendence in the continual process of quality improvement. The present research involved the design of a STEAM contest that focuses on having students use hand tools to produce three miniature models in the morning and then use these models to compete in relay races and tug-of-war contests in the afternoon. They were required to rely on their intelligence practice without the assistance of teachers or parents. Thus, this research aimed to explore the correlates between students' object-free (bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, logical) and object-related (naturalistic) intelligences, and their hands-on making self-efficacy (HMSE) reflected in their attitude toward quality improvement (ATQI) when participating in a STEAM contest. Data were collected from 330 junior high school students on the day of the STEAM competition and were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the students' 4 types of multiple intelligences were positively related to HMSE. Consequently, HMSE was positively related to ATQI. The results imply that ATQI was essential for students to win in the STEAM contest, which benefited those students with a high level of the 4 types of intelligence mediated by HMSE.

In line with the attention-to-affect model, this study employed a game that encompasses Gestalt perception to explore how extraneous cognitive load (ECL) and gameplay anxiety correlate with attitude towards exploitative learning and attitude towards explorative learning as students play the Visual-Saliency game (VSG) with images of artworks. The data of 56 sixth-grade students were collected and subjected to Smart PLS analysis to verify the pathways. The results of this study show that ECL is negatively related to attitude towards exploitative learning and attitude towards explorative learning. However, gameplay anxiety is negatively related to attitude towards exploitative learning, but is not significantly related to explorative learning when playing the VSG. The implication of this study is that Gestalt perception in game playing can give students more opportunities to practice reasoning, and they can gain more knowledge about the artworks themselves.

Remote association requires players to use their mental transformation to identify objects' relationships by activating knowledge application. A Chinese Remote Association game was designed (example question: [characters omitted], where the answer is [character omitted]) to explore learners' cognitive and affective effects, and then eighth grade students were invited to play using their smartphones. Data were collected for confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling. The results revealed that intrinsic cognitive load was negatively related to flow experience, while gameplay interest was positively related to flow experience, and flow experience was positively related to performance progress in Chinese association. The implication of this study is that using remote Chinese association as an application game can enhance players' flow experience and performance.

When learning to write Chinese characters, it is essential for students to learn and maintain the correct order of the strokes. Chinese teachers often use computer-supported drill and practice to develop students' ability to write in the correct order, but such devices are rarely designed to stimulate learners' memory-manipulation in cognitive processes. To enhance the effect of the stimuli, a computer game called Chinese order of strokes was designed for students to practice their sensorimotor skill by providing a different color (i.e., red) to evoke learners' memory-manipulation cognitive processes. To understand the effect of this game, third-grade students from an elementary school in Taipei were invited to play Chinese order of strokes, and the correlates between their intrinsic cognitive load, gameplay interest, and flow experience were examined. The results showed that intrinsic cognitive load was negatively related to gameplay interest and flow, gameplay interest was positively related to flow, and flow was positively related to learning progress. The results imply that teachers can utilize a digital Chinese order of strokes to implement characters based on their own teaching materials and to facilitate the students' learning of the correct order of strokes.

The Chinese proverb "heal a headache by curing the head and heal foot pain by curing the feet" alludes to ineffective work resulting from a lack of covariation in reasoning. Actually, much problem solving relies on the analysis of how two or more factors vary in correlation with another related variant (i.e., covariation reasoning). To further investigate covariation reasoning and its related affective factors, we designed a website called "No Good (NG) Bread" for senior vocational high school students in Taipei who had taken baking courses for 1 year to apply their knowledge in solving baking-related problems. Data collected from 113 participants aged 16 to 17 were validated by confirmatory factor analysis using Visual PLS 1.04 to examine the interrelatedness among metacognition, experiential values, and performance achievement. The examination revealed that metacognition was positively related to hedonic and utilitarian experiential values, which were subsequently positively related to the students' learning achievements. The results imply that websites can be developed for specialized courses, such as nursing or automobile repair, to develop students' covariation reasoning for more effective problem solving.

According to social dilemma theory, students may be characterized as being indifferent to reciprocal behavior and disengaged from interacting with the board gaming process. Given a common goal, students' prosociality can affect the collective efficacy and goal achievement motivation that reflects their flow experience in a cooperative-competitive computer-based digital board game, called "Strike-Up." The players were randomly provided with five numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division signs, and parentheses, and needed to complete the arithmetic calculation to find the best approaches to achieve the goal of reaching the end of the game. In addition to the cognitive strategies, the game allowed players to help each other to win. To explore the correlation, 240 students were randomly grouped into three-player teams to play "Strike-Up" against other teams. Data of 180 players were effectively returned and subjected to confirmatory analysis with structural equation modeling. The results revealed that prosociality can positively predict players' flow experience mediated positively by collective efficacy and performance-approach goal motivation. The results also implied that the higher level of prosociality students had, the higher level of flow state they experienced in the game which involved a social dilemma.

Calibration between judged and actual performance related to cognitive certitude is known as "cognitive certitude of calibration" (CCC). CCC is an essential factor that can affect an individual's calibration behavior related to his/her learning effectiveness mediated by cognitive and affective factors, such as cognitive anxiety, learning interest, and self-efficacy. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine learners' cognitive certitude of calibration and its correlation to cognitive anxiety, online learning interest, and learning self-efficacy. The participants were 4th grade students of Southeast Asian heritage who were learning Chinese as an L2. The participants practiced Traditional Chinese Pinyin via a website called "Quickgame," which embedded a series of drills and practices. Time series analysis and correlation analysis were used to test the interplay between online learning interest, learning self-efficacy, cognitive anxiety, and CCC. The results of the time series analysis showed that as practice times increased, the students' CCC improved, and CCC increased as practice times increased. The results of this study imply that by practicing calibration, participants' cognitive and affective factors can be improved when learning Traditional Chinese Pinyin.

Apple released the first iPad in 2010, and since then various operating systems have emerged. Many corporations have adopted the use of tablets in efforts toward organizational innovation. Innovation is the motivation for organizations to move forward and it is a key in the maintenance of their competitive advantage. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) of Taiwan started to use the iPad 2 in 2010. In subsequent years, they wrote a new operating system for an innovative plan to input all meeting materials into the system. The present study used a technology acceptance model (TAM), and its innovativeness, to elucidate the rationale for the use of the iPad 2 by top administrators (most of who were more than 50 years of age and were conditioned to having secretaries handle the work of document processing). We also investigated the factors that predict the use of the iPad 2 in a business-meeting setting, and the acceptance of the iPad 2 by EPA participants. The results of this study revealed the following points. 1.) Innovativeness and iPad self-efficacy had a significant positive influence on each participant's perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) of the iPad 2, as well as on its usefulness in creating a paperless meeting environment. 2.) The PEU had a significant positive influence on participants' PU of the iPad 2 in creating a paperless meeting environment. 3.) PEU and PU had a positive influence on user satisfaction. 4.) User satisfaction had a positive influence on user's will to continue using the iPad 2. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)

In this modern and technologically dependent society, people seek to improve human performance, get higher productivity and increase user satisfaction with technologies. In Chinese society, Chinese Idiom learning plays an important role in vocabulary learning which cultural and social functions are involved. Therefore, an online game named "Chinese Idioms String Up Puzzle" was developed by the Digital Game-Based Learning Laboratory, National Taiwan Normal University in Taiwan to motivate students to learn Chinese Idiom. A survey was conducted to examine participants' anxiety, interest and cognitive load by using this new computer-assisted game. According to the survey, students felt this new program is interesting and would like to play again in the future. For those students who believe anxiety helps their performance, and for those students whose degree of anxiety lowered after completing the test, they tend to have greater interest in playing the game. Findings of the Partial Least Squares (PLS) contribute to an expanded understanding of both psychological anxiety and somatic anxiety influence on their cognitive load, whereas both anxieties was not significantly related to their playing interest. In addition, the study results indicated that the higher degree of psychological and somatic anxiety, the greater cognitive load of the participants. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

This idea of integrating moral education to digital gaming platform had been discussed since digital and online approaches were used in teaching. Online interactive instruction was one of moral teaching forms to assist moral instruction. However, most moral-related interactive online games lacked functions for players to explore themselves while game playing, that resulted in less participation in deeper learning and decrease understanding of moral values. Therefore, we, digital game-based learning lab of National Taiwan Normal University, developed the interactive moral online game, named "To do or not to do", to help students explore and establish appropriate moral values. Results of Partial Least Squares (PLS) analyses indicated that behavioral intention was significantly influences by behavioral control, self-worth, attitude toward the game, subjective norm and parenting style. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Teachers' professional development (PD) receives a great deal of attention in current educational settings. However, research has shown that many teachers hesitate to attend PD programs. In this study, data were collected from 270 elementary school teachers and were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to examine their intention to attend the weekly PD programs on Wednesday afternoons (PDWAP). The results revealed that the participants value the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) more than they value pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK) because of the expected usefulness of each for teaching. Moreover, the results of this study have implications for PD program design, and call for a stronger focus on PCK.

Based on the cognitive-affective theory, the present study designed a science inquiry learning model, "predict-observe-explain" (POE), and implemented it in an app called "WhyWhy" to examine the effectiveness of students' science inquiry learning practice. To understand how POE can affect the cognitive-affective learning process, as well as the learning progress, a pretest and a posttest were given to 152 grade 5 elementary school students. The students practiced WhyWhy during six sessions over 6 weeks, and data related to interest in learning science (ILS), cognitive anxiety (CA), and extraneous cognitive load (ECL) were collected and analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis with structure equation modeling. The results showed that students with high ILS have low CA and ECL. In addition, the results also indicated that students with a high level of self-confidence enhancement showed significant improvement in the posttest. The implications of this study suggest that by using technology-enhanced science learning, the POE model is a practical approach to motivate students to learn.

Microteaching has gained considerable attention for its effectiveness in rapid and contextual training in professional development programs. However, the interpretive quality of the teaching demonstration and peer feedback may influence individuals' attribution and self-correction, leading to ineffective learning. In this study, a microteaching workshop in a professional development program for 78 elementary school science teachers was investigated. The results showed that the effectiveness of microteaching was negatively affected by participants' perception bias due to social categorization. Moreover, it was indicated that the participants' perception of the in-group and out-group, classified by the degree of the individuals' science knowledge, fostered social categorization. Participants tended to experience perception conflicts caused by their inability to see personal faults, and a typical perception bias of "seeing one's own strengths and seeing others' shortcomings" was more frequently recognized in the out-group. These results converge to highlight the importance of social categorization in perception bias relevant to microteaching.

Students of Southeast Asian Heritage Learning Chinese (SSAHLC) in Taiwan have frequently demonstrated difficulty with traditional Chinese (a graphical character) radical recognition due to their limited exposure to the written language form since childhood. In this study, we designed a Chinese radical learning game (CRLG), which adopted a drill and practice mode, for SSAHLC to practice recognizing Chinese radicals. To facilitate Chinese writing, non-native learners need to use aspects of the radical knowledge as cues to encode characters, from which the contents of the game were built up for SSAHLC to master the Chinese written forms by playing the CRLG with gesture-based interactions. In addition, the game was used to explore the students' intrinsic motivation relevant to online learning self-efficacy, as well as the experience of flow, to predict the degree of learning progress. Data were collected from 78 SSAHLC participating in the study, and 73 valid questionnaires were returned. After applying confirmatory factor analysis as well as structural equation modeling to the valid data, it was found that four constructs, namely intrinsic motivation, online learning self-efficacy, flow experience, and learning progress, were all positively correlated. Our results indicated that intrinsic motivation of Chinese learning predicted online learning self-efficacy, and that flow experience was relevant to the students' learning progress. Moreover, the degree of learning progress could be predicted by the mediating factors. These findings imply that heritage language teachers may utilize the CRLG to enhance learners' Chinese radical recognition ability, and eventually improve their Chinese character recognition ability.

Hands-on making (e.g., "Maker") has become prevalent in current educational settings. To understand the role that students' epistemic curiosity plays in hands-on making contests, this study explored its correlation to students' positive affect and continuance intention to participate in a hands-on making contest called "PowerTech". PowerTech requires students to produce miniatures in the morning and use the miniatures to take part in relay racing and tug-of-war competitions in the afternoon. Data from 514 individuals were collected and subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling by AMOS 20. The results revealed the two types of epistemic curiosity (EC), interest (I-type) and informational deprivation type (D-type), played a mediating role in bonding participants' positive affect and their continuance intention to join a hands-on making contest. The implication of this study suggests students' epistemic curiosity can be aroused in the process of participating in competitive hands-on making contests such as PowerTech.

Educational games can be viewed in two ways, "learning to play" or "playing to learn." The Chinese Idiom String Up Game was specifically designed to examine the effect of "learning to play" on the interrelatedness of players' gameplay interest, competitive anxiety, and perceived utility of pre-game learning (PUPGL). Data from 288 subjects were validated and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results indicated that players' pre-game learning attitude (PGLA) served positively to predict participants' gameplay interest and reflected a higher level of PUPGL of learning gameplay. PGLA was negatively correlated to competitive anxiety but was not significantly associated with players' PUPGL of learning gameplay. These results implied that by enhancing players' willingness to learn before engaging in a competitive game can contribute to increased gameplay interest and reduced competitive anxiety, thereby reinforcing the benefits of educational games.

Consequential reasoning relevant to moral development has not been effectively practised in elementary schools in Taiwan. The present study designed a "To Do or Not To Do" website for students to explore moral dilemma situations and exercise consequence-based moral reasoning. Effective data from 160 fifth-grade students were collected for a confirmatory factor analysis and subjected to structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that with a higher perceived level of parental monitoring; the participants had a higher level of pro-social tendency and a lower level of impulsivity. In addition, a lower level of impulsivity was significantly associated with a greater interest in blended learning to practice moral consequential reasoning. The results suggest that teachers could use the To Do or Not To Do website as part of a flipped classroom for students to practice moral consequential reasoning to maximize the moral development of less impulsive students.

A new approach to moral education using blended learning has been developed. This approach involves 10 scenarios that are designed as a web-based game and serves as a basis for group moral-consequence-based reasoning, which is developed based on a hypothetical-deductive model. The aim of the study was to examine the changes in students' blended learning interest and reasoning ability in a time series experimental design. After playing the game with the 10 initial scenarios during the first week of the study, participants were subjected to five blended learning sessions that required them to discuss the consequences of one of the 10 scenarios using hypothetical-deductive reasoning. After six weeks, the data from the 110 participants were analyzed using time series statistics. The results indicated that players were highly interested in the game, although their interest had a tendency to decrease slightly over time. Repetitive game play (i.e. practice) was positively associated with the players' moral reasoning performance. The study results may lend support to the design of a game with additional or more highly complex content for players to further develop students' consequential reasoning ability.

Individual gameplay interest is affected by numerous factors and a competition setting is also of importance as there are factors that need to be managed. To understand the motivational variables related to an educational game competition, this study explored the interrelatedness between self-efficacy, competitive anxiety, and gameplay interest in a one-on-one Chinese idiom string up game competition. Effective data from 278 elementary school students from grades five to six were collected and subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of this study showed that the higher the level of competitive anxiety, the lower the degree of gameplay interest (i.e. "Like", "Enjoyment", and "Engagement"). In addition, self-efficacy in learning Chinese idioms was negatively associated with competitive anxiety. The implication of this study contributed towards understanding that low competitive anxiety is more facilitative to interest in gameplay. The results also suggested that enhancing self-efficacy in a specific task can eliminate anxiety and support players' interests to play the game in a competitive setting.