The purpose of this study was to explore factors which influence Taiwanese vocational teachers' participation in program evaluations, use of evaluative results and, in turn, program improvement. Twelve Taiwanese public vocational high school teachers were interviewed during February and March 1992. To confirm the responses of the teachers, 12 school administrators and ten external evaluators were also interviewed. The literature indicates that teachers' participation in evaluation may be influenced by their self-esteem, perceived qualification of evaluators, the quality of the evaluation methods, and their subculture. These concepts are applicable but from a somewhat different perspective in Taiwan. Teachers do not seem to feel that they are active participants in evaluations and that evaluations may have little consequence to what they do. Current evaluation practices and purposes appear to be quite different than those described in official documents. These differences seem to be inevitable because of the cultural determinants of "saving face," "reciprocal obligation," and maintaining "social harmony." Evaluations appear ritualistic and ineffective as means to engage teachers in improving the quality of vocational evaluation on a systematic and sustained basis. Based on the findings, it was proposed that alternative evaluation methodologies should be employed. For short-term improvement, the evaluations should begin with teachers. Teachers need materials, help from experienced and expert teachers, training, and time to fulfill their evaluation responsibilities. Teachers would collect and analyze information and then use it to improve their instruction. Selected information would then be passed up to administrators and ultimately to the Ministry of Education. For long-term improvement, the principles and techniques of Total Quality Management should be applied to assure the quality of vocational education programs in Taiwan. / Graduation date: 1993

This study takes an Institutional and Evolutionary Economic (IEE) approach to exploring the Taiwan lobby in the United States. This IEE approach encompasses many fields and borrows theory from diverse disciplines. These range from evolutionary psychology, political economic thought, organizational theory, economics, history, to other helpful tools in understanding economics and institutions. My study starts with some preliminaries, a history of the U.S. and Taiwan, an extensive survey of literature in the field, then dives into the exploration of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan 1950-2010. It should be here stated that, to my knowledge, this is the first time such a time span has been tackled on the issue anywhere in international academia. What is so fortuitous is the fact that the Taiwan Relations Act was adopted in the middle of this 60-year timeframe, giving my study the ability to compare two 30-year timeframes. I then put this into the context of the Taiwan lobby while putting the Taiwan lobby in the context of arms sales. The four lobbies explored are: 1) The U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, 2) TECRO, 3) AIT and 4) FAPA. These institutions are explored from the: 1) individual, 2) structural and 3) structure of interaction perspectives. My main drive is to understand the structure and structure of interaction of the Taiwan lobby and to apply this with a practical understanding for a student of management. I offer my own model about what makes a lobbyist successful in his art, craft and business.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is one of the largest pools of carbon in the ocean, and is of the same size as the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Estuaries connecting the land and the ocean are one of the most important DOC sources to the ocean, and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Because of their complex chemical, physical, geological and biological properties, estuaries have become rich ecological environment. In this study, we investigated the seasonal distributions of DOC in the Taiwan Strait (TS) and Taiwanese rivers, aiming to understand the distributions and variations of DOC in different seasons. The results show that DOC concentrations are generally the highest in the upper estuary, and then decrease downstream due to mixing with the low DOC seawater. The process of river flow constantly accumulates terrestrial material, and the DOC shows positive correlations with Chl. a, CH4 and BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand), suggesting that biological activities and pollutions could be sources of DOC in the estuary. The DOC concentrations (salinity<1) varied in dry (Nov.-Apr.) and wet (May-Oct.) seasons with ranges of 42-1185 £gM (mean=245¡Ó254£gM; n=32) and 18-565 £gM (mean=183¡Ó151£gM; n=24), respectively. The total DOC flux of 25 rivers is 87.8 Gg C/yr, which can be translated to the fluxes of all rivers in Taiwan to be 101.9 Gg C/yr. The amount of DOC flux in Taiwan is only about 0.07% of the tropical area, but the per unit area flux (3.92 gC /m2 /yr) is almost twice those of the tropical rivers (2.13 gC /m2 /yr). In Taiwan, the population density and land use are higher than the world average. Consequently, the impacts of the environment by human activities reveal the utmost export of DOC, and need further investigation. Next, in the TS, the DOC shows significant negative correlations with Sigma-T, and the distributions of DOC are mainly controlled by physical mixing in both winter and summer. In the western TS, DOC concentration is relatively high, compared to the eastern part, and is because of low temperature and salinity, but high DOC coastal China current flowing from north to south. DOC concentration decreases with increasing depth owing to the intrusion at depth by the Kuroshio, which contains relatively low DOC. In winter, the import of coastal China current brings more nutrients from north to south, and supports the growth of bacteria which depletes the DOC and oxygen. As the result, DOC decomposition rate is higher in winter than in summer. The TS¡¦s DOC fluxes in summer (northern TS: 3.85¡Ñ1012mol C/yr¡Fsouthern TS: 3.75¡Ñ1012mol C/yr) are higher than in winter (northern TS: 3.69¡Ñ1012mol C/yr¡Fsouthern TS: 2.84¡Ñ1012mol C/yr). Main differences are due to the prevailing southwest monsoon winds in summer transporting more water from the South China Sea to the TS, and the river discharge brings more terrigenous organic matters into the TS. Therefore, the DOC export in summer is higher than in winter.

²¤

Fujian is geographically close to Taiwan which makes both sides having geo-economic value. Furthermore, Fujian and Taiwan are sharing the same long history, culture, language and blood relationships that turn Fujian into one of the main investment areas of Taiwan enterprises. After "Three Direct Links" in mail, transport and trade across the Taiwan Straits, Fujian province is becoming one of the major locations of cross-straits direct flights, which facilitate cross-straits personnel exchanges. China has planned to develop Fujian by established ¡§Economic Area in the Western Coast of Taiwan Straits¡¨ which combines economic system with Zhejiang and Guangdong, trying to promote economic development between Fujian and Taiwan. In fact, the industry structures between Fujian and Taiwan are very complementary; therefore, the two places can integrate their resources and expand into the marketing through cooperation. What is the most important is, economic cooperation between Fujian and Taiwan should conform to international norms, by setting up a pilot measures and under the name of free trade-area or special cooperation agreements in order to guarantee the benefits of Taiwan.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-89).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Not available / text

Not available / text

Not available / text