Higher education in Taiwan has been influenced by U.S. and Western practices, and syllabi represent one means to verify this. However, limited research exists in Taiwan on course syllabi and on similarities of syllabi with practices in other countries. In the U.S. as the paradigm shifted from teaching to learning and to the learning-centered context, scholars argued that syllabi should be learning-centered. Given the assumption that higher education in Taiwan is similar to U.S. higher education and the call for a learning-centered context, this qualitative research examined 180 undergraduate syllabi at a public university in Taiwan with a (traditional) syllabus component template and a learning-centered syllabus component template derived from the literature in the U.S. to describe (1) the contents of syllabi, and (2) the extent that syllabi in Taiwan were congruent to U. S. syllabus component templates. Syllabi at this university were highly congruent with the (traditional) syllabus component template and were congruent at the medium level with the learning-centered component template. About 90% of syllabi included 8 of 10 major components. Additional findings included: 70% of faculty were male, and 30% were female; more than 75% of the faculty earned their doctoral degrees from the United States or Europe; gender made no difference on inclusion of major components for both templates; there was no difference in inclusion of components on both templates for faculty who earned their doctoral degrees from the U.S. or Taiwan; a high percentage (80%) of college courses adopted English textbooks published in the U.S.; some differences existed and use of English in the syllabus and on components included in the syllabi. Based on these syllabi, it is evident that syllabi in Taiwan represent course planning and organization congruent to recommended practices in the United States.

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I define the Taiwan issue as the tense relationship between mainland China and Taiwan since 1949. The tension used to arise from the belligerency between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. In the past decade, Taiwan increasingly sought to define its own national identity and international status, but faced diplomatic and military pressures from mainland China, which has insisted that Taiwan is part of China. The relationship between mainland China and Taiwan has been one of the most important issues regarding the peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to explore the Taiwan issue, this research will examine the interactions among the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China in the realist perspective of international relations. The main research questions are: What determines the costs and benefits of the security decisions of the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China regarding the Taiwan issue? What decisions should the players make based on their costs and benefits? How do these decisions form various scenarios leading to different outcomes? How have the relations among the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China evolved since 1949? This thesis is organized as follows. First, an examination of the interactions among the three players---the United States, Taiwan and mainland China---in a game theoretical model explores the costs and benefits of their security decisions and the formation of various security scenarios in the Taiwan Strait. Second, the evolution of security in the Taiwan Strait is reviewed and analyzed by applying the game theoretical model to the history of the Taiwan issue. Third, based on the game theoretical model, I make some speculations and predictions on the future relations between mainland China and Taiwan. / Master of Arts

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English literature on colonial era Taiwanese identity is underrepresented in contemporary scholarship. In order to shed further light on the topic I will analyze: How did the identity of the people living on Taiwan transform during the Japanese colonial period, 1895-1945? I conduct my analysis using comparative method based on the framework put forth by Abdelal, Herrera, Johnston and McDermott in their Identity as a Variable. The paper defines collective identity as a social category that varies around two dimensions, content and contestation. The content describes the meaning of a collective identity. Contestation refers to the degree of agreement of the content of the identity. The content can be divided into four non-mutually-exclusive types: constitutive norms, social purposes, relational comparisons, and cognitive models. During the Japanese period I argue that three constitutive norms changed on Taiwan. The Japanese transformed the Taiwanese into law-abiding citizens; they created a norm of sanitation and hygiene on the island; and they transformed the status of Women. The key forces in implementing change were the threat of punishment and education. In social purposes I argue that during the colonial era the Taiwanese elites developed a goal of improving the rights and opportunities for the Taiwanese people. The elites were divided between liberal and Marxist influence, and among the degree of acceptance for a political society within the Japanese Empire. During the colonial period, the relational comparison to the Japanese created the notion of Taiwanese as a collective unit. Japanese police changed the structure of Taiwanese society. The new structure broke down existing cleavages between different groups of Taiwanese. Over time the collective discrimination of Taiwanese by the Japanese, created a notion of Taiwanese as a single unit. In cognitive models I argue that the Japanese policies created a single community on Taiwan. The Japanese brought the modern state to Taiwan. The Japanese modernization policies created a single community on the island.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning