This study examines 797 Taiwanese pre-service early childhood teachers' diversity beliefs using the Personal and Professional Beliefs about Diversity Scales (PPBD). The purposes of this study are to: (a) validate the diversity belief's instrument, (b) investigate the relationship between diversity beliefs in both personal and professional contexts, (c) examine the group differences in diversity beliefs between pre-service teachers based on their demographic background, school characteristics, and cross-cultural experiences, (d) explore the influential determinants of diversity beliefs in the personal and professional contexts, and (f) identify the types of training early childhood pre-service teachers need regarding multicultural education in early childhood. The results indicate that (a) the professional context of PPBD is not robust to use in population outside the U.S. and needed to modify by adding more items based on current diversity literature and the cultural context in Taiwan, (b) school characteristics are the major contributors that foster pre-service teachers' diversity beliefs in both contexts, (c) school location is the most influential factor for the dependent variable of personal beliefs while experience of studying in another city and students' major become the salient factors for the professional beliefs about diversity, (d) the type of educational philosophy is contributing factor of predicting diversity beliefs in both personal and professional contexts. It echoes the multicultural education approaches advocated by Sleeter and Grant (2003), which say that the most important component of multicultural education involves an entire school and touches all areas including students, teachers, staff, and administrators.

This project provides a background on English instruction in Taiwan, and presents a literature review that builds a theoretical foundation for this project. It also introduces a model of teaching instruction based on an integrated literature approach, and offers a curriculum design which includes plans for instructional lessons.

The purpose of the study was to investigate teacher attitudes toward following the Taiwanese arts and humanities curriculum and the relationship of teacher attitudes to four selected curriculum integration factors. These include (1) The quantity of content areas taught in music class, (2) Teachers' satisfaction of their students' learning outcomes, (3) Teachers' confidence in planning lessons, and (4) The number of years spent in curriculum integration. Questionnaires were distributed to 85 stratified random selected junior high schools throughout Taiwan. The school responses rate was 74%. Content validity was checked. The internal consistency reliability ranged from 0.74 to 0.92. Recorder playing, group singing, and music appreciation were found to be the most frequently taught musical skills, the most satisfied students' learning outcomes, the most confident lesson planning areas, and the most important to be included in the music instruction. Writing-by-ear and playing-by-ear were found to be the least frequently taught musical skills, the least satisfied students' learning outcome, the least confident lesson planning area, and the least importance. The two most frequently encountered barriers were insufficient administrative leadership and shallow student learning. The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient showed a low positive significant relationship between teachers' overall attitudes and the quantity of musical content areas taught (n = 83, r = 0.29, p = 0.007*, r2 = 0.09). Based on prior research, if attitudes that are formed from personal histories are difficult to change, and in order to change attitudes, multiple strategies must be used. The majority of teachers did not strongly support or reject this new curriculum, and strong support would be needed for the curriculum to be successfully implemented. One of the most important things that the Taiwan MOE could do is to provide music teachers with on-going in-service teacher development programs and monitoring mentor systems, in addition to the exploration and development of additional strategies that might possibly impact teachers' neutral beliefs about this new curriculum.

In contemporary Taiwan, Mandarin language proficiency and literacy in Han characters are not only key skills needed for success in academic institutions and employment markets, but they also carry meaning as symbolic markers of national and supranational Chinese identity. This study examines how Taiwanese-language medical studies curriculum planners are promoting alternative linguistic practices as a means of resisting the influence of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan and striving to replace it with a rival Taiwanese nationalism. I conducted research for this study during the 2010-2011 school year in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I collected data for this study by engaging in participant observation research at Taiwanese-language curriculum-editing meetings; auditing Taiwanese-language courses at Kaohsiung Medical University; and conducting interviews with both curriculum planners and students at KMU. The role of official languages, literacy, and historical narratives are examined as symbolic components of a Chinese nationalist hegemony, which was constructed through the policies of the Kuomintang's Republic of China administration in post-war Taiwan. This study also examines the relationship between occupation, language skills, and national identification in the context of the contemporary Greater China regional economy. The curriculum planners who are the subjects of this study are employed in the field of medical care, where Taiwanese language skills are valued resources for communicating with patients from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, medical doctors have historically been vocal opponents of the Kuomintang administration's pro-Chinese nationalist policies. Therefore, this case study illustrates how the curriculum planners' occupations and language practices are utilized as resources in their efforts to foster Taiwanese autonomy in the Greater China region. This study also examines current limits to the effectiveness of language preservation and revitalization policies in Taiwan due to the importance of Mandarin-language literacy in the majority of high-status occupations in Greater China and to changing conceptions of the relationship between language practice and national identity. This study contributes to the fields of linguistic anthropology and Asian studies by examining relationships between nationalism, employment, language practice, and literacy in the context of Taiwan's ambiguous status as a national entity. It also analyzes ways in which language practices and literacy forms are created and modified as strategic acts to both identify people with competing nationalisms and allow them access to employment opportunities in the context of shifting administrative and economic power structures in the Greater China region.

Industrialization has held great attention in developing countries. Taiwan has demonstrated rapid industrial development. The problem of this study is to find out, what incentives the government in Taiwan has provided to foreign investors, what contributions foreign investment has made to capital formation and government revenue, and what been its impact on foreign trade and the balance of payments. The results of our study conclude that DFI and technology transfer can have a significant positive impact on a developing host country's industrialization.

In this work, I trace and reconstruct Taiwan's nation-formation as it is reflected in literary texts produced primarily during the country's two periods of colonial rule, Japanese (1895-1945) and Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (1945-1987). One of my central arguments is that the idea of a Taiwanese nation has historically emerged from the interstices of several official and formal nationalisms: Japanese, Chinese, and later Taiwanese. In the following chapters, I argue that the concepts of Taiwan and Taiwanese have been formed and enriched over time in response to the pressures exerted by the state's, colonial or otherwise, pedagogical nation-building discourses. It is through an engagement with these various discourses that the idea of a Taiwanese nation has come to be gradually defined, negotiated, and reinvented by Taiwanese intellectuals of various ethnic backgrounds. I, therefore, focus on authors whose works actively respond to and engage with the state's official nationalism. Following Homi Bhabha's explication in his famous essay "DissemiNation," the basic premise of this dissertation is that the nation, as a narrated space, is not simply shaped by the homogenizing and historicist discourse of nationalism but is realized through people's diverse lived experience. Thus, in reading Taiwanese literature, it is my intention to locate the scraps, patches, and rags of daily life represented in a select number of texts that signal the repeating and reproductive energy of a national life and culture.

No description available.

This study reviews the evolution of television broadcasting in Taiwan from 1949 to 1982, with emphasis on the period from 1970 to 1982. The problem was to examine the development of the television industry in Taiwan as influenced by law and regulation, politics, and social customs. This study concludes that the development of the television industry in Taiwan was indeed greatly influenced by the above three factors. Future growth of the industry, however, may be greatly hindered unless the government relaxes its close control of the medium in the future.

Abstract Since 2005, it has been government policy in Taiwan to introduce English in Grade 3 of primary schooling (when learners are generally age 9). The overall aim of this research project was to investigate some of the problems associated with the implementation of this policy by combining research involving teacher cognition with research involving the criterion-referenced analysis of a sample of textbooks produced in Taiwan for young learners and a sample of lessons taught in Taiwanese primary schools. A questionnaire-based survey of a sample of teachers of English in Taiwanese primary schools (166 respondents) was conducted, focusing on teacher background and training, views about national and local policies, approaches to course content, methodology and teaching resources, and perceptions of their own proficiency in English and of their own training needs. Only 46 (27%) of the respondents reported that they had a qualification specific to the teaching of English and 41 (25%) reported that they had neither a qualification in teaching English nor a general primary teaching qualification. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of policies relating to the teaching of English at national level (46/ 29%), local level (39/24%) and in their own school (28/17%). Although many reported that the availability of resources (125/ 75%) and/ or student interest (101/ 61%) played a role in determining what they taught, none reported that the national curriculum guidelines did so. Although official policy in Taiwan endorses the use of 'communicative language teaching', only 103 (62%) of respondents reported that their own approach was communicatively-oriented, with 18 (11%) observing that they preferred grammar-translation. A more in-depth survey relating to teacher perception of pre- and in-service training was conducted using a questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Although all 10 participants in this survey are officially classified as being trained to teach English in Taiwanese primary schools, the type and extent of their training varied widely and all of them expressed dissatisfaction with that training, noting that they had no confidence in the trainers' own competence in teaching English to young learners. All claimed that critical issues were either omitted altogether or dealt with in a superficial way. One contextual factor that has a significant impact on teacher performance in Taiwan is the quality of the textbooks that are generally available. A sample of textbooks (3 different series) produced in Taiwan was analysed and evaluated, the analysis revealing that the materials were often poorly organised, inappropriately selected and illustrated, contextually inappropriate. Finally, from a sample of twenty videotaped English lessons taught to students in primary schools in Taiwan, six that were considered to be typical were transcribed, analysed and evaluated in relation to criteria derived from a review of literature on teaching effectiveness. All of these lessons were found to be characterised by problems in a number of areas, including lesson focus, lesson staging, concept introduction, concept checking, and the setting up and conducting activities. It is concluded that the implementation of official policy on the teaching of English in primary schools in Taiwan is fraught with problems, problems that are evident at every stage in the process, from teacher education, through materials design to lesson planning and delivery.

Univ., Diss.--Hannover, 2006.