The aim of this research was to study the relationship between lived experiences and critical thinking of college students in Taiwan. Investigation method was employed in the study. The employed instruments included College Student Lived Experiences Questionnaire, Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale, and the Critical Thinking Scale. The subjects were college students in Taiwan. 505 questionnaires were sent and 310 were valid. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, one-way MANOVA , canonical correlation, and stepwise multiple regression. According to the statistic result, the conclusions were¡G 1. Lived experiences of college students were rich and diversity in which team works were the highest and adventure experiences were the lowest. 2. College students¡¦ critical thinking in which deductive was the highest and inference was the lowest. As a whole, college students¡¦ critical thinking abilities in 2005 were better than those 1996, but interval was small¡FMoreover, college students¡¦ critical thinking dispositions were better. 3. There were no significant gender differences in critical thinking dispositions and abilities. There were significant differences of critical thinking dispositions and abilities between technology and social science college. There were significant differences of critical thinking dispositions and abilities between junior ¡B senior and freshman ¡Bsophomore college students. 4. There were significant differences of critical thinking dispositions between high and low father¡¦s education. There were significant differences of critical thinking dispositions and abilities between have and no relevant curriculum experiences. Moreover, the students¡¦ critical thinking abilities in experimental curriculum were better than those in nothing. There were significant differences of critical thinking abilities between educational university and science technology university. 5. Lived experiences of college students have canonical correlation with critical thinking. Two canonical factors of college students lived experiences efficacy explains 37% of all the critical thinking. 6. Father¡¦s education of college students¡Bschool styles¡Bteam work¡Bart¡Bpopular and information experiences could efficacy predict students¡¦ critical thinking .

The aim of this study was three-fold: first, to describe pre-service teachers&rsquo / (i) critical thinking levels, (ii) attitudes towards teaching for critical thinking, and (iii) self-efficacy beliefs in teaching for critical thinking in terms of performance and outcome efficacy beliefs / secondly, to investigate whether there was a correlation between these three variables / and finally, to examine the relationship between participants&rsquo / certain background variables and their critical thinking levels, attitudes and self efficacy beliefs in teaching for critical thinking. A cross-sectional survey design was employed. The participants of the study were senior pre-service teachers from fourteen state universities across the seven geographical regions in Turkey. Quantitative data were collected by means of (i) a critical thinking test, (ii) an attitude scale, (iii) a self-efficacy scale with two subscales: performance efficacy and outcome efficacy, and (iv) a participant profile form, all of which were designed by the researcher. Both descriptive and inferential statistics (MANOVA) were used. Results indicated that pre-service teachers&rsquo / critical thinking levels were &lsquo / below average&rsquo / however, they had a moderately positive attitude towards and a moderate level of self efficacy in teaching for critical thinking. The correlation analyses indicated that there was a moderate degree of positive correlation between teachers&rsquo / attitude and self efficacy beliefs towards critical thinking. Finally, the results of MANOVA analyses indicated that pre-service teachers&rsquo / gender and level of motivation towards teaching had no impact on their critical thinking levels, attitudes or self efficacy beliefs in teaching for critical thinking. On the other hand, major, academic achievement, high school background, father&rsquo / s level of education, reading behaviour, and prior training in critical thinking had impacts of varying degrees on one or more of the dependent variables.

The main purposes of the study were to (A) analyze the relationships between teachers¡¦ demongraphic variables, professional growth motivation and their implement of open education, and (b) to investigate the relationships between teachers¡¦ implement of open education and their pupils¡¦ critical- and creative-thinking abilities. The participants included 101 teachers and 556 students in elementary schools from kaosiung city and Tainan city. This is a two-stage study. The instruments employed at the first stage were The Appraisal of Teaching for Elementary School Teachers and The Questionnaire for Teachers¡¦ Professional Growth, and those employed at the second stage were the revised edition of the Test of Critical-thinking Skills for Primary and Secondary school Students and the new edition of the Test of Creative Thinking. The applied analysis methods included descriptive statistics, Hotelling¡¦s T2, multivariate analysis of variance, and multiple stepwise regression. The results of the study were as follows: 1. The teachers¡¦ teaching experience had positive effects on their implement of open education. 2. The teacher who graduated from general universities did not have higher degree of implementing open education than those who graduated from normal universities. 3. The teachers¡¦ professional growth motivation had positive effects on their implement of open education. 4. The teachers¡¦ experiences of participating workshops about open education had positive effects on their implement of open education, while their experiences of general in-service study had not. 5. The teachers¡¦ professional growth motivation, experiences of participating workshops of open education, and experiences of in-service study could effectively predict their degree of implementing open education. 6. The teachers¡¦ degree of implementing open education had positive effects on their students¡¦ critical- and creative-thinking abilities.

Given the importance of the critical thinking, many developed countries have considered the critical thinking as one of the aims that the education of social science should achieve. Taiwan¡¦s new curriculum policy ¡V namely the ¡¥coherence curriculum of civil education¡¦ ¡V also emphasizes that students, particularly those of social science, should be able to solve problems independently, think critically and make appropriate decisions. In the case of teaching history in Taiwan, however, most teachers focus on delivering knowledge to students rather than fostering students¡¦ ability of thinking in a critical way. In order to remedy such problem, many developed countries have developed the so-called ¡¥inquiry model¡¦, which is to develop students¡¦ capability of thinking in a critical way by ¡¥doing the history¡¦, for the tuition of history at high schools. Given the advancement of information technology (IT) nowadays, internet has become an useful tool for tuition. With the integration of the tuition of IT into Taiwan¡¦s 9-year curriculum education, it can be assumed that tuition through internet will become a trend in the future. Therefore, this study aims to develop an IT-based method which can be used to foster students¡¦ ability of thinking critically in learning history. There are three aims of this study: 1. to develop a blueprint of the website which demonstrates how IT can be integrated into the tuition of history; 2. to explore the concept of critical thinking in the subject of history and to develop a IT-based method which can be used to train students¡¦ capability of thinking in a critical way in the study of history; 3. to offer suggestion and reference for the tuition of history. In order to carry out the study and to achieve the aims listed above, I employ both quantitative and qualitative approaches, that is: my analysis is based on the collection of questionnaires, worksheets, the information available online, and samples of website design. The findings and conclusions of this research are as the following: 1. A website which is designed to teach history is an useful tool for the development of students¡¦ capability of learning history in a critical way. The interaction between teachers and students is helpful for fostering students¡¦ history critical thinking disposition. 2. Most students enjoy learning history on internet. With the integration of the IT into the tuition, teachers can easily encourage students to learn history. 3. In order to apply an IT-based teaching method, history teachers can cooperate with the teachers tutoring different subjects¡]e.g. computer science), thus providing a better IT techniques for the tuition of history. 4. Students¡¦ perception of the subject of history is changed ¡V they no longer see history as a static-descriptive subject. With the method which is designed to develop students¡¦ capability of critical thinking in learning history, students do not only know what happened in the past, but also realize how to make inquiries and search for answers. 5. The application of my method shows that students¡¦ capability of thinking of history in a critical way is enhanced in a different way ¡V some realize better techniques while the other less so. As a result, it is important to design a long-term project which aims to develop such techniques. 6. Through worksheets students can better understand what happened in the past. Therefore, I suggest teachers to design worksheets in order to encourage students to learn history and help them develop better perception of what happed in the past. Finally, according to the findings of this research, I make some suggestions for teaching history and further research in this field.

The Effects of STS-Infusion Instruction in Science on Fifth Graders¡¦ Learning Attitude, Critical Thinking, and Technological Creativity Abstract The main objectives of this study were to explore (a) the effects of STS-infusing instruction in science on learning attitude, critical thinking, and technological creativity; and (b) the relationships among learning attitude, critical thinking, and technological creativity. An unequal group pretest-posttest design was employed in this study. Eight fifth-grade classes of a public elementary school in Taina were selected based on purposive sampling. The participants were divided into the experimental group (n = 79 ) and the control group (n = 78 ). The experimental group received a twelve¡Vweek STS-Infusion instruction in the subject of Science, while the control group received regular instruction. The employed instruments included The Test of Technological Creativity, Critical Thinking Test¡XLevel I, The Questionnaire of Learning Attitude on Science, and the Questionnaire of Teaching Feedback. The analysis methods included Descriptive Statistics, t-test, Multivariate Analysis of Variance, Univariate Analysis of Variance, Multivariate Analysis of Covariance, and Multiple Stepwise Regression. The main findings in this study were: (a) the STS-Infusion Instruction had significant effects on upgrading the fifth graders¡¦ learning attitude toward Science; (b) the STS-Infusion Instruction did not have significant effects on improving the fifth graders¡¦ critical-thinking abilities; (c) the STS-Infusion Instruction had significant effects on improving the fifth graders¡¦ technological creativity; (d) students with different level of learning attitude toward Science did not perform differently on technological creativity; (e) students with different level of critical-thinking abilities did not perform differently on technological creativity; and (f) the STS instruction, critical-thinking abilities, and learning attitude toward Science could effectively predict the fifth graders¡¦ technological creativity. Finally, some suggestions were proposed for educational authorities, teachers, and future researchers.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to develop a teaching program integrating critical thinking in Civic Education and explore the effects on improving critical thinking skills, critical thinking tendency, and related knowledge of law of junior high school students. The participants were second-year junior high school students¡]14 boys and 21 girls included¡^, conducted with the teaching program for 17weeks. The teaching effects were analyzed both with qualative and quantative methods. The results showed that the teaching program was effective on improving critical thinking skills and knowledge of law of the participants. However the teaching program did not influence participants¡¦ tendency of critical thinking. The results also showed that the webquest teaching program can improve the quality of oral presentation and works of participants. The result showed that the webquest teaching program integrating K12 Digital School can improve the self-regulated learning abilities of oral presentation.And the result showed that adequate group cooperative learning can promoted students¡¦ learning performance.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 85 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-78).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 98 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-88).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves : [58]-59).

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