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To meet the future need of the vocational high school education in Taiwan, the Ministry of Education has redesigned the vocational high school curriculum and is going to implement "The Curriculum Guidelines of Vocational High School" in September 2006. The Guidelines are made with the intention to improve the vocational high school education. However, after studying on the content of the Guidelines, we find some incongruity between the curriculum design and the educational status quo. "The Curriculum Guidelines of Vocational High School" features the core curriculum of the vocational high school education and leaves a lot of space for individual school to develop its school-based curriculum. Nevertheless, while the society emphasizes greatly the value of academic degrees, the vocational high school students, generally speaking, consider their education in vocational high school as nothing but the step stone to their further education, instead of the necessary training for their future profession. Therefore, when designing a new curriculum, the management of the vocational high school has to consider both the Guidelines and the need of the students. Besides, the implementation of "The Curriculum Guidelines of Vocational High School" is going to influence not only the faculty and the students of vocational high schools, but also the supply of professional human resources in the society. Therefore, it is a great opportunity for us to reconsider the goal of vocational high school education. Whether to keep its traditional goal, or to make vocational prep high schools for college education, in my opinion, we need to make a dynamic adjustment of the curriculum to shape the future characteristics of vocational high school education. The objects of this research are the students of the Department of Data Processing of St. Paul's High School. Through interviews with students and questionnaires, the research is to find out a scheme, based on the Curriculum Guidelines of Vocational High School, the school-based educational environment, the study goal of students, for improving the curriculum of the department and hopefully for the reference of other schools.

As a conceptual study, this thesis aims to establish a holistic pedagogy of art integration that would address nurturing the whole child as the goal of education. Over the last few decades, art integration has become an important academic issue in curriculum studies, particularly at the early and primary levels of childhood education. Many have entertained various modes of art integration to promote their personal or institutional philosophies and goals of schooling. As a result, we see some popular arts-integrated programs which can be characterized as ‘interdisciplinary,’ ‘cognitive,’ ‘social,’ or ‘cultural.’ Those programs and approaches suggest, in one way or another, that there are good reasons why we need to be more active in including the arts into curriculum. Our schools would be better off with a well-thought-out arts-integrated curriculum. In this movement, however, there is a critical problem: many have come to believe that the arts are useful in so far as they are good for brain development and academic improvement. This mechanistic or cause-effect view of the relevance of the arts to education has gained solid support and is becoming the major focus when teachers and schools try to integrate the arts into their curricula. Facing this situation, this study proposes a holistic pedagogy of art integration through 1) refining the holistic curriculum with the help of process thought, 2) conceptualizing natural spirituality and its relevance to the whole child, 3) establishing the holistic ways of doing the arts in curriculum, 4) building holistic models of art integration, and 5) discussing some working programs and designing one that best exemplifies the holistic models. The holistic pedagogy of art integration to be established in this study is, then, intended to be one that would remedy some critical issues like reductionism and dualism engrained in the conventional view of art integration that currently dominates our school culture. The holistic ways of the arts developed in this thesis are suggested as one of the more promising ways of transforming our schools into learning and caring communities where our children will have a better chance to thrive as ‘whole persons.’

As a conceptual study, this thesis aims to establish a holistic pedagogy of art integration that would address nurturing the whole child as the goal of education. Over the last few decades, art integration has become an important academic issue in curriculum studies, particularly at the early and primary levels of childhood education. Many have entertained various modes of art integration to promote their personal or institutional philosophies and goals of schooling. As a result, we see some popular arts-integrated programs which can be characterized as ‘interdisciplinary,’ ‘cognitive,’ ‘social,’ or ‘cultural.’ Those programs and approaches suggest, in one way or another, that there are good reasons why we need to be more active in including the arts into curriculum. Our schools would be better off with a well-thought-out arts-integrated curriculum. In this movement, however, there is a critical problem: many have come to believe that the arts are useful in so far as they are good for brain development and academic improvement. This mechanistic or cause-effect view of the relevance of the arts to education has gained solid support and is becoming the major focus when teachers and schools try to integrate the arts into their curricula. Facing this situation, this study proposes a holistic pedagogy of art integration through 1) refining the holistic curriculum with the help of process thought, 2) conceptualizing natural spirituality and its relevance to the whole child, 3) establishing the holistic ways of doing the arts in curriculum, 4) building holistic models of art integration, and 5) discussing some working programs and designing one that best exemplifies the holistic models. The holistic pedagogy of art integration to be established in this study is, then, intended to be one that would remedy some critical issues like reductionism and dualism engrained in the conventional view of art integration that currently dominates our school culture. The holistic ways of the arts developed in this thesis are suggested as one of the more promising ways of transforming our schools into learning and caring communities where our children will have a better chance to thrive as ‘whole persons.’

The purpose of the current research was to examine the effects of a sequence of classroom activities that integrated mathematics content with music elements aimed at providing teachers an alternative approach for teaching mathematics. Two classes of third grade students (n=56) from an elementary school in Southern California participated in the research. A random assignment pretest-posttest control group design was used to examine students' changes in mathematics content achievement and the disposition between the two groups. The students in the music group received music-mathematics integrated lessons. A quasi-experiment time series design with multiple pretests, mid-tests and posttests was utilized for investigating the effects of music-mathematics integrated lessons on students' mathematics process ability levels. The results demonstrated that the intervention of a series of music-mathematics integrated lessons had positive effects on the music group students. The findings showed that the music group students had statistically significantly higher scores on mathematics achievement, and mathematics dispositions after the intervention. Moreover, the music group students also showed statistically significant improvement on scores in the mathematics process abilities from pretests to posttests. The study results suggested that music, with its unique features, can be used as a resource for students to make these connections and also as a way for students to represent mathematics in alternative ways. The findings suggest that teachers should take advantage of the opportunities that music offers to help all students learn mathematics in challenging and enjoyable ways developing students' mathematics achievement, mathematical process ability, and mathematics dispositions.

The purpose of the study is to investigate factors of 7th graders learning attitude in mathematics. According to the result of this study, the research provides some suggestions for the education authorities, the schools and future study. The approaches used in this research are Questionnaire on Mathematics Learning Attitude. 168 7th graders were randomly sampled at a Junior High School in Kaohsiung City. The feedback undergoes a descriptive statistics, two-sample independent Student t test, Pearson Correlation among other statistical methods. The following are conclusions of the research: 1. Factors of influencing 7th graders Attitude in Mathematics are the following eight elements. They are confidence of learning, influence of teachers, concept about value of mathematics, influence of the art of teaching, efficacy of self-learning, effect of learning, pressure of learning, and fearlessness. 2. Confidence of learning, influence of teachers, concept about value of mathematics, efficacy of self-learning, effect of learning, fearlessness, and grades in mathematics have moderate related. 3. Concept about value of mathematics, effect of learning, influence of teachers, efficacy of self-learning, fearlessness, confidence of learning demonstrate significantly different degrees of respect on students whose grades between above 70 and under 70. 4. Confidence of learning, influence of teachers, concept about value of mathematics, efficacy of self-learning, effect of learning, fearlessness can forecast learning grades in mathematics. Ultimately, based up on the above findings, the researcher of this study proposed 3 suggestions for the authorities concerned and official staffs.

The purpose of this study is to develop a curriculum which integrated life education and music and to examine the effects of this integrated curriculum on senior high school students¡¦ sense of purpose of life and attitudes toward death. Using a quasi-experimental design, two freshman classes were selected from a Junior high school in Pintung County. Then the two classes were randomly assigned to the experiment group and the control group. The former received a 10-week long integrated life education/music curriculum, while the latter did not receive any treatment. Before and after the experiment, both groups of students were tested on the purpose of life and attitudes toward death, and they answered several open-ended questions about life and death. The experimental group also gave feedbacks about the curriculum. The results of this study found that, after the intervention, the two groups showed no difference in their changes in their sense of the purpose of life and attitudes toward death. However, the students evaluated the program positively; they considered the topic discussed important and liked the way it is integrated into the music curriculum. They also reported that they are inspired to contemplate the complex issue of life and death. Based upon the findings, the implications of this study were discussed.

Master of Science / Food Science Institute / Justin Kastner / Student success in today’s modern, technological world depends on a thorough understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The US has made efforts to promote STEM education in recent years which has raised the international ranking of the United States students in STEM disciplines; however, more work is needed to make the US a leader in STEM education. Many methods have been used to help increase student interest and success in STEM disciplines. An integrated curriculum is one such method to heighten STEM education by using multiple subjects to support the content being taught. Food Science can be used as a tool in integrated curricula to enhance STEM education. The universality, cultural importance, and scientific diversity of food make it a perfect fit to incorporate content from all STEM disciplines. Furthermore, exposing students to the complexity of the food chain, food safety, and food science at a young age sets them up to be informed and educated consumers throughout their lives. The curriculum prototype developed for this report demonstrates the continuing promise of food science to enhance STEM education. This food-centric, project-based integrated curriculum encompasses all the standards required in fifth-grade science and math in the state of Tennessee with the added benefits of incorporating knowledge of food safety and the realities of the food chain. This curriculum is based on the essential question of how to use a community garden to bring nutrition to the people of Southern Asia. Through dissecting this problem, students learn about geographic diversity, plant growing conditions, food harvesting and preservation techniques, and cost implications to complex problems. Furthermore, the content required in 5th grade math and science in Tennessee is incorporated so that students learn the required content while solving a complex, real-world issue. The use of food science in integrated curricula provides students with hands-on experience in STEM subjects in a way that encourages independent learning, student engagement in the content, and real-world learning experiences. For students to have success in the modern world, they need a clear understanding of how the material presented in STEM courses relates to their lives. Food science can be used to enhance STEM education in a way that engages students and highlights important learning principles in science, technology, engineering, and math. Food science can elevate STEM education, increase student interest in STEM, and cultivate an engaged and knowledgeable public.

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Diploma thesis deals with an interdisciplinary based teaching approach in biology, specifically the thematic unit of mammals. The theoretical part examines the difference between inter- and subject-specific curriculum, as well as historical perspective of the issues, not least are given options of how integrated learning can occur. In the chapter "Options of integrated curriculum" a brief characterization of the project teaching is presented and compared with the integrated teaching. The practical part deals with an experimental teaching of two classes at the upper secondary school Postupická. The effectiveness of teaching was evaluated by questionnaires and a semi-structured interview.