International Journal of Technology and Engineering Educationijtee.org/ijtee/system/db/pdf/82.pdf · designing and exploring the whole range of designed innovations, and Design-Based

International Journal of Technology and Engineering Education Editors in Chief Ray Y. M. Huang

National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

Associate Editors Chi-Cheng Chang National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

David F. S. Chen National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan

Joseph C. Chen Iowa State University, Iowa, U.S.A.

Colin U. Chisholm Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK

Chih-Feng Chuang National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan

Assistant Editors Richard C.H. Liu Hsing Kuo University of Management, Tainan, Taiwan

Vincent Tai Iowa State University, Iowa, U.S.A.

Publication Committee Chien Chou National Chiao Tung University, Hsinshu, Taiwan

Lance N. Green The University of New South Wales, Australia

Norbert Grünwald Wismar University of Technology, Business and Design, Germany

Jeou-Shyan Horng De Lin Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

Yoau-Chau Jeng National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan

Min Jou National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

Ming H. Land Appalachian State University, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Shi-Jer Lou National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

Derek O. Northwood University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Zenon J. Pudlowski Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Fuh-Sheng Shieu National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

Sam Stern Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.A.

Chuen-Tsat Sun National Chiao Tung University, Hsinshu, Taiwan

Shir-Tau Tsai National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

Kuo-Hung Tseng Mei-Ho Institute of Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

Clyde A. Warden National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

Copyright © 2011 Association of Taiwan Engineering Education and Management (ATEEM) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Association of Taiwan Engineering Education and Management (ATEEM). Published on December 30, 2011.

International Journal of Technology and Engineering Education 2011, Vol.8 No.2

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Contents

Articles

An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan By Hsiu-Ping Yueh, Horn-Jiunn Sheen, Tzy-Ling Chen, Feng-Kuang Chiang, Chin-Yu Chang .............. 1

Learning in Cloud: Developing RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System By Ming-Shen Jian, Tien-Chi Huang, Shu Hui Hsu, Marcus Banasik ...................................................... 13

The Effect of Teaching Strategy for Teacher Learning – From Conventional Classroom to Virtual Web 2.0 Platform By Jen-Ya Wang, Jr-Shian Chen, Chun-Chin Wang, Ching-Mei Cheng ................................................... 23

“The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”---The Contestant’s Self-regulated Cycling Learning in the Context of Agricultural Skills Competition Training in Taiwan By Hsiang-jen Meng, Chang-hui Hsu ........................................................................................................ 31

Authors Index ............................................................................................................................................ 43

Submission Guidelines .............................................................................................................................. 45


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Articles


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Int. J. Technol. Eng. Educ. Copyright 2011, ATEEM 2011, Vol.8, No.2

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An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan

Hsiu-Ping Yueh*, Horn-Jiunn Sheen**, Tzy-Ling Chen***, Feng-Kuang Chiang****, Chin-Yu Chang*****

*Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development, National Taiwan University, Taiwan **Institute of Applied Mechanics, National Taiwan University

***Graduate Institute of Bio-Industry Management, National Chung Hsing University ****School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University, China

*****Nano-Electro-Mechanical-Systems Research Center, National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT This study proposes an integrative instructional model for nanotechnology human resource cultivation in higher

education, and devises a training program to cultivate potential talents based on this designed instructional model. We report a two-year training program experience conducted in 2009 and 2010, in which we investigate learners’ satisfactions and recommendations on courses. Also, the use of Design-Based Research methodology allows researchers of the present study to grasp problems during the actual teaching and helps teachers better understand the goals and implications of the research.

Keywords: nanotechnology; integrative instructional model; universities and industries collaborations; education and

training; course evaluation

INTRODUCTION

Nanotechnology has become one of the most important technologies and has potential for development in many industries. Also, it has already been applied extensively to all kinds of academic researches and industries and had a pronounced influence on technology development in the world. Nanotechnology’s applications like bio-technology, electronics, green technology, material science, solar energy, and information technology, etc. are both essential and developing components. Without any doubt, its development has become a significant impact on modern society and industry (Mnyusiwalla, Daar & Singer, 2003). Olds & Miller (2004) also pointed out the engineering education in the United States has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, particularly as it influences their country’s ability to compete in global high-technology markets.

Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary and cross-discipline field (Clark & Ernst, 2005; Roco, 2002). Fourez (1997) put forth an idea that schools find it difficult to modernize curricula given the pace of innovation, which highlights the importance of design and development the nanotechnology education and training to nurture talent for the industries. Ernst (2009) proposed nanotechnology should be remained a primary consideration not only in government and commerce but also in education. Therefore, advanced country policies not only promote the nanotechnology research but combine nanotechnology educational programs on talent development. It has become a very important human resource need of 21st century (Ashcroft & Mermin, 1976;

Chen, 1993; Hersam, Luna, & Light, 2004). In Taiwan, the National Science Council (NSC) launched the National Nanotechnology Program in 2002. To promote and cultivate new talents who are able to develop the potential of nanotechnology, and aim at pushing this technology toward industrialization and commercialization (Yueh & Sheen, 2009). Under the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Education Platform (ISTEP) project, the sub-project of nanotechnology developed its own strategies for faculty alliances, curriculum design, hands-on laboratory training, and the demonstration center management. Development of emerging technology leading to continual transformation of society serves as a strong indicator to imply that current nanotechnology educational purposes should be altered in order to cultivate creative and interdisciplinary talents.

In this paper, we describe our efforts to implement an integrative instructional model for establishing the collaboration between nanotechnology enterprises and university engineering education based on Design-Based Research (DBR) approach. The specific purposes of the present study include: (1) to investigate the instructional satisfaction of participants regarding education and training programs built upon collaborations between universities and industries; (2) to collect participants' feedback and suggestions concerning the instructional design of nanotechnology education and training programs; (3) to explore whether or not there are significant differences in instructional satisfaction between training courses offered in two consecutive years.


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Nanotechnology Education and Training in Taiwan

The present study was carried out at Northern Regional Center for Nanotechnology Higher Education that integrates the resources of the Nano-Electro-Mechanical-System (NEMS) Research Center, College of Engineering, and other units at National Taiwan University. The Center plays an important role in interdisciplinary nanotechnology higher education for undergraduate and graduate students. During the past few years, the Center has developed various nanotechnology teaching materials including multi-media and e-learning training materials. A nanotechnology education service network is also provided to fulfill the professional learning demands of northern region universities and colleges in Taiwan. It is no doubt the Center is considered as one of the pivotal driving forces in developing nanotechnology human resources in Taiwan. Nanotechnology education and training program for talent development

The center of NEMS at National Taiwan University marks out a series of training courses for talent development taking advantage of resources between universities and nanotechnology industries. In this study, a nanotechnology university education and training program was developed to offer hand-on experiments and nanotechnology related courses for both pre-service and in-service training and education for engineers and students. The main tasks of this program contain: (1) establishing and enhancing collaborations between universities and nanotechnology industries; (2) conducting training and extension education of nanotechnology. Through the programs, students and trainees are able to have hands-on experiences in the field of nanotechnology, and to increase their understanding of practical applications of nanotechnology to various fields. Hence, the studies on nanotechnology engineering education emphasize not only a need for interdisciplinary integration but collaborations between universities and industries (Alford, Catati, & Binks, 2007; Koehler, & Koehler-Jones, 2006), which in turn will contribute greatly to satisfying the national economic, and energy needs in 21st century (Aviram & Ratner, 1998). In addition, this nanotechnology’s interdisciplinary curricula were designed not only to incubate nanotechnology human resources, but to provide a platform for researchers and teachers to share the curricula and teaching materials. An integrative instructional model in nanotechnology education and training

In order to achieve the tasks of such program, the NEMS center focuses on integrating theoretical knowledge into instructional practices between universities and nanotechnology industries and has

developed an integrative instructional model for nanotechnology education and training (see figure 1). Its core concept is “nanotechnology education and training programs for talent development,” and the model includes four aspects: (1) universities: experts in nanotechnology from different universities help teach courses on theories and application of varied technologies; (2) industries: senior managers in business are responsible for sharing marketing experiences and tendency analyses; (3) practices: all participants have to go through the training stages aimed at practical application at the NEMS center's labs.; (4) assessment: the center will evaluate trainees' performance using exams and assess the courses according to trainees' feedback. Results of assessment are further utilized as the referential basis for curriculum development of following years. The circle represents how this integrative instructional model is applied in nanotechnology education and training.

Figure 1. Integrative Instructional Model in

Nanotechnology Education and Training.

DESIGN-BASED RESEARCH METHOD Design-based research is an emerging paradigm for

the study of learning in context through the systematic design and study of instructional strategies and tools (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992), especially in technology enhanced learning environments. In recent years, educators have been trying to narrow the chasm between research and practice. We take the DBR approach, and apply it to our integrative instructional environments for the purpose of creating and extending the knowledge about developing, enacting, and sustaining. The use of DBR methodology has allowed researchers to grasp problems during teaching sessions and allowed teachers to better understand the goals and implications of the research (Joseph, 2004). DBR methods focus on designing and exploring the whole range of designed innovations, and Design-Based Research Collective (2003, p5) proposes that good design-based research exhibits the following five characteristics: (1)The central goals of designing learning

environments and developing theories or “prototheories” of learning are intertwined.

(2)Development and research take place through continuous cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and redesign (Cobb, 2001; Collins, 1992).

Hsiu-Ping Yueh, Horn-Jiunn Sheen, Tzy-Ling Chen, Feng-Kuang Chiang, & Chin-Yu Chang

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(3)Research on designs must lead to sharable theories that help communicate relevant implications to practitioners and other educational designers (Brophy, 2002).

(4)Research must account for how designs function in authentic settings.

(5)The development of such accounts relies on methods that can document and connect processes of enactment to outcomes of interest. Design-based research provides numerous opportunities for the exchange of expertise across disciplinary boundaries (p. 5). Therefore, DBR approach is appropriate for the

engineering education including nanotechnology field. In some ways DBR is similar to action research as both involve the process of identifying of authentic pedagogic challenges, developing plans to solve these problems and implementing the solution (MacDonald, 2008). The emphasis of DBR on participants' feedback during courses is the main reason this study used the consecutive education and training program that repeatedly goes through the cycle of course design while making adjustments according to reflection upon implementation. The consecutive education and training program

Built upon the DBR approach, a consecutive education and training program was also initiated. In other words, to help prepare capable and competent human resources for future workforce in nanotechnology, this project intends to research into a consecutive education and training program taking advantage of the integrative instructional model. Thus, NEMS center held a serial training of nanotechnology during 2009-2010. The process of this consecutive nanotechnology education and training program on talent development is presented in Figure2. First, the research team designs the course for the first year by consulting with academic and industry experts and analyzing industrial trends of nanotechnology products and applications. During the course, participants take part in the classes for relative theories and knowledge in addition to learning industrial practices. The participants then take an examination for performance evaluation and fill out a questionnaire about course satisfaction at the end of classes. Finally, the research team redesigns the courses with adjustment and improvement made to teachers’ teaching, course contents and learning environment. The courses of following year then incorporate changes according to participants' feedback and recommendations from the previous year. The consecutive education and training program is designed in a cyclic model which emphasizes the continuity of courses development and has the advantages included as follows: (1) revision of the courses according to learners' response, (2) improvement of instructors' teaching along with the courses, (3) understanding participants' learning needs and conditions besides whether they are satisfied, (4) integration of both theories and industrial practices, (5) encouraging learners

to put the knowledge they learned into action. Referring to Bloom's taxonomy of educational

objectives, which classifies objectives into three domains of cognitive, affective and psychomotor (Bloom, 1956), the instructional objectives addressed by this study’s consecutive education and training program are listed as follows: Cognitive: Upon completion of the training,

participants can understand the theoretical knowledge of nanotechnology and become aware of development trends in nanotechnology industries. Both conceptual and awareness knowledge is concerned in this program.

Affective: Upon completion of the training, participants can develop a proactive learning attitude towards these relative disciplinary practices. Part of this program places great stress on proper attitudes and normative beliefs of the nanotechnology profession.

Psychomotor: Upon completion of the training, participants can learn practical skills of nanotechnology such as semiconductor fabrication techniques and so on through lab work at the NEMS center. The combination of operational knowledge and hands-on experiences contributes significantly to skill learning of this program.

Figure 2. Process of nanotechnology education and

training program on talent development.

COURSE EVALUATION OF THE NANOTECHNOLOGY EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROGRAM

Assessment instrument In order to examine the satisfaction with instruction

of the courses offered in this training program, a comprehensive questionnaire was designed by the NEMS research group to collect participants’ background information, and measure the instructional effectiveness and satisfaction based on participants’ points of view. In the first part of the survey, participants were asked to fill out ten questions using a Likert scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Similar to most of the research into course evaluations, which utilized multiple dimensions (Cashin & Downey,


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1992), we modeled our evaluation dimensions on prior research (Lowman, 1994; Marsh & Roche, 2000; Tatro, 1995). In this study, we specifically examined three core dimensions considered in most course evaluations of all kinds, including curriculum, teaching skills, and value of learning. Built upon these three dimension, three primary concepts embedded in these ten questions are curriculum plan (question 1 and 2), instructors’ teaching skills (question 3 to 8), and learning effectiveness (question 9 and 10). When analyzing the survey data, we have aggregated responses of “Strongly Disagree” and “Disagree” into one group and responses of “Agree” and “Strongly Agree” into the other for further comparison.

Results of sequential survey from 2009 to 2010

Table 1 summarizes the background information of

respondents participating in training courses in 2009 and 2010. The frequency distribution results of the course evaluation survey from participants of 2009 are detailed in Table 2, and Table 3 includes the same survey results of year 2010.

a. Training courses of the first year

The nanotechnology training courses are held for the first time at National Taiwan University in

summer, 2009. Undergraduates and graduate students from all engineering and science departments were invited to take part in this program. It also allows non-student participants who are interested in these topics from the related labs of universities and academic institutes. The time period of training courses last four days from August 17 to 20, 2009.

b. Participants of the first year

Out of the 70 participants who joined in 2009 training courses, 57 of them (81.4%) completed and returned the questionnaire. Among the respondents, 2 of them are undergraduate students (3.5%), 45 are in graduate school (78.9%), 4 are studying for doctoral degrees (7%), 3 are from academic institutes (5.3%), and 3 are research assistants (5.3%). When participants are asked how they received the course information, 51 said they receive it from teachers or classmates (89.5%), 4 from the MENS website (7%), 1 from e-mail news sent by the MENS center (1.8%) and 1 from the course poster (1.8%). As to the assessment of course difficulty, 41 found it moderate (73.2%), 5 thought it is too easy (8.9%), 10 thought it is too difficult (17.9%), and one respondent did not answer this question (See table 1).

Table 1 Background information of respondents.

Year 2009 (N=57) 2010 (N=47) Background

Undergraduate students 2 (3.5%) 4 (8.5%) Graduate school 45 (78.9%) 39 (83.0%) Doctoral students 4 (7%) 3 (6.4%) Academic institutes 3 (5.3%) 1 (2.1%) Research assistants 3 (5.3%) 0 (0%)

Training courses’ information received from Teachers or classmates 51 (89.5%) 40 (85.1%) MENS website 4 (7%) 6 (12.8%) E-mail news sent by MENS 1 (1.8%) 0 (0%) Course poster 1 (1.8%) 1 (2.1%)

Assessment of course difficulty Moderate 41 (73.2%) 28 (60.9%) Too easy 5 (8.9%), 4 (8.7%) Difficult 0 (0%) 11 (23.9%) Too difficult 10 (17.9%) 3 (6.5%) Did not answer 1 1

c. Course content of the first year

The field of nanotechnology crosses multidisciplinary areas and requires an approach of putting together multiple subjects for curriculum development. In this study, we attempt to implement the approach of integrating both theoretical knowledge taught in universities and industry practices into an interdisciplinary nanotechnology engineering course at National Taiwan University. Hersam, Luna and Light (2004) also point out that students must effectively exploit their specific knowledge and interdisciplinary knowledge in order

to make a success in the nanotechnology career. The nanotechnology training courses of the first year aims at core topics in “energy saving and carbon emission reduction with nanotechnology,” which include the following three sub-topics, (1) Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction; (2) Opto-Electronics Technology; and (3) Green Energy and Technology. Several themes are further specified in each sub-topic. (see figure 3). Overall, the design of the training courses brings together a wide range of nontraditional pedagogical practices, which include lecture, demonstration, practical training and lab-visit of


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varied nanotechnology-related centers.

Figure 3. First-year course content framework. d. 2009 course evaluation survey

The frequency analysis results of course

evaluation survey from the participants attending training courses in 2009 are summarized in table 2. We have aggregated the responses of “Strongly Disagree” and “Disagree” into one group and responses of “Agree” and “Strongly Agree” into the other. As Table 2 shows, participants think instructors are knowledgeable and well qualified for the courses, and instructors who are also considered enthusiastic, sincere and responsible own the higher percentage of participant satisfaction responses. The item regarding course as inspiring and being able to motivate students to learn has the lowest satisfaction. Overall, participants approve of these instructors’ professorial and enthusiastic to lead the courses; however, to improve instructors’ capabilities of how to inspire and motivate learning in the courses is necessary.

Table 2 Course Evaluation Survey from Participants of 2009.

Questions

“Disagree” or“Strongly disagree” (1) and (2)

Neutral (3)

“Agree” or “Strongly agree”(4) and (5)

1. The course is well designed. 8.8 % 15.8 % 75.4 % 2. The course is consistent with the curriculum. 10.5 % 17.5 % 71.9 % 3. Instructors of this course are well prepared. 3.5 % 8.8 % 87.7 % 4. The instructor is knowledgeable and well qualified for this course. 0 % 5.3 % 94.8 % 5. The instructor explains the contents clearly to help learners

understand. 5.3 % 28.1 % 66.7 %

6. Instructors of this course are enthusiastic, sincere and responsible. 1.8 % 5.3 % 92.9 % 7. This course is inspiring and motivates me to learn. 5.3 % 33.3 % 59.6 % 8. Teaching materials including textbooks and reference articles

provided by instructors are helpful. 1.8 % 37.5 % 61.7 %

9. The training course is useful for me to enter the field of MEMS. 5.3 % 33.3 % 61.4 % 10. Generally speaking, this is an efficient training course. 5.3 % 28.1 % 76.7 % Note: The overall alpha coefficient of 0.78 was acceptable. e. Learner’s feedback and suggestions on the courses of

first year The course evaluation survey also allows

participants to provide personal feedback and suggestions using open-ended responses. We conclude on the qualitative data into three categories: the course content, curriculum plan, and instructors’ teaching, which are detailed as follows:

(1) Course content: Participants look forward to learning of more basic theories, introduction to equipments, and application techniques of nanotechnology. One participant in particular commented, “I hope I can hear some introduction of basic theory, equipment introduction, and application techniques and so on (S1), as “to understand more practical experience of the nanotechnology and nano-electro-mechanical industry (S21).” Another participant wrote, “Most courses are very introductory, there is too little on technical areas, if the courses are just an introduction, we can just read by ourselves (S8).” In addition, instructors are expected to share more

information on related practices in industries and future development trends of nanotechnology industry in the courses. Some participants gave the same responses to urge for reduction in repeated contents during training courses: The course content has repeated too much in the past two days. We hope to learn the important techniques and not strategies (S5). These course topics repeat too much, I suggest reducing the amount of courses or to invite instructors who come from specific research areas. (S28). Although most lecturers prepare a lot of teaching materials attentively, most are repetition content with other lectures. (S46).

(2) Curriculum plan: Participants think the course arrangement is a little tight on schedule, and also propose to arrange the courses related to each other on the same days or to extend the course hours.

(3) Instructors’ teaching: Participants hope instructors can increase classroom interactions; one participant commented, “Lecturer can interact more with students in class, and warm up the class atmosphere (S14).” When instructors use technical


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terms in English for instruction, participants suggest some explanation on the term’s meaning in Chinese again to promote learners’ understanding is better. One participant in particular commented, “some lecturers taught technical terms in English, some explained the meaning, but most didn’t interpret which resulted in students not able to understand (S38).” Besides, as for the teaching materials, participants suggest instructors to provide multimedia materials such as video clips in order to help participants learn better.

f. Participants of the second year

Out of the 70 participants who attended 2010 training courses, 47 of them (61.4%) completed and returned the questionnaire. Among the respondents, 4 of them are undergraduate students (8.5%), 39 are in graduate school (83.0%), 3 are studying for doctoral degrees (6.4%), and 1 is from academic institutes (2.1%). Regarding how participants received the course information, 40 said they received it from teachers or classmates (85.1%), 6 from the MENS website (12.8%), and 1 from the printed course poster (2.1%). As to the assessment of course difficulty, 28 found it moderate (60.9%), 4 thought it is too easy (8.7%), 11 thought it is difficult (23.9%), 3 thought it is too difficult (6.5%), and one respondent did not answer this question (See table 1). Comparing to participants of the first year, almost all (98%) of the second year are currently students in higher education.

g. Course content of the second year

The training courses of the second year are developed partly taking into consideration participants' feedback and recommendations stemming from the previous year. Since we incline to emphasize the collaborative relationship and practical experiences shared between universities and industries in the second year, those who are invited to share their practical experiences are senior managers contributing to more than half of the instructors. As for the course contents, Figure 4 illustrates the concept map of second year’s curriculum. The course topic of the second year emphasizes particularly on “Green Technology and Nanotechnology” taking into consideration the learner’s needs in connection with features of DBR. In addition, it includes three sub-topics: (1) Solar-energy Industry, (2) LED

Technology, and (3) Display Technology. Certain specific themes are included in each sub-topic. The training courses last for a period of three days from August 16 to August 18, 2010.

Figure 4. Second-year course content framework.

h. 2010 course evaluation survey Table 3 summarizes frequency analysis results

of course evaluation survey from the participants attending training courses in 2010. We can find the items of “the course is well designed” and “the instructor is knowledgeable and well qualified for this course” have higher percentage of participants’ agreed responses. “Teaching materials including textbooks and reference articles provided by instructors are helpful” is the one with the lowest percentage of learner satisfaction responses. As a result, we can assure the course design is better than the last year, and the participants also agree these instructors are knowledgeable and well qualified for the courses comparing to last year. But participants disagree the teaching materials prepared for the courses are helpful to some extents. One participant in particular commented “In case instructors prepare for teaching content too much, the high speed of teaching result in it is difficult to learn for students, maybe reduce the instructional schedule or extend teaching hours (SS45)”. Based on course evaluation results (Table 3), overall 80% of participants agreed the effectiveness of both teacher’s performance and this training. As a result, it is necessary for the training course developer to consider the ability of participants on the basic concepts before entering the courses.

Table 3 Course Evaluation Survey from Participants of 2010.

Questions

“Strongly Disagree” or “disagree” (1) and (2)

Neutral (3)

“Agree” or “Strongly agree”(4) and (5)

1. The course is well designed. 2.1 % 4.3 % 93.6 % 2. The course is consistent with the curriculum. 4.3 % 14.9 % 80.8 % 3. Instructors of this course are well prepared. 4.2 % 12.8 % 82.9 % 4. The instructor is knowledgeable and well qualified for this

course. 4.3 % 2.1 % 93.6 %

(Continuous)


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5. The instructor explains the contents clearly to help learners understand.

4.3 % 14.9 % 80.8 %

6. Instructors of this course are enthusiastic, sincere and responsible.

2.1 % 10.6 % 87.2 %

7. This course is inspiring and motivates me to learn. 2.1 % 25.5 % 73.4 % 8. Teaching materials including textbooks and reference articles

provided by instructors are helpful. 6.4 % 31.9 % 61.7 %

9. The training course is useful for me to enter the field of SolarIndustry, LED, and Display Technology.

4.2 % 21.3 % 74.5 %

10. Generally speaking, this is an efficient training course. 2.1 % 17.0 % 80.8 %

Note: The overall alpha coefficient of 0.86 was acceptable.

i. Learning performance

No examination for learning performance was carried out during first year's training courses. Considering that learning performance is an indispensable part of this integrative instructional model the current nanotechnology education and training program is built upon, the written tests were taken in place during second year's courses. Participants who pass the examinations are granted a “Completion Certificate of NEMS Training Program.” Only one of the participants failed to pass the qualified score of 80, while the rest of them received their certificates successfully. This echoed with the DBR feature of the present study by including the learning evaluation in addition to satisfaction survey in the second year’s training for improvement.

j. Learner’s feedback and suggestions on the courses of

second year Similarly, the course evaluation survey provides

participants with the open-ended questions to collect opinions in their own words. The data are analyzed by three categories as the last year:

(1) Course content: Participants also look forward to learning more basic theories, introduction to the related nanotechnology industries and application techniques, and hope to avoid the repeated contents already offered the last year. Some comments given include: “I hope the course contents are multi-dimensional, and there are different analyses from one topic (SS44);”“It impressed me that manager’s share with the industrial development analysis, it will help touch the areas, and broaden one's scope of knowledge and widen one's horizon (SS39).”

(2) Curriculum plan: Many participants are fully satisfied with curriculum plan of the second year. One participant in particular commented, “The curriculum plan is extremely great, including special issues on industry development trends and analyses to promote a better understanding of the whole industrial introduction (SS47)”

(3) Instructors’ teaching: The same problem as the first year is when instructors talk about technical terms in English, some participants cannot

understand them; thus, there is a hope instructors can translate the terms in Chinese when using them. One participant commented, “some lecturers taught technical terms in English, and students were not able to understand (SS40)." In addition, participants suggested instructors to provide the related real products or demonstration items as the teaching materials in order to help them learn better. Another participant also pointed out “one instructor prepared too many teaching materials resulting in not only teaching too fast, but also students’ learning difficultly, and the students also think it is too much in terms of the materials to be covered in course hours as scheduled.” Similarly, future course development needs to consider the ability of participants on the basic concepts as setting up certain entrance prerequisites.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Learner’s feedback and suggestions on the course design of this nanotechnology education and training program

After conducting the training courses of first year, we analyzed participants’ suggestions and feedback to improve our course design. Adjustments of first year’s course design made according to the synthesis of those analyzed comments are illustrated in Table 4. Concerning the curriculum plan, owing to course hours are considered a little tight on schedule, participants suggested to extend the course hours. Therefore, we extended the courses hours from 80 minutes to 90 minutes, and arranged the related courses on the same days. As for the course content, participants suggested reduction of the repeated course contents; therefore, a more thorough review of course contents is conducted to avoid the repeated contents. In consequence, we did not receive any repeated opinion on course contents in the second year. In addition, participants revealed a preference for learning more about the basic theories and application techniques related to nanotechnology; thus, we added basic theory courses as well as increased the portion of application techniques in second year’s courses (see figure 5).


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Table 4 Adjustments of NEMS training courses during 2009-2010.

Figure 5. Photos for Nanotechnology-related technical

training and operational courses. However, we still obtain the similar suggestions

from the course evaluation of second year. So we will try to combine basic theory courses with the related application techniques into one course theme in the third year. There are much more feedback and inputs expressed on instructors’ teaching, including an increase in sharing more information on industry practices and discussing about the future development tendency of nanotechnology industry, a need of further explanations in Chinese on English technical terms used in course lecturing, and so on. During the training courses of

second year, we have two-thirds of instructors from the industry who are reminded to explain the specific technical terms and to encourage the teacher-learner interactions in class. Even there are improvements made to the course design of second year, participants still expect instructors to share more information on the related industries and future development tendency of nanotechnology. Taking into account these feedback and suggestions, we plan to reinforce this integrative instructional model by increasing the cooperation between universities and industries, such as mixing one instructor from university with the other from industry for one course in the third year’s program. Also, we will help collect the specific terms frequently used in courses and continually remind instructors to explain them in class. With respect to issues of teacher-learner interactions and teaching materials, we as the course design team will work with instructors to provide them with the required assistances of preparing instructional strategies and multimedia materials as well as industrial samples and practical products. As previous research has

Year Factors

Participants' suggestions of the First year

Course Adjustment of the First Year

Participants' suggestions of the Second year

Course Adjustment of the Second Year

Curriculum Plan

The curriculum plan was a little tight on schedule, suggesting to include extended course hours.(80 minutes for one course）

90 minutes for one course

NO Suggestion NO Adjustment

Proposing arranging relative courses on the same days

Relative courses on the same days


Course Content

Reducing repeated contents Reducing repeated contents


Learning more the basic theory, and application techniques

Adding basic theory course with an increase in application techniques

Increasing the basic theory, and practical courses of application techniques

Adding basic theory course with an increase in application techniques for one topic

Instructors share more information on relative industries and the future development tendency

Two thirds instructors are from industry

Sharing more information on relative industries and the future development tendency

Cooperate teaching between universities and industries(one instructor is from university another is from industry)

Instructors’ Teaching

When lecturers use technical terms in English, learners suggest explain the meaning in Chinese again to promote learners’ understanding better

Remind instructors to explain the specific terms in Chinese

When lecturers use technical terms, learners suggest explain the meaning to promote learners’ understanding better

Collect some specific terms and remind instructors to explain it

Increase classroom interactions

Promote and encourage the teacher - learners' interaction


Teaching Materials

Providing multimedia materials

Reminding instructors can prepare for some instructional video or industrial examples

Learners hope they can see the practical production or demo

Providing multimedia materials and practical productions


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found that visualization not only reinforces the associated scientific and technological concepts, but also facilitates learners' understanding of complex knowledge (Chiang, 2009; Ernst, 2009; Newhagen & Rafaeli, 1996). Thus, more instructors will be asked to provide multimedia materials and real products during the third year. Learners' satisfactions with training courses in two consecutive years

Based on the results of course evaluation carried our in two consecutive years, the mean scores of the instructional satisfaction of the first year is 3.89, and 4.11 for the second year. This clearly proves participants' attitudes towards training courses rise by year, and the instructor is considered knowledgeable and well qualified for the courses, which is mostly satisfied by participants and consistent in the after-course survey results of two years. Previous studies have also shown that the major factor contributing to course satisfaction is teacher (Burack, 1975; Harnash-Glezer & Meyer, 1991), and this is why participants of the present study have most of their feedback and suggestions on instructors’ teaching. No significant difference in course satisfaction of two consecutive years

According to Tables 2 and 3, we can know even

though the majority of participants agreed with each of the ten survey questions, there exist variances in questions. Clearly, questions 1-2 are related to curriculum plan, questions 3-8 are related to instructors’ teaching, and questions 9-10 are related to learning effectiveness in the courses (see table 5). The average percentage of “ Agreed (4)” and “Strongly Agrees (5)” scores for the 2009 courses is 73.15% for questions 1-2, 77.23% for questions 3-8, and 69.05% for questions 9-10 while in the courses of year 2010, the average percentage is 87.9% for questions 1-2, 79.93% for questions 3-8, and 77.65% for questions 9-10 respectively. Since the courses of second year was designed by incorporating with changes based on first-year participants' feedback and recommendations, the average percentage of positive responses towards the curriculum plan, instructors’ teaching, and learning effectiveness are all higher than the previous year. Also, the variable of curriculum plan has a more obvious increase in the average percentage of satisfactory responses. In order to confirm whether or not there are significant differences in the average percentage of positive responses between these two years, the Mann-Whitney U-test, a nonparametric statistical analysis often used for two independent groups was proceeded. The statistical value of Mann-Whitney U is 954.5 and the statistical value of Wilcoxon’s W is 25550.5, with p value of 0.156 (>0.05), meaning no significant difference were identified statistically at 95 percent confidence level.

Table 5 Average percentage of “4” and “5” scores for the 2009 and 2010.

Questions 2009/Average percentage 2010/Average percentage

Curriculum plan (1~2) 73.15 % 87.20 %

(continus) Instructors’ teaching skills (3~8) 77.23 % 79.93 % Learning effectiveness (9~10) 69.05 % 77.65 % Total (1-10) 74.88 % 80.93 %

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors greatly appreciate the financial support provided by Taiwan’s National Science Council, the Republic of China under contract No. NSC 98-2120-S-002-002-NM. REFERENCES Alford, K., Calati, F., & Binks, P. (2007). An integrated,

industry-linked approach to developing a nanotechnology curriculum for secondary students in Australia. Paper presented at the 2007 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference. Retrieved 09/21, 2010, Retrieved from http://www.nsti.org/Nanotech2007/ symposia/

Ashcroft, N.W., & Mermin, N. D. (1976). Solid State Physics. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt.

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Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(2), 141–178.

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Chiang, F. K. (2009). Behavioral Intention of TU Ilmenau Students towards Using Innovative Information Technology for Learning. Doctoral dissertation, National Kaohsiung Normal


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University, Taiwan. Clark, A. C., & Ernst, J. V. (2005). Supporting

technological literacy through the integration of engineering, mathematic, scientific, and technological concepts. Published Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, Session 146. Chicago, IL.

Collins, A. (1992). Towards a design science of education. In E. Scanlon & T. O’Shea (Eds.), New directions in educational technology (pp. 15–22). Berlin: Springer.

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Ernst, J. V. (2009). Nanotechnology Education: Contemporary Content and Approaches. Journal of Technology Studies, 35(1), 3-8.

Fourez, G. (1997). Scientific and technological literacy as a social practice. Social Studies of Science, 27, 903-936.

Harnash-Glezer, M., & Meyer, J. (1991). Dimensions of satisfaction with collegiate education, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 16(2), 95-107.

Hersam, M. C., Luna, M., & Light, G. (2004). Implementation of interdisciplinary group learning and peer assessment in a nanotechnology engineering course. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(1), 49-57.

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Koehler, G., & Koehler-Jones, V. (2006). Training California's new workforce for 21st century nanotechnology, MEMS, and advanced manufacturing jobs: California Community Colleges. Retrieved 09/21, 2010, Retrieved from http://website.cccco.edu/Home/tabid/189/Default.aspx

Lowman, J. (1994). Professors as performers and motivators. College Teaching, 42(4), 137-141.

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Marsh, H. W., & Roche, L. A. (2000). Effects of grading leniency and low workload on students' evaluations of teaching: Popular myth, bias, validity, or innocent bystanders? Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 202-228.

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Yueh, H. P. & Sheen, H. J. (2009). Developing experiential learning with a cohort blended laboratory training in nano-bio engineering education. International Journal of Engineering Education, 25(4), 712-722.

AUTHORS

Hsiu-Ping Yueh received her Ph.D. degree in Instructional Systems from Pennsylvania State University, and is currently a Professor and the Chair in the Department of Bio-Industry Communication and Development at National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]. Horn-Jiunn Sheen received his Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from State University of New York, Stony Brook, and is currently a Professor in Graduate Institute of Applied Mechanics and the Director of the

Nano-Electro-Mechanical-System (NEMS) Research Center at

National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Tzy-Ling Chen received her Ph.D. degrees in Adult Education from Pennsylvania State University and is currently an Associate Professor in Graduate Institute of Bio-Industry Management at the National Chung Hsing University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Feng-Kuang Chiang received his Ph.D. degrees in Graduate Institute of Education at National Kaohsiung Normal University and is currently an Assistant Professor in School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University, China.


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Chin-Yu Chang received his Ph.D. degrees in Graduate Institute of Applied Mechanics at National Taiwan University and is currently an Assistant Researcher in Nano-Electro-Mechanical-Systems Research Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.


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Learning in Cloud: Developing RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System

Ming-Shen Jian*, Tien-Chi Huang**, Shu Hui Hsu***, Marcus Banasik****

*Dept. of Computer Science and Information Engineering National Formosa University Yunlin County, Taiwan **Department of Information Management, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

***Sanchi Elementary School Hsinchu County, Taiwan ****Tigress Global LLC. Houston, Texas USA

ABSTRACT In this paper, the RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System is proposed based on the

structure of primary curricula according to the Vertical Curricular Organization method. According to the proposed learning system, the scenario or content of the digital learning game can be easily changed and re-modified. The modular game content can be embedded into the existing learning game platform in cloud. Furthermore, the information of the individual game learning system user such as the learning situations, the degree of understanding, the accuracy of problem solving, and the total time for problem solving can be stored in the individual user’s RFID tag and the cloud database. Through the RFID and the remote game system, the information of individual user can be exchanged between different local-side computers accessed by the user. Users can connect to the learning-game system via the Internet for continued learning. Based on the cloud virtual machine, the user does not need to install or configure the learning system on a local computer. In addition, by integrating RFID and cloud technology, the game can be initialized for any new user without further hardware cost. The results showed that the continuous assessment for teachers or directors can be enhanced via the on-line game learning system. Additionally, the system is able to enhance primary students’ learning achievement. The primary students can learn advanced courses themselves by playing the advanced scenarios of the game-learning system without the assistance of a teacher. Keywords: RFID, Game-Learning, RPG, Cloud Computing

INTRODUCTION Today, considering the interest of students in

learning, different entertainment and multimedia are integrated into the learning content. Randel (1992) hypothesizes that using digital games can enhance learning motivation [4]. Compared to traditional classroom teaching and learning, learning via games or digital multimedia can enhance and promote the interest in primary education.

Since players are interested in playing games, players may develop their abilities to solve the problems or stages of the mission designed in a game scenario that proposed by Prensky (2001). In other words, players will have the motivation to find and learn the key method(s) to solve and complete the mission that proposed by Bowmaw (1982) and Braccy (1992). Therefore, education theory based computer games can be the learning media or middleware to promote the interest in primary education teaching and learning according to the research proposed by Hsu (2009).

However, most of the learning games today provide Question and Answer (Q&A) types of learning for players. These games provide similar classroom teaching or textbook content for players. Based on Q&A, the learning games tend to be strict and inflexible with the teaching content. The players may lose their interest in learning with this conservative way which has just transformed paper content into digital content with less entertainment. In other words, many researches or games only transform the textbook content into the digital content for browsing or narration review. The differences between Q&A in textbook

format and that in digital content are: 1) to read a book or to read on the screen (monitor); 2) to answer the questions via writing or to answer the questions via typing on a keyboard. The system player may lose their interest easily. Furthermore, since the method of learning is similar to the original textbook learning, the performance of learning cannot be obviously improved.

In addition, to learn by using Q&A also means that the advance learning potential of students may be hindered since the games are only for content review. Since the player may have interest to learn the method for solving the mission designed in the game, self-advanced learning can be achieved. To enhance self advanced learning according to the guidance learning of advance courses, education theory should be the basic concept of the designed learning game. Which should be based on the educational organization principles to include: learning from simple to complex; from familiar with to not familiar with; from concrete to abstract; from whole to part, some game-learning systems based on learning-interest enhancement that may not use Q&A are proposed by Hsu (2009).

In addition to the design considerations of games, the method of maintaining the learning game and differentiating individual users for educational continuous assessments are also important issues. Since the game-distance –learning system should provide not only course review but also advanced course guidance, the game designer has to adaptively divide the teaching content into several sub-sets. Furthermore, the designed sub-sets should be replaced or embedded easily if the teaching content is changed. Moreover, if there is a new designed sub-set or game of teaching content, there should be a module modification to embed the sub-set


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into the entire game platform. Therefore, to maintain and manage the game-learning platform in a timely manner is an important issue.

In addition to the management of the learning system, the continuous assessment of individual students or system users is also important. Based on security and individual privacy, the learning activities should not be counterfeited or completed by other people so that the estimation of an individual student is inaccurate. Furthermore, the learning state of each student may not be the same. The ability to separate each student is a basic condition for providing learning content corresponding to a student’s ability. Considering the management and continuous assessment requirements corresponding to an individual student, RFID technology is included in this paper.

Jian (2011) presents that Radio Frequency identification (RFID) is a popular wireless induction system. An RFID system consists of the RFID Tag, the RFID Reader, and the related applications according to the researches proposed by Jian (2011). Each RFID tag is equipped with a unique ID (UID) which records the on demand information that can be used for individual identification. When an independent RFID tag approaches the antenna of the RFID reader, the electromagnetic induction between the RFID tag and the antenna occurs. The RFID tag obtains the power and replies with the required information to RFID reader. In other words, the RFID reader can read or write the information and content recorded in the tag. Then the information is translated into the computational data by the RFID reader for the related applications.

Due to the portablility of the RFID tag and untouched data transmission, many local or small area wireless applications for track and trace purposes were proposed based on RFID systems. Today, RFID technology is generally used in many applications such student ID cards, remote roll-call systems of classes, etc. Moreover, the RFID can provide security for each user. By applying the RFID technology, most data transmissions between users and the game server can be made automatically.

In addition to data transmission, the method of using the game-learning system should be considered. For a primary student, to install and configure the game-distance-learning system is too difficult. Some limitations of the hardware may also cause a failure in the system installation and configuration. Therefore, to reduce the complexity of game installation and playing, the proposed game-learning system should be established on a remote game server without players’ manual configuration. However, to provide an unknown quantity of servers for an unpredictable amount of system users is unreasonable. Since the total amount of system users changes all the time, a dynamic number of servers provided for users can be the solution. Therefore, virtual machines (VMs) that are dynamically established in the cloud are used in this proposed game-learning system.

Clouding computing (Cloud) is today’s the most influential technology. By using the virtual implementation of hardware and operating systems, cloud computing provides users the ability to create or deploy their own applications without investing large amounts of capital in a system infrastructure. In addition, users only need to maintain their own applications without hardware and infrastructure

maintenance. Christensen (2009) proposed that many services including Amazon's EC2, IBM's Smart Business cloud offerings, Microsoft's Azure, and Google's AppEngine, etc. are based on cloud computing. Through cloud computing, different users can connect to the cloud computing applications via the application program interface (API) provided by the cloud designers. In addition, users can also establish their own programs or applications through the API.. In the cloud computing, different users’ applications or work tasks are individually run and don’t affect each other. In addition, many applications or work tasks in cloud computing are designed and executed as Internet or web services. According to the structure of cloud computing, the user’s operating system (OS) or application can run on virtual machines (VMs).

In this paper, the RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System is proposed. The proposed design scheme includes a modular creation procedure based on education theory. Each section and step of the education course can be designed as a game branch or scenario of the entire learning game.

According to the proposed system, the main contributions are:

1) Based on RFID technology, each game-learning user can be individually identified. The information and playing progress can be recorded individually. In other words, the individual continuous assessment of a game-learning player can be captured. The information between a user’s RFID tag and the remote database can be exchanged and synchronized. In addition, since the learning progress is digital and can be stored in a database, the teacher or director can observe the ability and potential of an individual student.

2) Different games corresponding to specific education sections are developed according to the proposed creation procedure and can be integrated into a single larger game platform. Furthermore, due to the utilization of RFID and a remote server, the information of each game player can be accessed and recorded into the individual RFID ID-card. In other words, after each individual playing or learning session, the designed game can be initialized for the next player. Therefore, the learning game maintenance expenses can be reduced.

3) Based on the proposed system and previous research [18], game-learning designers can follow a standardized and modular scenario or a branch creation procedure of game-learning based on education theory.

4) The learning game is easy to use. Even a primary student with finite IT knowledge can play the learning game. In addition, according to the design and the principle of vertical curricular organization, the interest level of each player can be enhanced and maintained. The player can change and be influenced unobtrusively and imperceptibly into further learning. The player or student who has the potential can be discovered.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.

Section 2 introduces the proposed standardized and modular game-learning procedures for the RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System in Cloud regarding the educational content and course..

Ming-Shen Jian, Tien-Chi Huang, Shu Hui Hsu, & Marcus Banasik

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Section 3 presents the integration of the game-distance-learning system, the cloud system, and RFID. The verification and implementation results are discussed in Section 4. The conclusion is given in Section 5.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RFID-BASED MODULAR ROLE PLAYER GAME-DISTANCE-LEARNING SYSTEM

Since game-learning has many advantages presented

by Hsu (2009), in order to adaptively design the game-learning system, the mission or solution of each designed game branch or scenario should correspond to

the objective of the educational content. Hsu (2009) proposed that the game designer should follow these five elements of education theory:

1. Demarcate students’ initial ability. 2. Teaching content or material. 3. Real teaching action or activity. 4. Evaluation. 5. Reward.

Figure 1 presents the procedure and structure of designing the learning game analogous to the educational teaching procedure. The term Act indicates the educational content is translated into the content or story of the game. Some elements of the educational teaching procedures overlap the same steps of game design procedures.

Figure 1. Design flow and structure comparing the educational teaching procedure and the game design procedure

In this paper, a mission, game branch, or scenario of

the game is also called a game unit. In other words, each sub-set of teaching content corresponds to an individual game unit. After creating a game unit, each unit can be individually played as a small e-learning game or integrated into a larger game with other game units. To create the game unit, the designer has to do the following:

1) Develop the scenario or drama of the game unit. According to the design tool, several scenes or events of the entire scenario called Acts can be connected or integrated.

2) The designer can separate the drama into several scenes (partitions of the scenario). Each Act consists of characters, music, and mission events which are determined according to different conditions and backgrounds.

3) The design of mission events or objectives of a scene follows the demand or achievement of the teaching content.

4) Each scene will be tested to confirm that all the material and events in the scene match the objectives or achievements of the teaching content.

5) Several different scenes are then integrated into one game unit.

After creating a game unit, each unit can be individually played as a small e-learning game or integrated into a larger game with other game units. In each act, several events can be constructed and the trigger conditions can be set. The events in the game-distance-learning system are based on the materials of the educational teaching content. For example, the event can be a game-document or game-object which indicates or represents the educational teaching content such as a paint or mathematical function. The trigger conditions can be designed according to the players’ level and ability. In other words, the trigger conditions are the same as the educational demarcation of students’ initial ability before the start of teaching. Figure 2 presents the concept of the modular scenario design procedure for game-learning. The entire scenario, a game unit, can be divided into one or several Acts. The educational context is then translated into the content or story of the Act.


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Figure 2. The standardized and modular e-learning game unit creation procedure

Game players should make characters which

represent themselves fit together with the trigger condition. Then, the event, Act, or partition of the game story can begin. In other words, each partial game can be a sub-mission of training for the player’s character which equals the same training for students. In addition, if a player wants to complete the mission (partial-game or partial story), some on demand conditions of the mission should be tested which is the same as the evaluation of teaching. Hence, every partial-game not only trains but also evaluates the character in the e-learning game mission.

Based on the vertical curriculum organization and game playing process, each partial game or Act should correspond to the principles which include: learning (1) from simple to complex; (2) from familiar with to not familiar with; (3) from concrete to abstract; (4) from whole to part; (5) from the past to now; (6) precondition study first; and (7) concept association method. Thus, players could progress through the game step by step without frustration and depression. Furthermore, the potential of an individual player or learner can be enhanced. Figure 3 shows the integration of vertical curriculum organization principles and game design.

Simple

Complication

Concrete

Abstract

Single concept

Multiple concept

Figure 3. The integration of vertical curriculum organization principles and game design

When a player starts the proposed learning game, the domain or category of the game should be manually selected first. Then, according to the level of the player’s character, only the suitable games or stories can be triggered. The e-learning game evaluates the player according to past records. If the on demand conditions of the mission completion cannot be satisfied,

it means that the player fails to finish or complete the current mission. If they are satisfied, there will be a reward for the player such as a character level upgrade, obtaining new or finite items, etc. At the same time, the current information and continuous assessment can be updated for that player.


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According to the teaching playing flow, a student should be evaluated that the course is suitable or not. Similarly, a player should be evaluated that the game category is suitable or not.t. Only when the player or student fits the on demand requirements can the game begin.

Teaching events will be given to the student step by step according to the following education theory: 1) give rise to student’s motivation. Then, 2) the student will be given a goal of this course similar to the on demand mission completion conditions of the game. 3)

A student will be trained, taught, and examined. 4) Only when the student passes the examination which is similar to the player satisfying the mission conditions of the game, the student can be identified as one who possesses the knowledge of this course. Then, students could keep learning this way again and again. Figure 4 shows the playing flow analogous to teaching flow as defined in education theory. In other words, each Act of the learning game designed according to the proposed procedure in this paper follows education theory.

Figure 4. Playing flow analogous to teaching flow

INTEGRATION OF THE GAME-DISTANCE-LEARNING SYSTEM, THE CLOUD SYSTEM, AND RFID TECHNOLOGY

Since the RFID systems today are popular and ripe

for distinguishing individual targets [5-7], the unique characteristic or identification of RFIDs can be the solution for the continuous assessment of an individual system user. When an independent RFID tag approaches the RFID antenna, the initiation between the RFID tag and the antenna occurs. The information and content recorded in the tag is transmitted to the RFID antenna and translated into computational data. Following the data translation, tag recognition can be completed and related applications are presented.

Based on RFID, when the user wants to start the proposed learning games, the user has to provide the RFID card (RFID tag) for identification. The user information management of the learning system on the user side can obtain the information and parameters from the RFID tag via an RFID reader. All of the information of the individual user is recorded both in the database and the RFID tag. The information recorded in the RFID tag will be sent to an authorization procedure in the cloud for user recognition and synchronization. Then, the learning characteristics and parameters of the user recorded in the remote database can be transmitted to the learning game.

In the cloud system, each valid user will be assigned a virtual machine established in the cloud. The game-distance-learning system is initialized every time a virtual machine is assigned to a user. The characteristics of an individual user will be embedded into the proposed RPG game. In other words, different users accessing the game server in the cloud can obtain the same, initialized RPG game procedure. When a user is recognized by an authorization procedure, the user will be redirected to the remote virtual machine established in the cloud. According to the parameters of an individual user recorded in the cloud database, an individual user can obtain their individual state of learning in the proposed system. When a user saves their progress of the learning game or leaves the system, the learning state and the characteristics of each user are obtained by an user information management procedure and recorded in the cloud database. Therefore, via the Internet, the system user can obtain the game-distance-learning service anytime and anywhere.

The virtual machine is the platform for executing the designed educational game. In this paper, since different Acts can be integrated as one RPG game, the designed RPG game can be executed as an application or a procedure. Therefore, the proposed system can be embedded into the virtual machine. Since the virtual machine in the cloud is an image file in reality, excluding the information of individual user, the virtual machine can be repeatedly initialized and used. In other words, a user just needs to use the RFID tag and connect to the Internet without any further configuration. Furthermore, the cost of hardware used for the proposed


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system can be reduced. In addition, via the cloud, different users who connect to individual virtual machines can use the proposed game-distance-learning

system at the same time with their individual learning state. Figure 5 shows the structure of the proposed system.

Figure 5. The structure of the proposed system.

When the player finishes a mission or wants to quit

the RPG learning game, the information, characteristics, and current rate of progress will be recorded. Therefore, every time the player stops using the RPG game, the current learning state of individual user will be recorded. Based on the design of the RPG game, there are two events that the system should trigger the user information management procedure for data recording: 1) user finishes a mission; 2) user manually saves the game or quits the game. In the first event, since the playing flow provides choices for continuing the challenge, whether the user chooses yes or no, the learning game system automatically triggers the user information management procedure. The current

information of the player is recorded. In other words, after a user finishes a mission, the information and characteristics of the player will be updated. In the second event, the game provides the selection list for saving or quitting, a player who selects either to save the game or quit the game will trigger the user information management procedure. Since the learning progress, even without finishing, may cause the characteristics of the player to change from the start of the mission, the information for each user has to be updated. Then, the user information management procedure updates the information to the database and to the RFID tag of player. Figure 6 presents the information update flow.

Start

Learning Game

Game Saving

Game Quitting

Mission Complete

Information Updating

Database User RFID

YES NO

Information Updating

Database User RFID

End

Figure 6. Information update flow. VERIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS

In this paper, a game design tool, RPG maker XP, is selected to design the game which represents the teaching course in primary school. Four main activities: rectangle, parallelogram, triangle, and trapezoid, are implemented as the Acts (game missions) for primary


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students. Based on the vertical curriculum organization, the four learning games should be connected according to their priority. The first game unit is rectangle. The second is the parallelogram. Then, triangle is the third plot. And trapezoid is the last one. In this experiment, all the primary students do not have the basic knowledge of the teaching content. Only when a student’s properties or characteristics fit with the on demand condition, the next higher level game mission, which indicates more complexity or more multiple concepts, is triggered. In other words, the properties of an individual student must meet the lowest requirement of the new Act (game mission). Thus, a student (game player) could play and learn the game step by step.

To enhance the convenience of RFID use, appropriate RFID systems and deployments are important. The frequency of the RFID system used can be classified as LF (low frequency, 125-134KHz), HF (high frequency, 13.56 MHz), and UHF (ultra high frequency, 915MHz). Furthermore, there are different antenna sizes of the RFID systems. Due to the power and size characteristics of the RFID antenna, the induction distance between the antenna and the tag changes. For normal use and to keep the security of the RFID initiation, the HF system with limited power for on demand induction and distance can be a good solution.

In the implemented game of the proposed system, the student will play a virtual role for the game mission processing. Only the appearance of each virtual role between different users (player) in each RPG game is the same. Different game missions are playable corresponding to the abilities and characteristics of an individual user. Figure 7 shows a screen shot of the game. Every player begins at the same entrance. Based on the evaluation results of an individual user, the appropriate game missions can be triggered.

Figure 7. Screen shot of the game.

The experiment results are shown as Table I where

M is the average (mean), S is the value of the root-mean-square, F indicates the statistical degrees of freedom, p indicates the significance level, and t is the statistical t value. The achievement test is based on four subjects: rectangle, parallelogram, triangle, and trapezoid in this game and verification. Every student is tested twice to determine the level of problem solving. A pre-test exam is given before a primary student plays the proposed learning game. Afterward, a post-test exam is given after each student plays the designed game for 40 minutes. According to a SPSS software analysis, the problem solving abilities of the students are obviously improved (p<.05). In other words, by playing the designed game, the students indeed learn the skills to solve the problems in a paper-exam.

Table I. Statistical experiment resultS of THE difference between pre-test and post-test

Subject M S t F p

rectangle -0.67 1.38 -3.70 57 .000

parallelogram -0.88 1.41 -4.73 57 .000

triangle -0.51 1.21 -3.23 57 .002

trapezoid -1.38 1.63 -6.44 57 .000

Each subject in this test contains four questions

which are used to evaluate what students leant from the game. Table II shows the analytical results, which reveal that the learners’ correct answer rate has obvious increase with the assistant of the proposed system. The average ratio of correct answer can be increased from 65.5% to 82.25% in rectangle and 8% to 42.5% in trapezoid. In other words, average ratio of correct answer increases around 12.75% to 33.5%. It is showed that students made progress in each subject after playing the game.

Table II. The analytical results associated with correct answer rate

Average numbers of correct answer percentage Pretest Rectangle 2.62 65.5% Parallelogram 0.93 23.25% Triangle 0.50 12.5% Trapezoid 0.32 8%

(Continuous)


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Posttest Rectangle 3.29 82.25% Parallelogram 1.81 45.25% Triangle 1.01 25.25% Trapezoid 1.70 42.5%

DISCUSSION

The findings of this study provide details and direct

information of the proposed RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System in Cloud. Most learners (players) in the proposed system can understand and memorize the learning materials, especially the functions for calculating the measure of area. Without the assistance of teacher, students can follow the scenario and develop their abilities to solve the problems or stages of mission designed in game scenario. By the proposed system, the studies proposed by Randel (1992) and Prensky (2001) can be proved. In addition, after playing the proposed game-learning system, the students have high motivation for continuously playing (learning) even advanced courses (Bowmaw (1982), Braccy (1992)). Due to that the proposed system is established in cloud, each student can achieve the object of learning anytime and anywhere without teachers. The teaching materials can be translated from books to multimedia scenarios. Especially, since the scenario is modular, the designers of the proposed system are not limited to minority teachers. All the possible designers can design their own scenario or Act and assist in integration of the whole learning system (Hsu (2009)).

CONCLUSION

In this paper, a RFID Based Remote RPG Game-Learning System is proposed to provide a learning game based on education theory and vertical curricular organization integrating RFID technology. Each game-learning user can be identified. The information and playing progress can be recorded individually in the database and the RFID device. The learning game is easy to use. Even a primary student with finite IT knowledge can play the learning game. The experimental results also show that students actually learn the teaching content from the designed game and have obvious progress in the test. Additionally, by using RFID technology, the individual continuous assessment for each student can be enhanced.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors greatly appreciate the financial support provided by Taiwan’s National Science Council, the Republic of China under contract No. NSC 100-2511-S-025 -002 -MY2.

REFERENCES Amazon. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon

EC2). http://aws.amazon.com/ec2 Bowmaw, R.F.(1982). A Pac-Man theory of motivation:

Tactical implications for classroom instruction. Educational Technology, 22(9), pp. 14-17.

Braccy, G.W. (1992). The bright facture of integrated

learning system. Educational Technology, 32(9), pp. 60-62.

Christensen, J. H., (2009) Using RESTful Web-Services and Cloud Computing to Create Next Generation Mobile Applications, OOPSLA 2009, pp.627-633.

Hsu, S.-H. and Jian, M.-S., (2009) Digital and Modular Design Scheme based on education theory in RPG Learning Game, Proc. ICACT’09, pp.1733-1737.

IBM. IBM Cloud Computing. http://www.ibm.com/ibm/cloud.

Jian, M.-S., Wu, C.-C., and Chou, T. Y., (2011) Environmental Affection Based RFID Potential Bio-Disease Tracking/Tracing System, WSEAS Transactions on Systems, Vol. 10, Issue 2, pp.38-48.

Microsoft. Azure Services Platform. http://www.microsoft.com/azure/default.mspx.

Oracle. Oracle AMIs on Amazon's EC2. http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=205.

Prensky, Marc., (2001) Digital Game-Based Learning Randel, J. M., Morris, B. A., Wetzel, C. D., and

Whitehill, B. V., (1992). The Effectiveness of Games for Educational Purposes: A Review of Recent Research. Simulation & Gaming Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 261-276

AUTHORS

Ming-Shen Jian is currently an assistant professor at the Dept. of Computer Science and Information Engineering of the National Formosa University in Yunlin County, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from National Sun Yet-Sen University in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, in 2007. He earned his B.S. degree in Electronic and Control Engineering at the National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu

City, Taiwan, in 2000. Dr. Jian hosts several cloud computing projects with the Ministry of Education. His current research interests are in the areas related to the integration of RFID systems, e-learning, game for learning, and cloud computing. [email protected]

T. C. Huang is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Information Management, National Taichung University of Science and Technology in Taichung, Taiwan. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from National Sun Yat-sen University and National Cheng Kung


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University in Taiwan in 2005 and 2009 respectively. Dr. Huang hosts several National Science Council projects on science education in Taiwan and his research interests focus on e-learning development, knowledge management, user behavior analysis, and artificial intelligence. [email protected]

Shu Hui Hsu is currently a teacher at the Sanchi Elementary School in Hsinchu County, Taiwan from 2002. She received her M.S. degree in Information Systems and Applications at the National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, in 2006. She earned her B.S. degree in Education at the National Hsin Chu Teachers College in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, in 2001. Mrs. Hsu hosts several information science teaching projects. Her current research

interests are in the areas related to the integration of RFID systems, e-learning and game for learning. [email protected]

Marcus A. Banasik is currently the Executive Vice President of Operations with Nexus Solutions Group in the Washington, DC area. He earned his M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and Ph.D. degree in Systems and Engineering Management from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas in 1996 and 2009 respectively. He received a dual B.S. degree in Operations Management and Decision Sciences from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1994. His

research interests include Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. [email protected]


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The Effect of Teaching Strategy for Teacher Learning – From Conventional Classroom to Virtual Web 2.0 Platform

Jen-Ya Wang*, Jr-Shian Chen*, Chun-Chin Wang**, and Ching-Mei Cheng***

*Department of Computer Science and Information Management, Hungkuang University

**Center for Teaching and Learning, Hungkuang University

***Department of Applied English, Hungkuang University

Abstract The advancement of web technologies has encouraged a great number of studies concerning e-learning, in which

students can access learning resources at any time anywhere. Although such technologies can motivate students’ learning and improve their learning outcomes, one of the keys to successful e-learning depends on teachers who can adopt these new technologies and adapt themselves to new teaching platforms. With only a few researches emphasizing teachers’ learning outcomes on the issue of conventional classrooms to a modern Web 2.0 platform, the study aims to investigate how teachers with different information literacy levels acquire new technologies and how strategic teaching influences their learning outcomes. Given that, experiments and interviews were conducted for teachers with different information literacy levels. The experimental results show that teachers with higher level of information literacy can achieve better outcomes no matter what teaching strategies are applied, and teacher with intermediate level of information literacy can benefit from adjusted teaching strategy fairly. However, for the teachers with lower level of information literacy, the results suggest that the lower information literate teachers are insensitive to the changes in adapting themselves to new technologies. Keywords: Information literacy, adult education, Web 2.0, learning outcome

INTRODUCTION

With the advancement of information technology and broadcasting media, technology has shaped the ways we do things in all aspects, and education is definitely no exception. Teachers nowadays are fully aware that being an educator today means facing constant reform in an ever-changing environment, and they face more challenges than ever in terms of instructional methods, curricula, instructional settings, and the roles they have to play. As the 20th century was known as “Information Age,” the 21st century is considered “Information Processing Age” (Akarsu, 2011). To cater for changes and evolution, teachers are required to be equipped with new technology skills to facilitate teaching, which has also become the biggest challenge for teaching effectiveness in the 21st century (Wen & Shih, 2008). The conventional way of instruction is no longer sufficient, and technologies offer vast opportunities in learning. With such trend uprising, studies in Web 2.0 have been the focus among a substantial amount of research (Gray, Thompson, Sheard, Clerehan, & Hamilton, 2010; Ingrid, Wijnen, & Jadin, 2010; Luo, 2010).

For teachers who haven’t been familiar with information technologies, learning to incorporate technologies and information skills into teaching might be a huge task because competence in technologies requires a fair amount of information literacy. As we have had active programs to foster teachers’ information literacy and related skills, the results of those programs, however, are poor. Therefore, the question of how to incorporate effective teaching strategies in enhancing

teachers’ information literacy is of great concern. While there is a significant academic interest in exploring the issues of information literacy and student learning outcomes, little attention has been paid to how information literacy can be taught to in-service teachers effectively and appropriately. As technologies evolves, the focus of information literacy of teacher education changes with it. And, improving information literacy of teachers effectively and efficiently requires well-designed interventions.

Unlike most related studies focusing on student learning outcomes, this study aims to find out how information literacy can be adequately, effectively, and efficiently taught to in-service teachers with different levels of information literacy. The results show that the adjusted teaching strategy in the Web 2.0 courses cannot benefit some of the participants, especially for those who have lower level of information literacy. With participants from various fields of studies, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why the adjusted teaching strategy did not work on all of them as we have expected. The primary interest of the study focuses on the need to raise information literacy levels among the in-service teachers, especially for those who have difficulty acquiring information related skills so they can actively, effectively, and efficiently contribute to their teaching. It is hoped that the findings can be beneficial to teachers responsible for planning course work in teacher education in Taiwan because teachers are one of the most crucial factors in determining student learning outcomes(Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).


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RELATED THEORIES AND PROBLEM DEFINITION

In this section, the relevant works of literature are described, which includes information literacy, learners’ cognition, and teacher education. Then, the problem is briefly described, and a hierarchy chart of this research is shown.

Related Theories

Information literacy Among the definitions of information literacy from

different perspectives, the American Library Association (ALA) in 1989 proposed that information literacy is “a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” Information literacy competency enhances an individual’s intellectual ability in reasoning and critical thinking, as well as in constructing a practical framework for learning, and will ultimately contribute to one’s lifelong learning skills. Given that, information literacy competence is necessary knowledge and skills that would effectively, efficiently, and appropriately assist teachers’ teaching (Lee, Lu, Yang, & Hou, 2010; Liu, Ho, & Song, 2011; Luo, 2010; Wen & Shih, 2008).

Learners’ cognition Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) pointed out that

scaffolding theory was derived from Vygotsky’s learning theory, which emphasizes that children’s internal learning relies on the assistance from adults and peers with higher level of comprehension ability, and that such help should be built on learners’ cognitive characteristics. Vygotsky (1978) believed that human cognition is developed through internalizing and self-regulating social experiences. In terms of teaching and learning, learners develop learning strategies by the interactions with the members of community through communication and negotiation, and then gradually reach the goal of learning. The interactions within the learning community can inspire and encourage learning and therefore should

be taken as foundation for extended activities. That is, the related activities designed for learning should be based on learners’ background knowledge. Furthermore, the theory emphasizes that the process of learning is supported by coordination and assistance from teachers. Gradually, with the enhancement of learning, learners are more capable to be in charge of learning, and the responsibility of learning would then shift from teachers to learners themselves. Through the process of responsibility transfer, learners construct cognition themselves. In sum, the purpose of scaffolding is to assist learners to develop learning strategies through verbal or non-verbal guidance and learning independence by learning responsibility transfer.

Moderating and teacher education As Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) pointed out,

teachers are the driving force in determining how education is carried out in classrooms, and teachers’ practices in classrooms are closely related to learners’ performance. Schoenfeld (1989) emphasize that teachers’ in-class practices greatly influence learners’ beliefs. More importantly, learners’ beliefs can be improved with positive influence from teachers (Regna & Dalla, 1992). Teachers do play a singificant role on determining the effectiveness of educational activities and systems. Research (Johnson, 1996; Tardy & Snyder, 2004) suggested that teacher education should provide opportunities for teachers (both in-service and pre-service) to reflect on and articulate what they actually do in the classrooms. An effective teacher tarining should therefore help discover teachers’ problems and assist them to develop possible solutions to their difficulties.

Problem Definition

Based on the literature review, the following two hypotheses are established: 1) Teachers’ information literacy and learning outcomes are positively correlated; 2) Adjusted teaching strategies should provide better learning outcomes for the teachers.

Figure 1: The hierarchy chart of the research.

Information Literacy (IL)

Specialized Term Utilization (STU)

Learning Outcome (LO)

Jen-Ya Wang, Jr-Shian Chen, Chun-Chin Wang, & Ching-Mei Cheng

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Figure 2: Two courses provided in this research.

Figure 1 shows the hierarchy chart of the research. The independent variable is information literacy (IL), while the dependent variable is learning outcome (LO). LO is moderated by adjusted teaching strategies of using specialized terms (STU).

PROPOSED METHOD

Two similar Web 2.0 courses are provided for the participating teachers. Teachers are free to choose any course that appears to them. According to the courses they attend, we organize teachers into three groups. It is then assumed that an adjusted teaching strategy with simplified and easy-to-understand terms would facilitate teachers’ learning outcomes. To better understand the participating teachers’ perspectives, four interviews with the participants from each level of information literacy were conducted. Interviews allow investigators to explore certain phenomenon in a holistic and natural way for “exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory” purposes (Yin, 2003).

Two Web 2.0 Courses for Teachers

As shown in Figure 2, two similar crash courses were provided in this research. One introduced the concepts of Web 2.0 and Ning, a commercial platform, by using formal specialized terms; and the other employed easy-to-understand synonyms to introduce the basics of Web 2.0 and Apture, a social website supporting Web 2.0. There were 27 teachers attending the first course (Group I), 13 attending the second course (Group II), and 16 teachers attending both courses (Group III). Their ages range from 33 to 62, and their education backgrounds include 29 Ph.D. degrees, 24 master’s degrees, 2 bachelor’s degrees, and 1 high school graduate. All of the participants are from various fields of studies, such as College of Medicine and Nursing, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and College of Engineering.

In the courses, we focused on the concept of hyperlink, Apture link (as shown in Figure 3), which focuses on the concept of connecting multiple formats and multiple resources at a time. The teacher educator directed the participants to important concepts with additional assistance from various types of teaching materials, such as videos with demonstration and images.

With some participants without webpage design experiences, it is therefore more difficult for them to comprehend more complicated concept, Web 2.0. Adjusted teaching strategies are therefore called for.

Figure 3: An example of Apture hyperlink.

We collected data with one questionnaire and two tests for each course to assess their information literacy, pre-test scores, and learning outcomes (post-test scores). All data were assessed by 5-point response scales and were evaluated with descriptive statistics. The relationships between the variables were described by the Pearson’s correlation coefficient; the effect of moderation was also examined by hierarchical regression.

Interviews

The participants, two male and two female (see Table 1), were selected from different levels of information literacy participants using purposeful and network sampling. Taped-recorded and open-ended interviews with the participants, John, Eric, Michelle, and Mary (pseudonym), were conducted in this study. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were chosen in this study. Open-ended questions were intended to allow participants to provide their thoughts and feelings without presumptions (Patton, 1990; Seidman, 1991).

Group I Group III Group II

Course 1

(Using specialized terms)

Course 2

(Using fewer specialized terms)


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Table 1 The demographic information of the interviewees.

The following interview question protocols guided

the data collection. The purpose of the interview questions was to learn about the participating teachers’ perspectives about integrating information technology into teaching, and learning difficulties in the process of acquiring information technology skills. The interview data were used to further investigate participating teachers’ perspectives with thick description.

1) Do you think the teacher educator help you understand the content?

2) How do the information technology skills help you teach in the classroom?

3) What are the learning difficulties encountered by you in the process of learning information technology skills?

RESULTS

Quantitative Results

The questionnaires used in our pilot study were reviewed by domain experts. In the pilot study, item analysis was conducted to evaluate the validity of the questionnaires. Some test items were therefore deleted. Then reliability analysis was also performed to obtain useful indication for these test items.

The item analysis was based on correlation analysis and criterion of internal consistency. In correlation analysis, deletion of a test item is decided by the product-moment score of each test item and corrected item-total correlation. As the score is greater than 0.3 (i.e., p<.05), the test item can be retained. To satisfy the criterion of internal consistency, the scores of all participants were first sorted in ascending order. Then the top 25% and the bottom 25% participants were put into two different groups so the discriminatory power (i.e., the difference between the mean scores of the two groups) for each test item could be determined. Finally, the critical ratio (CR) of each test item was computed according to its discriminatory power. Most researchers consider that a test item can be retained if its CR is greater than 3. In this sutdy, we conducted item analysis by using SPSS 13 and delete test items if CRs are smaller than 3.

The reliability (or internal consistency) of the test items is measured by Cronbach’s α coefficient. For basic research, in general, the value of α=0.8 is good enough for further research. As for some exploratory studies, α=0.7 is commonly acceptable. In our research, α=0.913 indicates that there is an excellent internal consistency.

Table 2 Correlation coefficient.

IL LO IL 1 LO 0.46 1

Table 2 shows the relationships between the

variables. A positive relationship between Information Literacy (IL) and Learning Outcome (LO) shows that teachers with higher literacy levels can obtain higher outcomes. The value of 0.46 is medium-high and desirable for the research.

Table 3 shows the paired-sample t-test for the scores in the pre- and post-test results. According to the results, the mean scores of Group III are 67.88 and 90.44 with t=-5.20. And, p<.001 reveals that it is statistically significant in reducing the usage of difficult-to-comprehend specialized terms. For Group I (t=-3.32, p<.01) and III (t=-3.60, p<.001), we adopt formal specialized terms. Both groups did not make much progress, which indicates that the participating teachers did not have significantly better outcome in their post-tests. On the other hand, the intended teaching strategy (i.e., fewer specialized terms) is applied to

Group II and Group III. And, we expected Group II to have better learning outcome. However, it was not the case. The participating teachers with lower information literacy cannot benefit from such teaching strategy.

The results of hierarchal regression analysis are presented in Table 4. We entered the IL and Z to the equation to determine the moderating effect of LO. The results show that both variables influence each other. Moreover, the moderating effect of STU is supported by the experimental results (Adjusted R Square=0.260, p<.05).

The results of hierarchal regression analysis are presented in Table 5. We entered the IL and STU to the equation to determine the moderating effect of LO. The results show that the two variables influence each other However, the moderating effect of STU is not supported by the experimental results (Adjusted R Square=0.21, p>.1).

Name Department Age Years of Teaching Field of Specialty John Dept. of Hospitality Management 55 18 Chinese Cooking Mary Dept. of Cultural Development 50 15 Chinese Literature

Eric Dept. of Computer Science and

Information Management 45 10 Computer Science

Michelle Dept. of Child Care and Education 43 12 Early Childhood Development


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Table 3 Paired-sample t-test of the scores in the pre- and post-test results. Mean N S.D. t Group I Pre-test 66.41 27 16.15 -3.32** Post-test 74.48 27 13.63 Group II Pre-test 69.23 13 12.19 -3.60** Post-test 76.23 13 14.01 Group III Pre-test 67.88 16 21.57 -5.20*** Post-test 90.44 16 9.27 Note: **p<.01, ***p<.001

Table 4 The group I moderating effect analysis by using Hierarchal regression analysis.

Step and variable Dependent Variable

Beta Adjusted R Square F Step 1 0.04 2.19

IL 0.28 Step 2 0.26 5.58*

IL 0.58 STU 0.57

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01

Table 5 The group II moderating effect analysis by using Hierarchal regression analysis.



IL 0.38 Step 2 0.21 2.56

IL 0.14 STU 0.50

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01 Table 6 The group III moderating effect analysis by using Hierarchal regression analysis.



IL 0.72 Step 2 0.45 7.16**

IL 0.73 STU -0.05

Note: *p<.05, **p<.01

The results of hierarchal regression analysis are presented in Table 6. We entered the IL and STU to the equitation to determine the moderating effect of LO. Like Table 4, the two variables significantly influence each other and the moderating effect of STU is also supported by the experimental results (Adjusted R Square=0.45, p<.01).

To further analyze the data, t-test for the two gender groups (male and female) was conducted. The result (t=-.533, p>.05) shows that these two groups do not differ significantly. That is, the two groups of teachers had statistically equivalent abilities to learn new technologies. On the other hand, we were also curious about if older teachers outperform younger teachers in learning new technologies. The t-test result (t=1.488, p>.05) shows that these two groups do not differ

significantly. Older teachers can utilize virtual Web 2.0 platform as well as younger teachers.

Qualitative Results

Several themes are elicited from the interviews with the participants (John and Mary) from the lower level of information literacy: 1) information technologies do not relate too much to the in-class teaching, 2) information technologies are hard to acquire.

To both of them (John and Mary), it was repeatedly shown in the interviews that information technologies had become increasingly important in today’s education. However, as they also indicated that information technologies were something new to them and did not


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really apply to their in-class teaching. John [male] described that:

Generally speaking, I don’t even use e-mails. Information technology, to me, does not relate to my teaching even though I think it is an important skill in today’s education. Whenever I need to use information technology, I try to have it done by my assistants. I prefer to demenstarte the process and the steps by myself in the classes. I am just not comfortable with technology, especially when it comes to teaching. In my cooking classes, I demonstrate the skills. The hands-on practices are more important and I like to offer suggestions while my studnets practice in the classes. It would be difficult to just talk about problems … technology is quite far from my reality, and especially for my generation. As revealed in the interviews, information

technology, to a great extent, took time to develop. Both participants (John and Mary) indicated that it would take away too much time for them to be familiar with new skills if they would like to apply the skills to their teaching. Mary [female] pointed out that:

I don’t mind learning new skills for my classes. But, the fact is that the content of classes counts more if I have to choose what comes first and if I have limited time. I think information technology, to some extent, facilitates our teaching. However, I really don’t think I can devote more time for learning such unfamiliar new skills. Ideally, technology facilitates everyhting happens in our lives. But, that is for people who are comfortable with technology and who can afford to spend time learning new things... but, you never know because there might be more user-friendly applications soon. I need a very simple and easy-to-use application if I need to use it in my class. An interview with Eric, the participant from the

higher level of information literacy, was conducted. He revealed that the course was fairly easy, and more advanced materials could be added to the course. He described that:

Since I am a teacher from the Department of Computer Science and Information Management, I don’t seem to have problems understanding what is taught in the class. I really hope that the teacher could provide something more advanced so I can learn new skills to apply to my class. But, I know that most of the teachers in this program are not that into technology. It takes time for them to develop the skills and ability.

As for Michelle, the interviewee from the intermediate level of information literacy, she did not seem to have any particular thought about the program as she said that:

The class is not that difficult because the teacher educator described the concepts in easy-to-understand terms, which help me in the hands-on practice … I am not really a high-tech person. Sometimes the terms might confuse. But, with the help from the teacher, I have no problem doing the practice on my own. Personally, I still

believe that it takes time to develop new technology skills, especially for those who are not familiar with technology.

As John and Mary both agreed that the teacher educator was trying to make the content comprehensible to them. The difficulty remained as they emphasized that information technologies were not a field that they felt comfortable with. They would like to join the class to discover what it was. However, applying the skills of information technologies would be a task that remained uncertain to them. On the other hand, for those who are more familiar with technology, they (Eric and Michelle) do not seem to have problem understanding the course materials. The interviews with Eric and Michelle (from higher level and intermediate level respectively) indicate that the course materials are easy-to-understand. Eric further said that more advanced materials should be added in the course.

It can be concluded that teachers with lower level of information literacy might have limited knowledge of information technology. John and Mary admitted that it was extremely difficult for them to acquire and use information technology in their classroom teaching. It is evident that information technologies are still not a common practice for them, and technologies do not play a part in their classroom teaching. It is also interesting to find out that, in the participating teachers’ perceptions (lower level of information literacy), they believed that information technologies would facilitate their in-class teaching. Despite of so, information technologies are still not yet integrated in their classroom teaching.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSIONS

As technologies become more prevalent in the digital era, so too does the need for teachers to acquire and fine-tune their 21st century skills, including their information literacy competence. Effective interventions should develop learning experiences that are appropriately aimed at learners’ cognitive stage and at helping learners move to a higher level. In information literacy teaching, teacher educators should work toward designing interventions that are comprehensive to learners and that help enhance learners’ development levels. In this study, we examined in-service teachers’ ability to acquire and utilize web-based teachnologies as an integral part of their in-class practices. The results suggest that the lower information literate teachers are insensitive to the changes in adjusting information. The further interviews with the lower information literate teachers supported Wen and Shih’s (2008) suggestion that attitude is the most powerful force for promoting information literacy. Even both of the interviewees (John and Mary) recognized the significance of technology in today’s education, they still do not seem to adopt such skills in their in-class teaching. The gap between beliefs and practices was presented (Fang, 1996). More importantly, the lack of motivation might constrain their ability to foster new skills.

From the quantitive data, an interesting phenomenon is disclosed. The adjusted teaching startegy,


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i.e., less specilaized term utilization, was originally thought to be positively related to learning outcome. However, quantitative analysis shows that teachers with higher or lower literacy levels are not affected by this strategy much. The findings from this study provide implications for teacher educators regrarding teaching information technology skills in Taiwan. The results show that in-service teachers might still have difficulty integrating information technologies into teaching even the in-service teachers recognized the improtance of information technologies in today’s education. One of the reasons might be due to the fact that all of the participants are from various fields of studies. Different professional backgrounds require different levels of information literacy.

One of the major purposes of doing this research is to help improve the existing teacher education and design appropriate future teacher education. An effective and appropriate teacher education should be constructed on participants’ existing understandings of a given field. It is hoped that the findings related to teachers’ beliefs can help determine teachers’ decision-making and practices. Of course, one’s existing beliefs are hard to change. As Sercu (2005) suggested, teacher education is a place that can help changes happen when teachers are exposed to “beliefs that provide alternatives” (p.175). There is no one-size-fit-all solution. Instead, teachers need to be exposed to different alternatives that they can reflect upon and relate to their own contexts.

The commitment to developing technology-friendly environments is important for the well-being of teachers with different level of information literacy. It is hoped that the findings of this study could provide suggestions to teachers who are responsible for planning course work in teacher education in Taiwan because teachers greatly influence educational outcomes (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Only by doing so can we start to build on implementations that cater for appropriate expectations and practical needs from teachers.

REFERENCES

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Fang, Z. (1996). A review of research on teachers' beliefs and practices. Educational Research, 38, 47-65.

Gray, K., Thompson, C., Sheard, J., Clerehan, R., & Hamilton, M. (2010). Students as web 2.0 authors: implications for assessment design and conduct Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(1), 105-122.

Ingrid, P. H., Wijnen, C. W., & Jadin, T. (2010). Opportunities of Web 2.0: potentials of learning. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 6(1), 45-62.

Johnson, K. E. (1996). The role of theory in L2 teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 30(4), 765-771.

Lee, C. L., Lu, H. P., Yang, C., & Hou, H. T. (2010). A

process-based knowledge management system for schools: a case study in taiwan. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 9(4), 10-21.

Liu, E. Z.-F., Ho, H. C., & Song, Y. J. (2011). Effects of an online rational emotive curriculum on primary school students' tendencies for online and Real-World aggression. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(3), 83-93.

Luo, L. (2010). Web 2.0 integration in information literacy instruction: an overview. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(1), 32-40.

Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Regna, S., & Dalla, L. (1992). Affect: a critical component of mathematical learning in early childhood. In r. J. Jensen (ed.), Research ideas for the classroom: Early childhood (pp. 22-42). New York: Macmillan.

Schoenfeld, A. (1989). Explorations of students' mathematical beliefs and behavior. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 20(4), 338-355.

Seidman, I. (1991). Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and Social Sciences. New York: Teacher College Press.

Sercu, L. (2005). Teaching foreign languages in an intercultural world. In m. Byram & a. Phipps (eds.), Foreign Language Teachers and Intercultural Competence (pp. 1-18). Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.

Tardy, C., & Snyder, B. (2004). That's why i do it: flow and efl teachers' practices. ELT Journal, 58(2), 118-128.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wen, J. R., & Shih, W. L. (2008). Exploring the information literacy competence standards for elementary and high school teachers. Computer and Education, 50(3), 787-806.

Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring and problem solving. Journal of child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 89-100.

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AUTHORS

Jen-Ya Wang, assistant professor of Hungkuang University, received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan, in 2009. His current research interests include optimization algorithm design, database system design,

patent search, medical image processing, and artificial intelligence. [email protected]


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Jr-Shian Chen, assistant professor in Hungkuang University, received his Ph.D. in Information Management graduate school of management from National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, M.S. degree in Information Management from

Providence University, Taiwan. His current research interests include fuzzy time series, data mining, soft computing, and artificial intelligence. [email protected]

Chun-Chin Wang, associate professor in Hungkuang University, received both of his Ph.D. and master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. His research of interest includes bioaeosols and acrylic acid removal. Aside from his research, he also

dedicates his time in teacher education and development in the Center for Teaching and Learning at Hungkuang University. [email protected]

Ching-Mei Cheng, the corresponding author, is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Applied English, Hungkuang University, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from University of Minnesota, U.S.A. Her research of

interest includes beliefs and practice, intercultural communication, language and culture, and qualitative research. [email protected]


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“The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”---The Contestant’s

Self-regulated Cycling Learning in the Context of Agricultural Skills Competition Training in

Taiwan

Hsiang-jen Meng* and Chang-hui Hsu**

*Graduate Institute of Technological & Vocational Education, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology,

Pingtung, Taiwan **The Teacher Education Center, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Abstract The high school technical skills competition is held annually in Taiwan, and attracts many students to participate.

The purposes of skills competition is not only to review the contestant’s skill performance, but also hope to motivate the self-regulation of the contestants to prepare for future learning and career development. This study analyzed the self-determination motivation and metacognition of contestants of the 2010 Agricultural Skills Competition. The study also used the teacher-leader behavior as the mediator to exam the effects on self-regulated learning. This study conducted a census survey on 241 contestants. The data analyzed by using structural equation modeling technique. The results showed that: (1) contestants have a high level of self-determination motivation; (2) contestants presented a high degree of learning metacognition; (3) self-determination motivation has a positive impact on learning of metacognition; (4) the task-oriented and human-oriented dual-leadership has an enhancement impact on self-regulation to contestants. Therefore, the contingency empowerment of the self-regulated cycling learning became a suitable model for future skill training purposes. Keywords: skills competition training, self-regulated learning, self-determination motivation, learning of metacognition, teacher-leader behavior.

INTRODUCTION

As an old saying goes, “The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”. The achievement of the contestants requires their unremitting efforts by themselves in addition to a good coach/teacher. People generally are concerned about the contestants’ final score, while few people pay attention to the self-learning process. All contestants strive for continuous growth rather than wining the spotlight of the moment. However, the making of a contestant takes a long time, requiring good skill training as well as mental development. Skill training generally relies on the guidance of the coach, self-willing and self-learning of the contestant to achieve good performances. The key role of the coach is to guide and facilitate to each participators. In practice, the contestant and the coach are in an apprenticeship with a high level of interdependence. A good coach should be able to guide the contestant internally and externally. In other words, they should be able to teach good skills and provide necessary mental support. Therefore, the coach will teach each contestant differently according to their different characteristics. This is consistent with the definition of contingency leadership. In particular, when the contestant is facing setbacks, the double-adjusting mechanism consisting of the psychological support of the coach and the self-adjustment of the contestant will be initiated. Hence, competition is a self-challenge and a growth process to the contestant. The contestant accumulates self-efficacy,

and develops self-adjusting and problem-solving capabilities. The cognitive psychological study has confirmed that learning strategy does not include knowledge only; instead, skilling learning is a kind of embodiment of self-regulation (McKeachie, Pintrich, & Lin, 1985). The self-regulation system of the social cognitive theory contains the personal, environmental and behavioral reactions of triadic reciprocality. Personal factors include goals, self-efficacy, metacognition, etc; behavioral factors include self-monitoring, self-judgment and self-reaction; and the environment refers to the learning context. Recent studies have suggested incorporating the learning motivation into the learning strategy-related studies (Ames & Archer, 1988; Paris & Paris, 2001; Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). Many scholars support the argument that learning strategy should be discussed in the context of cognition, metacognition and motivation (Garcia & Pintrich, 1994; Pintrich, Cross, Kozma, & McKeachie, 1986). Zimmerman (2002) argued Bundura theory that self-regulated learning is constructed in the integrated framework of learning motivation, cognitive strategy and metacognitive strategy. (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1994) indicated that self-regulated learning refers to the personal activities including setting learning goals, achieving learning effects by cognitive activities and implementing metacognitive activities, such as planning, monitoring and checking for capability presentation. In sum, the learner strengthens learning effects, and modifies or adjusts learning pace and rhythm according to learning

“The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”---The Contestant’s Self-regulated Cycling Learning in the Context of Agricultural Skills Competition Training in Taiwan

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motivation, in order to constantly improve related knowledge and skills (Bonwell, Eison, & Education, 1991; Zimmerman, 2002). This is the characteristic of the contestants of “God helps those who help themselves” that each contestant should continue to improve, in order to win in competitions.

In the background of Taiwan High School Student Technical Skills Competition, this study aims to explore the contestant’s self-regulation performance and the impact of teacher-leader behavior (TLB). This contest has been held annually since 1957 with the purposes of commending excellent contestants by competitive exchange, stimulating students’ motivation to learn, helping students to understand themselves, and to establish career anchoring in the future. The competition scope covers 57 occupations in industry, agriculture, commerce, household and fishery. The competition is consisted of paper-pencil test and skill operation test. The test scores are divided into the Golden Finger Award, Excellent and Runner-up. From the perspective of substantial interest, winners of the Golden Finger (first prize) and the Excellent Award can be exempted from college entrance examination in addition to a ticket to future employment, which is considerably attractive to contestants. For example, in 2009, the total number of participating contestants is up to 2,789, making the competition highly competitive. According to previous studies, competition experience is the best way to inspire individuals’ potentials and self-presentations. In particular, competition experience can help contestants to understand the meaning of self-regulated learning(Hines & Groves, 1989a, 1989b; Redfield, 2008), as well as cultivate self-confidence, sense of honor (Boxill, 2003) and enhance self-development capabilities (Branscombe & Wann, 1991; Cecchini et al., 2001; Hines & Groves, 1989a). To encourage students to make good achievements, high schools select excellent teacher as coaches. The contestants and the teachers in daily life establish mutual attachment. The teacher responsible for skill training as well as other jobs, such as life care, has naturally a significant impact on the contestant. Many studies have indicated that the effects of contingent teacher-leader behavior (TLB) on student performance vary significantly (Frost & Durrant, 2003; Kenow & Williams, 1999; Koh, Steers, & Terborg, 1995; Witziers, Bosker, & Krüger, 2003). Hence, it is necessary to review the effects of TLB on the self-regulated learning in this article.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Definition of Self-regulated Learning

The concept of self-regulated learning was first proposed by Bandura (Bandura, 1977). It emphasizes the effects of individual performance expectations and cognitive factors on behavioral motivation to establish behavior-maintaining motivations, such as self-directing goal setting, self-evaluation and self-enhancement. If individuals believe a goal as meaningful and valuable, their motivations will be stimulated to fulfill the goal.

Individual motivation and satisfaction do not rely on external enhancement, but internal self-regulation mechanism as well. Therefore, self-regulation refers to the adjustment of behavior in the right time according to the observation or experience of the individual. Such a behavior is the highest level of the behavior motivations. Previous literature suggests, the concept of self-regulated learning is a learning strategy to autonomous establish, adjust and modify cognitive behaviors according to the set goals of the individual (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990; Schunk & Zimmerman, 1994; Zimmerman, 2002). In the learning process, the student set his or her goals and achieves them according to the self-developed strategy. Yet learning strategy has many facets, includes (1) cognitive strategy: memory, understanding, application and analysis; (2) self-management and control: the student can challenge difficulties, overcome obstacles and persist in finishing the courses; (3) metacognitive strategy: the student understands how to plan learning, monitor and modify the previous cognitive behaviors. Overall, self-regulated learning means that the learner can set learning goals in the learning process according to individual intrinsic motivations and study in the deemed most appropriate learning method. The individual may also adjust learning strategy according to learning progress and achievements. Hence, the learner has the internal mechanism of self-observation, self-judgment and self-reaction. Self-observation refers to the identification and recording of behaviors by sensory system; self-judgment means that the individual will compare the behaviors with preset goals; self-reaction refers to the positive and negative responses presented after the self-judgment. For example, a hardworking sports contestant ready for competition may find out that his or her achievement is close to the preset target, and may produce the psychological reaction of sprint. Such a reaction is not built upon external reward but self-determination. Hence, self-regulation contains the attitude of self-determination (Black & Deci, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2006). The two concepts are considerably consistent.

Self-determination Motivation (SDM)

Self-determination motivation (SDM) is derived from the previous cognitive evaluation theory. The theory believes that the natural inclination of the individual toward certain external job is called as the internal motivation. The stronger internal motivation can make the individual feel more capable of doing the job. On the contrary, if the individual is doing the job under coercion, the internal motivation will be less strong. Thus, the theory focuses too much on illustrating the direction of motivations, making it too rational and abstract and lacking in power of motivation. Deci and Ryan (1985) suggested that the basis of the self-motivation and personality integration in the SDM theory comes from the growth tendency and psychological needs of mankind. Ryan and Deci (2000) pointed out that mankind has three psychological needs, including competence, autonomy, and relationship needs.

Hsiang-jen Meng, & Chang-hui Hsu

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Competence means the level of the control by the individual over the external environment; autonomy refers to the level of the internal control of the individual; relationship involves the level of connection between individual needs and the emotions of others. The sum of the three needs can represent the element of individual self-determination. The achievement of a goal relies on the strength of the self-determination. The stronger attitude can lead to stronger internal motivation. Hence, the internal motivation can be converted into perceived control and will power presentation. (Chirkov, Ryan, Kim, & Kaplan, 2003) proposed that the individual generates self-determined capability of aspiration according to perceptions and interests. SDM is an empirically based on organismic theory of human motivation which is internal, self-selection and self-confidence, in other words, the deep confidence in the self-determination of behaviors. The study has suggested that self-perception capability is subject to the intrinsic motivation as well as internalized extrinsic motivation (Woolfolk, Novalany, Gara, Allen, & Polino, 1995). The extrinsic motivations represent the internalized regulatory capability through the external events by the individual. Intrinsic motivation is a natural and spontaneous process. The individual may generate connections with self-value by autonomous perceptions and adjustment. The stronger internalization adjustment can lead to more complete self-integration function. Within SDM, the level of self-determination is evaluated by considering in four subscales of behavior regulation from external to internal motivation: (1) the level of external self-regulation is the lowest, which is mainly represented by external reward and punishment; (2) introjected self-regulation represents the level of good self-perception; (3) identified self-regulation suggest that self-behavior can bring instrumental value; (4) integrated self-regulation represents the consistency between individual integrated self-value and the task goals. These four types of behavior regulation can be suitable for assessment of SDM because of external regulation representing a complete lack of SDM and intrinsic motivation representing the fullest type of SDM. Therefore, the understanding of the individual self-determination level has an important linkage with the setting of behavioral goals. The low level self-determination is external and is between the adjustment and projected adjustment; the high level self-determination can be attributed to recognition adjustment and integrated adjustment as shown on Figure 1. Hence, this study measures the SDM level of contestants to identify the major sources of motivations for the competition. It can be easily found from many empirical studies that it has an impact on the follow-up study of the students (Borkowski, Carr, Rellinger, & Pressley, 1990; Sands & Doll, 1996; Veenman, Van Hout-Wolters, & Afflerbach, 2006). In other words, students of stronger SDM will have a stronger level of learning voluntariness and self-control. Hence, this study plans to understand the level of motivation of the contestants during the preparation for the competition.

Figure1. The concept of SDM

Learning of Metacognition (LM)

The formation of knowledge is the individual carries out learning activities by sensory and perception systems to form complete pictures in self-consciousness through sensing data and knowledge connection. Yet, the conditions to gain knowledge include cognitive subject (self) perceives knowledge object (meaning and content of knowledge) through sensory activities; interact with the cognitive subject (intrinsic cognitive function) to form knowledge. Cognition is a concrete presentation of the internalization capability of the subject, and knowledge is the product of mental power. Once knowledge is established in the internal cognitive system, it enters into the self-regulated cognitive world after leaving the sensory and conscious systems (Pressley, Ross, Levin, & Ghatala, 1984). From the perspective of social recognition, self-regulation includes the stages of self-observation, self-reaction and self-judgment. For example, the contestant can learn skills through the demonstration of the coach and complete learning by copying the actions of the coach. Natually, by self-judgment and assessment, the learning effects can be robustness. This behavior is also known as the self-efficacy learning. The scope for discussion is similar to that of the metacognitive theory. Flavell (1976) proposed the metacognition as a cognitive dynamic process of individual perception of knowledge strategy. The individual can actively monitor and adjust his or her own cognitive process as defined as metacognition. Metacognition is not only a basic cognitive activity; but it means a capability or mental power of knowing how to do. Since continuous thinking will occur in the internal cognitive system of each individual, it is the capability to control, manipulate existing knowledge to achieve the goal of monitoring and manipulating perceived knowledge (Nelson, 1996; Nelson & Narens, 1994). Hence, it contains the dual interaction of self-monitoring and control. Hyde and Bizar (1989) suggested that metacognition is a learning process of self-control to solve problems through self-planning, self-monitoring, self-doubt and self-adjustment. The integrated metacognition means that learner’s capabilities regarding the plan, monitoring, assessment and modification of learning including metacognitive knowledge (MK) and experience (ME). MK refers to explicit or hidden knowledge, concept, and faith, as well as the learning knowledge strategy (Flavell, 1979). ME as known as concurrent metacognition emphasizes the integration process of senses and perceptions of the individual,


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namely, the use of senses and perceptions to strengthen knowledge understanding to generate learning intentions (Efklides, 2002). Such intentions can be negative or positive. For example, the student may have good learning achievements and easily have higher level of satisfaction regarding interesting learning contents, and are willing to go on learning. Brown (1987) divided MS into “cognitive knowledge” and “cognitive adjustment”. Cross and Paris (1988) argued that cognitive knowledge includes descriptive (know what), procedural (know how) and conditional knowledge (know when). Cognitive adjustment includes planning, monitoring, and assessment. Therefore, this study defines LM as the comprehensive capabilities of the contestant obtained in the preparation for the competition including cognitive knowledge and cognitive adjustment.

Relevant literature has pointed out that metacognition plays an important role in learning (Anderson & Nashon, 2007; Georghiades, 2004). According to relevant research, in the learning of abstract logic concepts, if the thinking of metacognition can be integrated into the academic contents, the student can be more persistent in learning contents of the future (Koriat, Ma'ayan, & Nussinson, 2006). The application of the metacognition learning strategy in self-oriented learning can result in concrete achievements. Hence, it can be concluded that individuals of stronger self-adjustment learning capabilities have higher capability of solving the problem. In other words, they will have better adaptability to the future (Dominowski, 1990; Schoenfeld, 1992). The learning of metacognition is a significant topic in this study, and is treated as another important variable.

Teacher-leader Behavior (TLB)

Leadership is the behavior that leads a group to the common goal of its members. Leadership simply means that the leader is to lead or show the direction to group members. Since 1980s, most modern leadership theories focus on the interaction between the leader and the members in the same organization. The two parties establish mutually matching relationship by different levels of leadership models. Bass (1990) argues that leadership is a kind of interaction between two or more members of a group. Such interactions generally involve scenarios, the member expected perception building or restructuring to improve or achieve the organizational goals. The Bureau of Business Research of Ohio State University has proposed the two-tier leadership theory. The research team believed that the leadership has to combine a situation variable rather than building a single model. Different leadership models should be applied in different cases. Hence, the two-tier leadership model was proposed to consist of the task-oriented and human -oriented leadership. At the same time, the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) was designed and developed to measure the degree of initiating and consideration leadership. The leadership can be divided into four matrices dependent on the degree of task-oriented and human-oriented leadership.

The relevant studies have suggested, human-oriented behavior has a significant impact on job satisfaction and morale of teachers while task-oriented initiating are closely related to job performance and efficiency (Laschinger, Wong, McMahon, & Kaufmann, 1999; Weisband, 2002). These arguments have been commonly discussed in learning performance-related research (Baba & Ace, 1989; Di Vesta, 1954; Heck, Larsen, & Marcoulides, 1990). This result is heuristic to leadership practice although such a discovery is criticized. Literature has pointed out that fixed leadership model is not the optimal way of management (Norris & Vecchio, 1992). (Fiedler, 1964) indicates there is no such a leadership model that can be applied universally. In other words, leaders should take into consideration the situations they are faced with. Hence, the leader should design appropriate management model to gain maximum organizational performance according to existing situation. In principle, the situational variables include leader (l), fellow (f) and situation (s). The function is L=f (l, f. s). Contingency leadership theory is to illustrate that the leader should choose appropriate leadership method with full understanding of contingent changes (Kerr, Schriesheim, Murphy, & Stogdill, 1974). This study defines TLB in the one-on-one apprenticeship situation to explore the level of acceptance of the contestants of the alternative task-oriented and human-oriented dual- leadership of the teacher. By reviewing relevant literature, it is found that most studies on TLB are related to organizational spirit and employee working performance. The effects of TLB on the psychology of contestants are seldom explored. Some literature points out that situational TLB has an adjusting function on working performance (Cummins, 1971; Kerr et al., 1974; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Ahearne, & Bommer, 1995). However, some studies have pointed out that initiating and consideration leadership approaches can serve as the mediator (Kriger & Seng, 2005; Neubert, Kacmar, Carlson, Chonko, & Roberts, 2008; Ross Jr, Conlon, & Lind, 1990). Hence, this study attempts to use the dual leadership as the mediators and review the relevant effects on the self-regulation performance of the contestants.

RESEARCH METHOD

According to research hypothesis model as presented in Figure2, the independent variable (predictor) is SDM and the dependent variable (criterion) is LM. The dual mediating variables are initiating-oriented and task-oriented leadership. The tentative model is trying to identify the mutual impact of contestants’ SDM and LM. If we can confirmed this relationship means that the contestants’ self-determination stronger, the more influence to their future studying. At the same time, the mediator of TLB may result in the path changes on the relationship between SDM and LM. On the other hands, if the tentative model be made sure then it means that the learning of self-regulated cycling has already initiated to students. So that, we believe that the self-regulated cycling learning will help student to adapt the learning


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challenge in the competition circumstance. It also believes that self-regulated cycling learning will become a suitable model for future skill training purpose. The research hypothesized that:

H1: the proposed research model has a goodness-of-fit. H2: SDM has a positive related to LM. H3: TLB has a mediated effect on the SDM and LM.

This study conducted a questionnaire survey to explore the correlation between the SDM, LM and TLB. Yet, TLB as a mediator is to exam whether different leadership approaches will affect the relationship between SDM and LM. The hypothesis model was established based on intensive theoretical review to develop the questionnaire items. The SDM is composed of the external, introjected, identified, and integrated regulation with a total of 13 questions. The LM includes 9 questions in the cognitive knowledge and cognitive adjustment. Finally, regarding the students’ response to the leadership behavior of the teacher, 10 questions were applied based on the LBDQ instrument. The questionnaire was scored by using a seven-point Likert scale with strong disagree to strong agree. A total of 264 contestants from 21 schools were surveyed and 241 valid samples were retrieved (91.3%). As we intended to analyze a hypothetical mode, traditional path analysis cannot effectively and comprehensively examine the structural relation (casual relation) between factors (latent variables) (Byrne, 2001). This study thus applied the SEM as the analysis method. The statistical software SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 17.0 were the analytical tools of this study. The SEM analysis procedure was: (1) examine if the hypothetical model is accepted by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), (2) examine the latent relation and model fit of SEM, and (3) conduct path analysis.

Figure2. Research Framework

ANALYTICAL RESULTS

Participants

The participants of this study comprised 241 with 113 male (46.9%) and 128 female (53.1%) in census

survey. By competition category, the contestants in the food processing competition are the most (17.4%) and in the forestry and agricultural mechanics are the least. Regarding the technical-skill certificate holding rate, most of the contestants hold two certifications and few contestants have no certificate at all. It can be concluded that certification is one of the major criteria in selection of contestants from schools. From the results of competition, winners of Golden Finger account for only 19%, and up to 49% of the contestants fail to win any prize, representing that the competitive is quite fierce. Other data are as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Agricultural Skills Competition’s Contestant Background

Variables f %

Gender Male 113 46.9Female 128 53.1

Competition category

Agricultural economics 22 9.1Horticulture 36 14.9Gardening 30 12.4Husbandry Healthcare 29 12.0Food processing 42 17.4Agricultural mechanics 12 5.0Forestry 12 5.0Bio. electro-mechanics 20 8.3Food analysis 38 15.8

(continued)

No. of skill certification

none 24 10.01 66 27.42 108 44.83 39 16.2

Winner prize Golden Finger 45 18.7Excellent Award 78 32.4Without Ranking 118 48.9

Descriptive Statistics

It was found that contestants have high-level self-determination continuum from the results of descriptive statistics (M=5.42, SD=.80). The results of one-way ANOVA and post hoc indicated that the mean score of introjected, identified and integrated regulation is higher than the external regulation (P<.001). This shows that the self-determination motivation of the contestants is not relied on external reward rather than intrinsic self-control. In other words, students generally have the ability to self-determination through the period of this competition. They are more willing to play self-motivate role to actively participate this competition based on the measure of SDM. By observing the score of metacognition, the contestants demonstrated high level recognition (M=5.79, SD=.94). The degree of cognitive knowledge is higher than the cognitive adjustment which means students know what for, know how to, and know when to need to gain their knowledge. This proves the beneficial cycle of competition process to most contestants through self-monitor and self-adjustment. Typical in long time of training processes, each contestant produces self-conscious and transfers learning strategy into self-regulated learning. In the result of surveying the acceptance of TLB, the students revealed the higher degree of acceptance of teacher leadership, especially in the life care and training requirement. Such


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dual leadership behaviors have been identified by relevant studies with high level of satisfaction about learning performance (Dawson, Messe, & Phillips, 1972; Schriesheim, 1982; Selznick, McEwan, Yukl, & VanFleet, 2010). The detail was shown on Appendix A.

Validity and Reliability of Instrument

A systematic approach to construction of tentative research model was adopted using structural equation modeling (SEM). In the first step of the analysis, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was estimated the covariance relation between the observed variables and latent variables as well as calculating the convergent and discrimination validity of the CFA model. In addition, the review of the sample data with normality is necessary. Mardia (1985) has proposed the Marida’s coefficients of multivariate skewness and kurtosis. If the Marida coefficient is smaller than the value of p(p+2) (p is the number of the observation variables), it represents that sample data are matching the multiple normality (Bollen, 1990(Bollen & Stine, 1992). Base on the testing of multivariate normality, the maximum likelihood estimation was recommended for SEM technique. (Fornell & Larcker, 1981) suggested the procedures to estimate for convergent validity. CFA shows that the factor loading of all the items is greater than 0.45, the Cronbach’s α of each subscale is in the range of .581-.935, the measure range of composite reliability (CR) is from .58-91, and the average variance extracted (AVE) is greater than .5. Having achieved convergent validity, this research model of this study is adequate (Bentler & Wu, 1993 ; Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1996). In addition, discriminant validity is estimated adequate when the variance shared between a construct and any other construct in the model is less than the variance that the construct shares with its measures. It was assessed by comparing the square root of the AVE for a given construct with the correlations between adjoined constructs (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998). The testing of discriminant validity appeared satisfactory for all constructs which means the tentative research model is adequate. The aforementioned figures show that all the observed variables in our research structure can reflect the constructed latent variables.

Model Fitness and Path Analysis

In assessing the model, this study relied on several standard fit indices to examine the sub-scalar and the overall model fit. The fitness indices such as the ratio of chi-square to degrees of freedom (χ2/df), goodness of fit (GFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSA), non-normed fit index (NNFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and incremental fit index (IFI) were calculated as Table 3. The indices indicated a satisfactory fit for the model. Goodness of fit of SEM used in this study was to prove fidelity between data model and tentative research model. Although the overall hypothesis model fitness indices have slightly dropped, they are in the acceptable range(Byrne Barbara, 2001). Thus, the research

hypothesis H1 is supported. Results of the path analysis are shown in Fig. 3, which states that the SDM has a significant positively effect on the LM (β=.8, p<.001). Furthermore, contestants of higher self-motivation have demonstrated the better knowledge control and self-adjustment skills. The research suggests that the students understand the meaning of the skill competition to individuals and are willing to control and monitor self-motivations according to relevant competition processes. Such motivations will be transfer into the self-adjustment of actively learning capabilities. It thus can be inferred that self-regulation behaviors require good metacognitive characteristics in addition to high level of self-motivation. Hence, the research hypothesis H2 is supported. The results were similar with few papers (Azevedo & Hadwin, 2005; Ruan, 2005; Schunk, 2008)The proposed hypothesis 3 stated that the teacher-leader behaviors have significant effect on both the SDM and LM via initiating and consideration strategies. Regarding the testing of mediator effect, (Byrne, 2001) suggested the SEM bootstrapping technique to exam the mediated effects is reliable. Bootstrapping uses computer intensive re-sampling to make inferences rather making assumptions about the population. Bootstrapping, in other words, treats a given sample as the population (MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002; MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004). The mediated effect can be tested for significance with an estimate of its standard error. The standard error can also be used to construct confidence intervals around the mediated effect. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are calculated by adding and subtracting the product of 1.96 and the standard error from the mediated effect. Bootstrapping generally was superior to the product-of-coefficients strategy. There were differences between the percentile and bias corrected methods, depending on the size of the paths in the model, with the percentile method generally showing a slight superiority in conditions in which the bias corrected method was slightly liberal (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). The mediator effect calculations include the direct, indirect, and total effect in this study. The total effect is the accumulated value of the direct and indirect effects. The calculation of the indirect effect is the accumulation of the product of indirect path coefficients. This study assumes that the leadership behaviors as the dual mediators on the relationship between the SDM and LM. The results suggest that direct, indirect, and total effects are all significant as shown on Table 4. Based on the above, the self-motivation and metacongnition of the contestant are in a positive correlation. The higher level of motivation leads to more actively metacognitive effects. In case of TLB mediation, the SDM has significant impact on the dual leadership approaches, but the leadership behaviors have no significant impact on metacognition. However, overall, the dual-mediator variables have a positive impact on total effects. The empirical results confirm that the dual leadership behaviors can enhance the development of


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the self-regulation learning of the contestant. In this case, if the contestant wants to make breakthrough of obstacles, he or she may turn to the coach for help to stabilize the tumbling intrinsic faith. Of courses, if the coach can give the contestant warning and care at the right time, the development of the contestant’s

self-regulation will be promoted. This kind of self-regulation learning cycle was established. The result responds to the hypothesis H3, the similar results as shown on few papers(Amorose & Anderson-Butcher, 2007; Yun, Cox, & Sims Jr, 2006).

Figure3. The proposed model’s test results.

Conclusions and Suggestions

The training course of a contestant takes time and energy. In addition to physical and psychological loads, the contestant has to turn to teacher for help. The role of the teacher as leader is to provide necessary skill training and mental support. The psychological factors of the contestant regarding the competition are also an important issue of research. The research findings suggest the internal autonomous psychological adjustment determines the willingness and learning capability of the contestant. If the contestant can effectively integrate the self-regulation, it will have an enhancement effect on future learning. This study surveys the self-regulated development of the contestants to understand the relationship between SDM and LM as well as the mediated impact of TLB on self-regulation. The findings of this research are: (1) the contestant has high level of SDM. The internal regulation is more significant than the motivation by external rewards. This also suggests that the SDM can help individuals to form beneficial learning driving force; (2) contestants have high degree of metacognitive performance, and the

cognitive knowledge is higher than cognitive adjustment. The contestant may reinterpret the meaning of learning through competition to have more positive attitude and will autonomy adjust learning pace and method. The results suggests the deep educational purposes of competition has been widely recognized by the contestant; (3) contestant’s SDM has a positive impact on metacognition, suggesting that the higher self-determination the better learning of metacognition; (4) the task-oriented and human-oriented dual leadership has an enhancement impact on self-regulation to contestants. Overall, the contestant should have positive perceptions about the competition and strong motivations. At the same time, the contestant should accept the guidance of the teacher to strengthen the self-faith and furthermore enhance overall learning efficiency. Hence, the self-regulation cycling learning deduced from the research model proposed can provide a reference to contestants training system as well as applications in other fields of learning. Finally, the conclusions of this study may confirm the saying of “The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”.

Table 3:Summary of fit indices for measurement models. Model χ2 d.f. χ2/df GFI RMSEA NNFI CFI IFISDM CFA 118.652 48 2.472 .925 .078 .902 .929 .930MT CFA 137.024 34 4.030 .896 .112 .902 .926 .927TLB CFA 123.000 26 4.731 .904 .125 .917 .940 .940Research model 386.291 100 3.863 .836 .109 .835 .863 .864


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Table4: Analysis of mediated effect Mediation Effect

Standardized Regression Weights

95% Confidence interval Boostrap percentile Boostrap with bias correction

Lower Upper Lower UpperTotal Effects .841*** 1.201 1.969 1.191 1.955Indirect Effect s .039* -2.369 -.018 -1.448 -.011Direct Effects .803*** 1.432 3.685 1.319 2.385***P<.001 *P<

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AUTHORS

Hsiang-jen Meng received his MS in engineering technology (1990) and Education Specialist (1991) from Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas, USA. In 1995, he obtained his PhD in industrial & technology education from University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, USA. He is currently an

Associate Professor in Graduate Institute of Technological & Vocational Education at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Pingtung, Taiwan, where he has been teaching human resource management, educational administration, and educational statistics. He has a strong interest in educational innovation to improve instructional strategies, such as e-learning and related application. He has published around 50 scientific and/or education papers in referred journal and conference proceedings. [email protected]

Dr. Chang-hui Hsu is assistant professor in the Teacher Education Center, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism in Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Education from Taiwan Normal University. She used to serve as section chief in the

Department of Technological and Vocational Education, Ministry of Education of the R.O.C. and was responsible for industry-academia cooperation, curriculum development of vocational education. Her areas of expertise focus on educational administration, vocational education and international education.


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Appendix A. Summary of CFA measurement (N=241) Variables M SD SFL α CR AVESelf-determination Motivation (SDM) 5.420 0.795 .831 I am very much concerned about the competition’s material reward 4.268 1.535 .625*** I am very much concerned about the competition’s personal performance 4.044 1.502 .655*** Subtotal of External Regulation 4.156 1.275 .581 .581 .410I am very much concerned about the competition’s fairness 5.973 1.194 .711*** I am very much concerned about winning the competition 5.817 1.349 .565*** I can feel what the teacher has done for me 5.450 1.468 .713*** Subtotal of Internal Regulation 5.747 1.053 .688 .704 .444Participation in the competition is helpful to my study at school 5.973 1.335 .739*** Participation in the competition is helpful to my future study 5.979 1.195 .775*** Participation in the competition is helpful to my future employment 5.481 1.345 .687*** Subtotal of Identified Regulation 5.811 1.074 .774 .778 .540I am honored to be a contestant 5.849 1.266 .634*** Participation in the competition makes me happy 5.120 1.381 .634*** Participation in the competition makes me more confident 5.512 1.247 .860*** Participation in the competition brings me more sense of accomplishment 5.575 1.238 .861*** Subtotal of Integrated Regulation 5.514 1.040 .825 .839 .571Mardia coefficient 39.876 p(p+2)=168 Learning of Metacognition (LM) 5.791 0.935 .935 I knows better than before the importance of learning 6.066 1.055 .804*** I can better understand the meanings of knowledge 6.004 1.128 .832*** I can better understand the learning skills 6.048 1.103 .923*** I knows better than before the direction of learning 5.780 1.196 .833*** Subtotal of Metacognition Knowledge 5.975 0.992 .907 .912 .721I have reviewed my learning from time to time 5.544 1.235 .774*** I have arranged my learning progress 5.438 1.238 .765*** I have been able to adjust my learning goals 5.699 1.086 .819*** I can better analyze problems than before 5.768 1.143 .828*** I can better solve problems than before 5.768 1.167 .768*** Subtotal of Metacognition Adjustment 5.643 0.981 .891 Mardia coefficient 76.177 p(p+2)=120 Teacher-leader Behavior (TLB) 5.918 0.916 .918 The teacher will accompany me in the training 5.836 1.232 .748*** The teacher will listen to my opinions in training 5.836 1.178 .817*** Me and my teacher have good interactions 5.998 1.135 .770*** My teacher will lead me out of low emotions 5.786 1.267 .787*** My teacher often encourage me 6.216 1.061 .738*** Subtotal of consideration 5.934 0.970 .893 .895 .587My teacher will make training plans in advance 5.705 1.418 .789*** My teacher will tell me the training items of the day 5.898 1.244 .735*** My teacher repeatedly requires me to practice constantly 5.880 1.276 .747*** My teacher will immediately correct my mistake 6.060 1.114 .800*** My teacher will request me to finish up practice in given time 5.961 1.109 .691*** Subtotal of initiating 5.901 0.999 .841 .843 .575Mardia coefficient 69.95 p(p+2)=120 Note: M: mean; SD: standard deviation; SFL: standardized factor loading; α: Cronbach’s α; CR: composite reliability; AVE: average of variance extracted. ***p<.001


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Authors Index

Chang-hui Hsu 31 “The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”---The Contestant’s Self-regulated Cycling Learning in the Context of Agricultural Skills Competition Training in Taiwan

Ching-Mei Cheng 23 The Effect of Teaching Strategy for Teacher Learning – From Conventional Classroom to Virtual Web 2.0 Platform

Hsiang-jen Meng 31 “The master teaches the trade, but the apprentice's skill is self-made”---The Contestant’s Self-regulated Cycling Learning in the Context of Agricultural Skills Competition Training in Taiwan

Chin-Yu Chang 1 An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan

Chun-Chin Wang 23 The Effect of Teaching Strategy for Teacher Learning – From Conventional Classroom to Virtual Web 2.0 Platform

Feng-Kuang Chiang 1 An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan

Horn-Jiunn Sheen 1 An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan

Hsiu-Ping Yueh 1 An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan

Jen-Ya Wang 23 The Effect of Teaching Strategy for Teacher Learning – From Conventional Classroom to Virtual Web 2.0 Platform

Jr-Shian Chen 23 The Effect of Teaching Strategy for Teacher Learning – From Conventional Classroom to Virtual Web 2.0 Platform

Marcus Banasik 13 Learning in Cloud: Developing RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System

Ming-Shen Jian 13 Learning in Cloud: Developing RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System

Shu Hui Hsu 13 Learning in Cloud: Developing RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System

Tien-Chi Huang 13 Learning in Cloud: Developing RFID Based Modular Role Player Game-Distance-Learning System

Tzy-Ling Chen 1 An Integrative Instructional Model for Talent Development of Nanotechnology in Taiwan


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International Journal of Technology and Engineering Educationijtee.org/ijtee/system/db/pdf/82.pdf · designing and exploring the whole range of designed innovations, and Design-Based