The Taiwanisation,Democratisation and Internationalisation of Higher Education in Taiwan

This article discusses how political transition affected higher education in Taiwan between 1987 and 1996. The patterns of political transition were reflected in changes in higher education, and were mediated by the state and newly emerged actors who strove for university autonomy, such as university academics and students. However, the interactions among these state and non-state actors have been complicated by such issues in broader context as party politics, national identity and relations with mainland China.     

Calling to mentor: the search for mentor identity through the development of mentor competency

ABSTRACT

There is a common assumption that experienced educators will automatically be effective mentors. My experience indicates that building competence in mentoring others requires conscious intent and effort. This article is a self-study action research account that explores mentoring practice from the mentor’s perspective. The study sets to explore the relational dynamics within mentoring relationships, with the focus of obtaining a deeper understanding of the mentor’s growth and the impact of this learning on mentor identity. Data collection was through personal reflective journals, mentoring conversations, and focus group interviews. Findings indicate that critical reflective practice can lead to transformational learning that results in personal and professional growth and improved mentor competency. Transformative learning episodes highlight significant learning points that converge to enhance personal and professional learning and contribute to the formulation of mentor identity. A conclusion drawn is that applying a personal strategic intent towards mentor development can lead to improved mentoring culture and organisational learning and growth.     

Higher Education Reform in Taiwan and Its Implications on Equality

As a result of massification of higher education and the quest for competitiveness, the Taiwanese government has adopted a series of higher education reforms since the late 1990s. While the low birthrate has become a potential threat, recent developments in higher education policies such as the Program for Developing First-Class Universities and Top Research Centers, the Incentives for Teaching Excellences, and the new Multiple Examination Program have had considerable effects on students of different gender and socioeconomic classes. Even though the expansion in higher education has enabled many students to enter universities, inequality remains, as students from different socioeconomic backgrounds are distributed to different types/ranks of universities. Students from the lower socioeconomic class are mostly concentrated in private or vocational (science and technology) universities, while students from well-off families have better chances to enter elite universities. Moreover, the gender segregation in different fields of study has not been improved as a result of the aforementioned massification. Female students are still concentrated in the humanities and social sciences and encounter more difficulties in finding jobs upon graduation. Consequently, these graduates' salaries tend to be much lower compared with their counterparts in science and technology fields. The study further argues that class and gender are actually intertwined and should not be examined separately. In addition, issues such as race and disability need to be closely examined, as the number of students with mothers from Southeast Asia and Mainland China has been significantly increasing in Taiwan these days.     

Educational psychologists: the early search for an identity

Contemporary society’s expectations of educational psychology, and of a role for educational psychologists within these expectations, were major themes of, and subtexts to, many of the papers delivered at recent annual courses of the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP). The distinctive contribution of educational psychology and a perceived “identity crisis” of its practitioners was the subject of examination in recent issues of Educational Psychology in Practice. Within this context it may be both salutary and heartening to review the aspirations of educational psychologists, during a period from the mid‐1960s to the late‐1980s, to shed their stereotype as psychometricians, and later as gatekeepers to special education, in favour of a supportive role to pupils, teachers and parents. Articles published in this journal and its predecessors are drawn upon to illustrate the earlier search by educational psychologists for a role and a status within the local government field. Reference is also made to the author’s experience of working as an educational psychologist from the early 1950s to the end of the 1980s.     

当代台湾道德教育的改革走向及其启示

阐述伴随政治、经济、社会和教育方面的变化,20世纪90年代以来的台湾学校道德教育在学科、目标、价值、内容、模式五个方面都进行了重大调整。指出改革后的台湾学校道德教育在回归生活、注重道德实践能力培养和建立健全人格的道德教育框架等方面,对祖国大陆的道德教育改革具有一定的参考价值。     

A conversation of teachers: In search of professional identity

The authors describe teacher professional identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko &; Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools, the educational space, which is their workplace. Activity theory is utilised as the broad theoretical lens and the design type and methodology are discussed accordingly. The school and the classroom are activity systems (Engeström, 1991), and social and semiotic ecosystems (Lemke, 1995). It is therefore in the tensions within the activity system that we capture and represent a constructed teacher conversation, composed of the voices of three social actors on an imaginary social stage, which is the empirical text of the article. Main findings speak to multiple roles, struggling voice and forging professional identity in the changing educational landscape.     

Five Trends of School Arts Education Reform in Taiwan

In the torrents of globalization and social transition in Taiwan, it is particularly important to reinforce a sense of cultural subjectivity and localization, and promote new trends of arts education that emphasize the development of self and spirit. The fundamental principles of these new trends are: (1) that the purpose of arts education is to cultivate students' humanistic literacy, (2) the content of arts education is developed from an interdisciplinary approach, (3) arts curriculum is predominantly constructed on and implemented within the value framework of the nuclear culture, (4) arts education has to place emphasis on an integral process of comprehensive exploration, critical reflection and creative construction, and (5) the instruction methods of arts education need to be artistic and humanistic. This article describes the contents and implications of the new trends of arts education reform in Taiwan.     

我国台湾地区中小学道德教育的嬗变

近年来,我国台湾地区学校的道德教育无论是在理念上,还是在内容和实施方式上,都发生了重大变化.道德教育不再是台湾中小学校中的一门有相对独立内容的课程,甚至"道德教育"一词在中小学教育的词汇中也很少出现.台湾学校的道德教育究竟怎么了?现有的道德教育具有怎样的特点,存在哪些富有争议的问题等等?这些都是值得我们密切关注的.     

台湾地区“十二年基本教育”改革的反思与启示

台湾“十二年基本教育”改革旨在提升公民素质,增强台湾竞争力;促进教育机会均等,实现社会公平正义;缩小教育落差,均衡城乡发展;缓解升学压力,引导学生适性发展.但自推行以来各方争议不断,反思“十二年基本教育”改革的定位、课程体系变革和学区划分与入学方式等问题,可以启示大陆教育改革加速促进教育公平,推行卓越适性教育;实现教育均衡,构建优质课程体系;实施大学区管理,建设多元化入学方案;完善教改机制,生成教育改革共同体.     

台湾地区技职教育的改革成就与现实困境

技职教育改革是伴随台湾地区教育改革进行的,是台湾教育改革的重要内容之一.经过规模扩张、升格改制、多元入学、鼓励私立办学等一系列改革,台湾技职教育多年来取得一定成就,但随着改革推进也不断暴露出一些问题,表现在生源日趋减少且素质下降,特色日渐消失,师生比恶化,入学制度改革陷入困境等诸多方面.     

Researching absences and silences in higher education: data for democratisation

Knowledge, power and democracy are being more explicitly related to higher education globally. Increasingly there are calls for cognitive justice and the development of a sociology of absences, particularly in relation to structures of inequalities and knowledge production from the Global South. The university of the future will need to be cognizant and inclusive of a broader base of constituencies. However, what appears to exist now in higher education policy is an absence of sociology, rather than a sociology of absences. This article will consider some of the silences in current thinking about the morphology of the university of the future and ask whether creative and inclusive visioning have been eclipsed by pressing economic concerns and tensions in the present. The article will draw on empirical data from the recent research project ‘Widening participation in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania: developing an Equity Scorecard’ (www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/wphegt) to exemplify how the massification of higher education can mask the maldistribution of opportunity structures. While there is a popular mythology that higher education has been hyper-modernised to respond to a rapidly changing global economy, it is often underpinned by archaic and exclusionary practices and remains the hereditary domain of the socio-economically privileged.     

台湾地区职业教育改革的新措施及对大陆的启示

由于高等教育大众化过程的加快,我国高职院校招生规模迅速扩大,逐渐暴露了一些问题。我国台湾地区实施职业教育改革的新措施,对大陆职业教育发展有一定的启示作用。     

我国台湾地区新一轮基础教育课程改革:理念、目标与路径

我国台湾地区基础教育课程改革是内外部因素共同作用的结果。此次改革以自发、互动、共好为基本理念,以启发学生生命潜能、陶冶生活知能、促进生涯发展和涵育公民责任为主要目标,以核心素养、弹性课程和课程统整等为根本路径。我国台湾地区基础教育课程改革所积累的一些经验值得大陆地区借鉴。     

世界教育改革趋势对台湾技职教育发展的影响

世界教育改革的重点主要体现在"去集中化"的政府改革,以"教育券"发放取代直接对学校补助的财务改革,以如何提高教师专业品质及教学成效为主轴的师资改革,以培育学生终身学习能力为焦点的课程改革,注重社会公平的平等性改革等方面.受其影响,台湾技职教育也进行了一系列改革,如试办综合高中,推动高中职社区化,采取招生管道多元化,实施课程统整,促进教师专业发展,进行高等技职学校改制等.     

从高教改革看大学德育

高教改革的走向是市场化,大学德育必须适应它;高教要走向市场,高校必须重视德育。     

台湾高等技职院校入学制度改革述评

台湾技术与职业教育的重心从上世纪九十年代转向以高等技职教育为主，高等技职教育成为了技术与职业教育的主要力量。在这一过程中，高等技职院校的招生制度也逐渐由独立联招制度向多元入学方案发展，立了入学考试与多元选拔并存的入学制度。这一入学制度的形成有助于引导学生由单一智育轨道向多元化方向发展，亦有助提高高等技职院校的地位，值得祖国大陆高等职业教育制度借鉴。