This dissertation consists of four related chapters including an introductory overview of all four chapters, a report on family needs, a report on family quality of life, and a summary of implications for the conceptual framework. Chapter 1, the introductory overview, presents background information of Taiwan and describes the family quality of…

A purpose of this study was to explore the inter-relations among eighth grade mathematics student achievements in the content domains of "Number, Algebra, Geometry, and Data & Chance" and the cognitive domains of "Knowing, Applying, and Reasoning," in the context of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study…

Because results from TIMSS 2007 showed a gap in mathematics and science achievement between students in the United States and those in the top-performing countries, TIMSS 2007 data were used to investigate how school effectiveness factors known to be strongly associated with higher STEM achievement operated in the United States compared to Chinese…

This paper applies a quasi-experimental research method to compare the difference in students' approaches to learning and their learning achievements between the group that follows the problem based learning (PBL) teaching method with computer support and the group that follows the non-PBL teaching methods. The study sample consisted of 68 junior…

This study investigated the influences of children's adaptive skills, problem behaviors, and parent support systems (informal support and formal professional support) on maternal well-being (health and stress) in Taiwanese mothers of young children with developmental disabilities. The study examined the moderating effects of formal support and…

The present study investigated children's conceptions of and relations to nature. Understanding the factors that influence them was the goal. The study used the Contextual Model of Learning as the theoretical framework to structure the research questions and data analysis to understand children's nature learning in the personal, sociocultural, and…

As the amount of information available in online digital libraries increases exponentially, questions arise concerning the most productive way to use that information to advance learning. Applying the earlier information seeking theories advocated by Kelly (1963), Taylor (1968), and Belkin (1980) to the digital libraries experience, Carol Kuhlthau…

The current supplementary web based English learning in Taiwan provides online learning resources and gives assessments at the end of each lesson to evaluate learners' online learning results. Based on the testing results, instructors may adjust their in-class instructional method to focus on the students' weaknesses. For the average classroom…

Much research on requests has been carried out among L1 Chinese adults, L1 Chinese children, L1 children, L2 adults, and L2 children, but no studies to date have simultaneously examined Chinese children's requests in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). The aim of this study is to investigate how Taiwanese elementary school children vary requests…

The study investigates whether the informal interactive written discourse in instant messaging (IM) is permeating the more formal writing of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) college students, and how students' identities are constructed in terms of English multiliteracies in Taiwan. The study is designed as a qualitative case study. The…

Corporal punishment was long used in Taiwanese schools as an informal disciplinary tool for improving students' academic performance as well as for disciplinary violations. Based on thirty-five interviews and three school activity observations across a nationwide sample of junior high teachers and schools, this study examines the impact of…

For the past several decades, Asian teachers of English have been traveling to English L1 countries to do graduate work and return home ready to try new teaching approaches (Golombek & Jordan, 2005; Liu, 1999; Major & Yamashiro, 2004). Among these approaches, Communicative language Teaching (CLT) of English is a teaching innovation that…