This author observes that, in Taiwan, economic, social, and cultural differences within the population are associated with great disparities in English proficiency among students in elementary schools. When teachers differentiate instruction, they consciously and conscientiously make the content, processes, and learning outcomes of instruction…

While a consensus has emerged to characterize student engagement during learning activities as a three-component construct featuring behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects, we propose adding agentic engagement as an important new aspect, which we define as students' constructive contribution into the flow of the instruction they receive.…

This book provides an archival forum for researchers, academics, practitioners and industry professionals interested and/or engaged in reforming teaching and learning methods by transforming today's learning environments into smart learning environments. It will facilitate opportunities for discussions and constructive dialogue between various…

English proficiency difference among students is a challenging pedagogical issue in EFL classrooms worldwide. Collaborative digital storytelling has been adopted in language learning settings to increase motivation and engagement, especially for young learners. However, it remains unknown whether students of different proficiency levels can…

This study explored the effects of a modified argument-driven inquiry approach on Grade 4 students' engagement in learning science and argumentation in Taiwan. The students were recruited as an experimental group (EG, n?=?36) to join a 12-week study, while another 36 Grade 4 students from the same schools were randomly selected to be the…

This study examines the nature of adult engagement in lifelong learning in Taiwan. Previous studies have shown that gender and socioeconomic status (SES) are key variables related to equal access to education. Are these variables related to adults' engagement in lifelong learning in a specific country? This study analysed data from a survey of…

This study uses the database from an extensive international study on 15-year-old students (N = 8,815) to analyze the relationship between emotional factors and students' scientific literacy and explore the potential link between the emotions of the students and subsequent public engagement with science. The results revealed that students'…

A case study was undertaken in a junior high school that had won the highest award of the National PowerTech Contest in Taiwan. In the contest, students were required to create their own wooden robot (mechatronics project) in the morning and compete in the afternoon, in order to better avoid the intervention of parents and teachers in the process.…

Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have been widely used in elementary schools in Taiwan. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of elementary school teachers and students using IWBs in English teaching and learning. Six public school English teachers and 614 students of 5th and 6th-grades in Yangmei Township, Taoyuan…

Unlike most research, which has primarily examined the players' interest in or attitude toward game-based learning through questionnaires, the purpose of this empirical study is to explore students' engagement patterns by qualitative observation and sequential analysis to visualize and better understand their game-based learning process. We…

The author attempted to examine how Taiwanese junior high school students' perfectionistic tendencies and achievement goals were related to their academic burnout versus work engagement, and to determine differences in the indicators of burnout versus engagement among students with different subtypes of perfectionism. A total of 456 eighth-grade…

Programming assignments are commonly used in computer science education to encourage students to practice target concepts and evaluate their learning status. Ensuring students are engaged in such assignments is critical in attracting and retaining students. To this end, WebHat, a service-based program evaluation platform, is introduced in this…

This study examines the relationships among Taiwanese ninth graders' perceptions of autonomy support versus psychological control in the classroom context, work engagement versus academic burnout, and their avoidance of help seeking as well as self-handicapping behaviors. Four hundred and thirty-five ninth-grade Taiwanese students completed a…

Educational researchers have indicated that although computer games have the potential to promote students' motivation and engagement, the work on how to design effective games that fulfil educational purposes is still in its infancy. This study aimed to examine how integration of self-explanation into a computer game affected primary schoolers'…

Scratch, a visual programming language, was used in many studies in computer science education. Most of them reported positive results by integrating Scratch into K-12 computer courses. However, the object-oriented concept, one of the important computational thinking skills, is not represented well in Scratch. Alice, another visual programming…