High School Students’ Experience for Chinese Curriculum

• Main Authors: MAO, YA-YUAN, 茅雅媛
• Other Authors: Chou, Shu-Ching
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/m397wf

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 語文與創作學系碩士班 === 107 === Learner subjectivity has become strongly emphasized in today’s education. However, as high school Chinese curriculum is facing many challenges, the right of interpretation is held mainly by the government, scholars and teachers, leaving students with little opportunity to express their opinions about the subject or the curriculum. Based on the aforementioned background, the current study aims to understand what high schoolers are learning from their Chinese course as well as their interpretation and perspectives on it. In order to fully understand the students’ experience with the curriculum, the current study adopts a qualitative approach with case study method, and takes as its subjects the sophomore students of a public high school in Taipei. The data are gathered mainly from interviews conducted in focus groups as well as individually; and supplementarily from classroom observation and questionnaire surveys. Through the gathering and analysis of data, the current study concludes with 8 main ideas as followed: 1. The students think of Chinese as a subject that is “related to history and culture” and “comprehensive.” 2. The students understand the content of Chinese course as consisting of the many aspects of literacy education. 3. The students feel that through Chinese curriculum, they learn about perspectives on life and how to conduct oneself in society. They also feel inspired by different points of views; on top of these, they acquire abilities such as expression, writing, critical thinking and reading. The least mentioned learning is that of Essentials of the Chinese Classics. 4. The students divide what they learn in the subject into two parts: content understanding and meaning understanding. They also think that meaning understanding is difficult, as it is influenced by the student’s abilities and how the course is conducted. In addition, students with higher level of participation acknowledge its importance, while those with lower level of participation experience greater frustration. 5. The students think that contents which are worth learning should promote reflection, application or appreciation. However, currently the Chinese subject comprises of contents that may or may not meet students’ expectations. 6. The students think that Chinese teachers put more emphasis on self-reading and critical thinking, while adopting a pedagogy that features questioning and discussion. Students with higher level of participation regard such pedagogy as conducive to learning, while those with lower level of participation find it only yielding little return on investment. 7. Students feel a sense of paradox toward assessment tests. They think that certain assessment methods cannot truthfully reflect their knowledge of the subject; they are also worried that tests will become more difficult due to the adoption of multiple assessments and the introduction of assessment contents from outside of the curriculum. 8. The students’ experience with, feelings toward and judgements about the course, can influence their level of participation and create positive or negative cycle. It is also influenced by the ground on which they form their judgements.