Differences in perceptions of teachers' and students' values of physical education programs in private universities in Taipei City, Taiwan

After the New University Code was issued in 1994, the university physical education program was at a crossroad in Taiwan. Physical education teachers are facing changes in the curriculum. The purpose of this study is to find a direction for the future in physical education by using a revised Value Orientation Inventory to investigate the teachers' and students' value orientations. Based on these findings, results could identify a value-based philosophy for physical education curriculum innovation at the private university in Taiwan. ^ The subjects of this study included forty-two physical education teachers and ninety-four current students in five private universities in Taipei City, Taiwan. Value Orientation Inventory were developed by Ennis and Chen (1993), was used to assess subjects on five items five value orientations. VOI data were collected and analyzed by using T-test, ANOVA, and a set of special contrasts. ^ The findings of this study indicated that ninety-four percent of the private university students and physical education teachers made consistent curricular decisions within one or more of the value orientations. Teachers perceived Disciplinary Mastery (DM) and Learning Process (LP) value orientations as the most important values. Students perceived Ecological Integration (EI) and Disciplinary Mastery as the most important values. Both teachers and students placed Social Reconstruction value orientation as the lowest value. There were significant differences between teachers' and students' value orientations. Differences were found in DM, LP, and SA (Self-Actualization). There also were significant differences between teachers' and students' value orientation based on students' gender and year at university. These findings lead to the conclusion that private university students' values are incongruent with the physical education teachers' values. The finding suggests that unless physical education teachers address students' values on EI and SA, conflict may occur. ^

An investigation of mathematics and science instruction in English and Spanish for English language learners

The contextual demands of language in content area are difficult for ELLS. Content in the native language furthers students' academic development and native language skills, while they are learning English. Content in English integrates pedagogical strategies for English acquisition with subject area instruction. The following models of curriculum content are provided in most Miami Dade County Public Schools: (a) mathematics instruction in the native language with science instruction in English or (b) science instruction in the native language with mathematics instruction in English. The purpose of this study was to investigate which model of instruction is more contextually supportive for mathematics and science achievement. ^ A pretest and posttest, nonequivalent group design was used with 94 fifth grade ELLs who received instruction in curriculum model (a) or (b). This allowed for statistical analysis that detected a difference in the means of .5 standard deviations with a power of .80 at the .05 level of significance. Pretreatment and post-treatment assessments of mathematics, reading, and science achievement were obtained through the administration of Aprenda-Segunda Edición and the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. ^ The results indicated that students receiving mathematics in English and Science in Spanish scored higher on achievement tests in both Mathematics and Science than the students who received Mathematics in Spanish and Science in English. In addition, the mean score of students on the FCAT mathematics examination was higher than their mean score on the FCAT science examination regardless of the language of instruction. ^