The Impact of English Learning Motivation and Attitude on Well-Being: Cram School Students in Taiwan

As English is a global language, it is important for students to learn it effectively and efficiently. Learning English from English cram schools is very popular in Taiwan. Most students have studied in English cram schools for some period of time of their English learning experience. The present study concerns about how English cram school learners’ English learning attitudes related to their learning motivation and learning well-being in Taiwan. By using the quantitative research methodology, an empirical research model has been proposed and 277 valid questionnaires were collected. The research results show that learning motivation has a significant impact on learning attitude and learning well-being. Then, the English learning attitude provides mediated effects between learning motivation and well-being. Learning attitude is the key to English learning well-being. Furthermore, a participant’s gender has a significant moderating effect between learning intrinsic motivation and attitude. According to research findings, some suggestions such as using e-learning tools were provided for teachers and educators of the cram schools in Taiwan.

Brand Image and Service Quality on Purchase Intentions: Evidence from the Chain Cram Schools in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of brand image and service quality on consumer purchase intention from the perspective of the Taiwan cram school industry. The research involved a questionnaire survey of parent consumers of primary school pupils attending cram schools. A 37-item, five-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data. From the total sample size, 430 responses representing 84.15 percent were found useable for analysis. The data were then analyzed using the SPSS software for reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, independent sample t-test, One Way Analysis of Variance, Pearson product-moment correlation, and regression analysis. The results indicate that both brand image and service quality are significantly positively correlated with purchase intention, and that service quality as compared to the brand image is more positively related to purchase intention. Additionally, this study finds evidence that both brand image and service quality are significantly positively predictive of purchase intention.

The perceptions of the students about the English Language Test implemented as a component of university entrance exam

This study aims to reveal students’ perceptions about the Foreign (English) Language Test implemented as a component of University Entrance Exam. There were two groups as the participants of the study: the first group included pre-service English teachers studying in the English language teaching (ELT) Department and the second group consisted of cram school students preparing for the English Language Test. A questionnaire was implemented to both groups in order to reveal their perceptions about the English Language Test. The data derived from the questionnaires were analysed in a descriptive way through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and the results were presented in a comparative manner. The results revealed that the rate of pre-service English teachers who think that English Language Test should include all of the language skills is higher than the rate of cram school students. In addition to that most of the pre-service English teachers are not pleased with the content of the test as they have faced with the problems related to the language skills after the onset of studying in ELT Department. Keywords: Students’ perceptions, education policy, English language test.

Design of a Metrics for Teaching Quality on Cram Schools Business

Due to the pressure of fierce competition, many parents worry about their children being unable to compete with their peers. Besides the regular school class, they have engaged their kids at the cram school in order to strengthen the performance of their academic or creative art, so they might have a better foundation. The cram school business thus becomes a unique and prosperous educational business. Due to the low entry barrier, many companies have joining this business. However, the declining birth rate makes cram school business facing decreasing students number in recent years. Therefore, developing effective practices to improve students retention rate and to improve competitive advantages are becoming critical for managers of cram schools. The first step to change the cram school competition environment from cost-driven to quality-driven is to establish a way to measure the teaching quality — as there is no metrics during the past few decades in this domain. This work proposes a metrics based on the theory developed by Marsh and elaborated their idea to design a teaching quality assessment mechanism. Experts in academia and cram schools were interviewed to revise the proposed framework and the associated weighted values of elements in all dimensions of the framework were further calculated using Analytic Network Process (ANP) process. Questionnaires were distributed to representative teachers and supervisors in the cram school to justify the proposed metrics. The results show that this proposed metrics are valuable to the managers and could be used to improve students retention rate.

Influences of Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, and Patriarchal Leadership on Job Satisfaction of Cram School Faculty Members

While there is a decline in the annual population of Taiwan, the number of crams schools in the supplementary education industry is increasing. A concern is that there are not enough students to go around. Cram schools are facing a difficult situation to survive in the industry. Therefore, a great and useful leadership method is needed to help leaders lead their faculty members and organizations so that they can survive and even grow in this white-hot industry. In this study, 400 New Taipei City cram school faculties were invited to be the research objects to study the influences of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and patriarchal leadership on job satisfaction. This study adopted the method of intentional sampling to conduct a questionnaire survey. After collecting data, SPSS12.0 software was used to analyze the descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, description of statistics, t-test method of single factor analysis of variance, and regression. As a result of this research, the employees under transformational leadership have a larger positive result on outer job satisfaction while patriarchal leadership has positive influences on inner job satisfaction. Encouraging subordinates with positive responses, inspiring speeches, and compliments could make subordinates satisfied with the company and interaction with colleagues, while teaching subordinates behavior sets up a moral and authorized style and controlling the organization directly could let subordinates get a sense of accomplishment from work. This study is aimed to provide suggestions and references for the cram schools’ leaders to change their leadership styles and improve their employees’ job satisfaction. Cram schools that take the suggestions and references could improve their working environment and become more competitive in the education industry.

RELATO DE EXPERIÊNCIA DE ENSINO DE REDAÇÃO PARA O EXAME NACIONAL DO ENSINO MÉDIO (ENEM) EM UM PROJETO DE EXTENSÃO DE CURSINHO POPULAR

Resumo: Em um cenário de debates e tensões sobre ensino, as questões pertinentes ao ingresso nas instituições públicas de Ensino Superior ganham ênfase. Dessa forma, o ensino de redação para o Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) tem grande peso para a educação básica. Diante disso, este trabalho objetivou analisar as estratégias de ensino de redação adotadas, no ano de 2016, pelo Curso Pré-Vestibular Paulo Freire, projeto de Extensão da Universidade Federal do Ceará. Para tal, realizou-se um estudo de caso, que será apresentado através de relato de experiência, que identificou os objetivos e os recursos didáticos utilizados pelo referido cursinho para o ensino de redação, além de analisar quantitativamente a eficácia do método adotado na obtenção de notas superiores à média nacional. Utilizou-se, como base teórica pedagógica, Paulo Freire, Carlos Rodrigues Brandão e José Manuel Moran. Nortearam o estudo de caso as considerações de Cecília M. Minayo sobre trabalho de campo e coleta de dados. As informações foram obtidas através de consultas ao banco de dados do curso, entrevistas abertas e revisão literária. Após análise dos resultados, percebeu-se que as estratégias adotadas permitiram aos estudantes aprimorar seus conhecimentos em uma perspectiva dialógica e reiterada da prática da escrita. Tais estratégias coadunaram com os valores de Freire e contribuíram para o fortalecimento da aprendizagem dos alunos (que, muitas vezes, têm formação básica deficitária) sobre diversos aspectos gramaticais, linguísticos e crítico. Palavras-chave: Extensão Universitária, Trabalho Voluntário, Ensino Popular Experience report on teaching writing for the National Examination of High School (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio - ENEM) at an extension project of popular preparatory school Abstract: Nowadays, due to the debates and tensions surrounding the Brazilian educational system, the admission process at public universities has been thrown into question. Currently, preparation for the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) essay mainly impacts primary education. Therefore, this work intends to analyze the teaching strategies employed in the year 2016 at the ‘Curso Pré-Vestibular Paulo Freire’, which is an extra-curricular project at the Universidade Federal do Ceará (Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil). In order to do so, a case study (which will be presented through an experience report) was conducted to identify the educational resources and objectives applied in the mentioned cram school, as well as to quantitatively analyze the efficacy of those methods to obtain grades above the national average score. Paulo Freire, Carlos Rodrigues Brandão, and José Manuel Moran were used as a pedagogic theoretical basis. Cecília Minayo considerations were utilized to guide the fieldwork and data gathering of the case study. The information was obtained through the cram school database, open interviews, and literary reviews. The research helped to observe that the strategies practiced have improved students’ knowledge from a dialogical and reiterated perspective of writing practice. Such strategies have also combined Paulo Freire’s values and enhanced students’ (who mostly had a deficient primary education) learning over several aspects of grammar, linguistics and critical thinking. Keywords: University Extension, Volunteering, Popular Education Relato de experiencia de enseñanza de redacción para el examen nacional de la escuela secundaria (‘Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio – ENEM’) en un proyecto de extensión de curso preparatorio popular Resumen: En el escenario de debates y tensiones enseñanza, las cuestiones referentes al ingreso en instituciones públicas de Enseñanza Superior gana relieve. De eso modo, la enseñanza de redacción para el Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio ENEM ( Examen nacional para la escuela secundária ) gana gran importancia para la educación básica. Teniendo eso en cuenta, este trabajo objetivó analizar las estrategias de enseñanza de redacción adoptada, en el año de 2016, por el Curso Pré-Vestibular Paulo Freire, proyecto de Extensión de la Universidade Federal do Ceará (Fortaleza, Estado del Ceará, Brasil). Para el logro de los objetivos, se realizó un estudio de caso que está presentada acá a través de un relato de experiencia, el cual identificó los objetivos y los recursos didácticos utilizados por el referido cursillo. Además, se analizó cuantitativamente la eficacia del método adoptado para la obtención de notas superiores a la media nacional en el examen de redacción. Como base teórica pedagógica, fueran elencados Paulo Freire, Carlos Rodrigues Brandão y José Manuel Moran. Nortearon el estudio de caso las consideraciones de Cecília Minayo acerca del trabajo in loco y coleta de datos. Se obtuvo las informaciones a través de consulta a los datos del curso, entrevistas abiertas e revisión literaria. Después del análisis de los resultados, se percibió que las estrategias adoptadas permitieron a los estudiantes primorear sus conocimientos bajo una perspectiva dialógica y reiterada de práctica de escrita. Esas e estrategias coadunaran con los valores de Freire y contribuyeron para el fortalecimiento de la aprendizaje de los alumnos lo cuales, muchas veces, tuvieron formación básica deficitaria en los aspectos gramaticales y lingüísticos. Palabras-clave: Extensión Universitaria, Trabajo Voluntario, Enseñanza Popular