Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 3, Issue 1, Article 3(June, 2002) Wheijen CHANG, Alister JONES and Rainer KUNNEMEYER Interactive Teaching Approach in Year One University Physics in Taiwan: Implementation and Evaluation Previous Contents Next

Background of the Research

A brief introduction to the background of this study is provided.

The subjects of this study were first year physical science and engineering students at Feng-chia University in Taiwan, a large, private university, where about 2000 students enroll in this course each year. The students' average academic level at Feng-chia University is located around the medium for all university students in Taiwan, but their physics backgrounds were widely spread in one class. The classes are grouped according to the students' majors, and the same group of classmates meets in the same classrooms for most of the courses in the first year of study. Most of the students, come straight from high school, are of similar age and had similar study experiences.

It has been found that the Taiwanese students, on average, have studied more hours of physics in high school, and are equipped with stronger physics backgrounds than their peers in the USA, when entering university¹⁰. In addition, it was found that most of the incoming students possessed positive learning attitudes and had high expectations towards the new stage of studying at university¹¹. Depressingly, the positive attitudes towards learning were found to deteriorate markedly right after their first year university study commenced, which included the willingness of attendance and the adoption of superficial learning strategies¹².

As in many other countries, university physics courses are a requirement for all science and engineering students. At Feng-chia, this is a two-semester course where each semester consists of 15 weeks. Two different courses are taught, one based on 2hr/wk and the other on 3hr/wk. Our study is limited to the latter, which is more common at Feng-chia as well as at other universities in Taiwan. Unlike many other countries, there is no tutorial session for this course. The course textbooks are selected from the USA version of conventional textbooks¹³, which appear to be extremely heavy with regard to the available teaching time.

The lecture classes are usually attended by about 55-65 students, sitting in rows, side by side, facing the lecturer. This seating arrangement is suitable for traditional lecturing, but may impede interaction amongst peers.