GIS in-service training of senior high schools in Taiwan: an exploratory research
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chen, Wei-Jen
Abstract
With the development of information technology and reforms in geography education, Geographical Information System (GIS) gradually obtains a more important role in Taiwan’s senior high school geography education. In 1996, GIS concept was incorporated into the geography curriculum guideline for the first time in Taiwan. It further became a required course in the 2006 and 2010 curriculum guideline. This change reflects the gradual adoption of the GIS technology in geography education.
The crux of this thesis therefore lies in exploring the mechanisms that help GIS, as a kind of innovation, diffuse in Taiwan’s geography education. As GIS in-service training programs have become one of the main ways for senior high school teachers to be familiar with GIS, I focus on exploring these in-service training programs, uncovering how and why teachers and their schools join these programs. The data is gleaned from the in-service programs held by the Department of Geography at National Taiwan University from 2003 to 2010; all of them were sponsored by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education.
The following conclusions can be made after my analysis:
1. Most adopters are public senior high schools. They demonstrate high level of innovativeness and act as innovators and early adopters. Private senior high schools act as late majority and laggard.
2. Public senior high schools adopt GIS in-service programs much easier and earlier than private senior high schools. This variation can be explained by the different conditions that schools have, such as enrollment criteria and the ratio between geography teachers and students.
3. Senior high schools adopt GIS in-service programs much easier and earlier than vocation schools. This variation can be explained by the different conditions that schools have, such as course arrangement.
4. GIS is diffused from public senior high schools to private senior high schools, from GIS seed schools to non-GIS seed school, and from urban area to suburban area.
Subjects
GIS education
in-service training program
innovation diffusion
innovativeness
Type
thesis
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