The Little Bosses' Market, now in its second year and organized by the Hualien Parent-Child Center, challenges the perspective that young children cannot learn about economics. The children participating in this activity took on the responsibilities of planning and selling their goods and services. They interacted with customers by noting prices,…

Innovation in the design of curricula is widely discussed. Innovative curricula expose students to a diverse range of learning environments and prompt them to ask questions, stimulating their creativity and allowing them to develop a sense of initiative and to hone their problem-solving skills and ability to apply knowledge to practice. The…

The growing interest in addressing the mental health needs of Chinese children through play therapy calls for an understanding of the cultural roots and norms of Chinese families. To help professionals succeed in this traditionally Western treatment when providing cross-cultural play therapy, the authors make recommendations concerning the…

Purpose: This paper aims to propose a maker's approach to teaching an operating systems (OSs) course in which students apply knowledge of OSs to making a toy robot by focusing on input/outputs, hardware devices and system programming. Design/methodology/approach: Classroom action research is involved in this study. Findings: After the course was…

Educational agents (including animal companions) are a kind of interface agent, which is a significant component in educational systems, and has great impacts on student learning. However, with the development of emerging technologies (e.g., tangible technology), few studies have yet investigated how tangible technology can be used to combine with…

This research focuses on elementary pupils' attitudes toward gender roles and the learning results from using two types of teaching materials, multimedia animation and a role-play transcript, based on the biographies of women in science, technology, and medicine. We selected two fifth-grade classes for the experiment, which was conducted during…

With the current popularity and widespread use of high-tech and telecommunication products, digital information with varied forms of software, hardware, and multimedia was engaged in designs for entertainment and daily life; its related products are sweeping the globe. On the other hand, the rapid development of 3D printing technology further…

The effectiveness of an intervention using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP), a reflective tool using LEGO® building bricks, to speed the development of narrative identity in economically disadvantaged college students was studied. A longitudinal experimental study with non equivalent experimental/control groups (N = 45) was conducted to examine whether…

The venerable aphorism "an old dog cannot learn new tricks" implies that the elderly rarely learn anything new--in particular, scientific knowledge. On the basis of "learning by doing," the present study emphasized knowledge application (KA) as elderly subjects collaborated on the design of a toy flying saucer (UFO). Three…

This study focused on an intelligent robot which was viewed as a language teaching/learning tool to improve children's reading ability, reading interest, and learning behavior. The iRobiQ, with its multimedia contents, was employed to encourage children to read, speak, and answer questions. Fifty-seven pre-kindergarteners participated in this…

Researchers have indicated that many children from Asian countries have the experience of learning English prior to school at home or at private institutes. The Taiwanese government promotes informal and play-based teaching of English in the home if the parents would like their young children to learn English prior to formal instruction. This…

Although the concept of communities of practice (CoPs) has been applied to many fields, the application within the context of the senior citizens' interaction must be different from those in the vocational arena. In Toy Clinic Shops (TCSs) in Taiwan, senior volunteers together sharpen their skills of repairing toys for school children, which can…

Toys help children in mastering developmental tasks. This study investigated toy effect on children with developmental disabilities as they engage in using ordinary and adaptive toys. A single-subject design was used to identify the effects on their toy play abilities. Differences in toy effects between playing ordinary and adaptive toys were…

The purposes of this study are to investigate fifth-graders' attitudes toward the Internet based on the 5-T framework (Tool, Toy, Telephone, Territory, and Treasure of Information), and to understand whether gender makes any difference in their attitudes. The data were obtained from 2,253 Taiwan fifth-grade students. Through a confirmatory factor…

In Taiwan there is a declining birth rate and a dramatic increase in the elderly population. There is also the trend of using school space that would otherwise be left unused. The experimental project "Toy Clinic Shop in Elementary School" offers an innovative management model for elementary schools to address these developments. The…