A review of Taiwan's technological five-year junior college mechanical engineering curriculum development: 1948 to 1994
Abstract
Taiwan's technological five-year junior college (TFYJC) was founded in 1948 to train technicians to meet the demand coming from national construction. Site level professionals never were trained in curriculum development as this was under strict national control. The purpose of this study is to present an accurate narrative of Taiwan's TFYJC mechanical engineering curriculum development history in order to display the focus, rationale, and influencing forces of the evolving curriculum. This study employed historical research methodology and used document analysis as the primary approach. This analysis revealed that the target FYJC curriculum was manufacturing-oriented. The range of government control shifted from little, to full, then to partial control of the curriculum, from autonomy to uniformity then to partial autonomy. The intention of the target curriculum development was always to advance domestic economic development. Voices from the academia and government also influenced curriculum development decisions. Currently, the government has instituted a shift in focus and content causing individual institutions to develop curriculum responses addressing the challenge of advancing Taiwan's position in a global economy. Considering the shift in policy and practice, individual institutions intending to design curriculum are advised to implement empirical needs assessments of students, graduates, and employers and to engage in critical studies of emerging resources in order to provide effective in service training. To accomplish this end, TFYJC faculty and administration need training in curriculum theory and practice and evaluation.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|Community colleges|Inservice training
Recommended Citation
Hsu, Ming-Yie J, "A review of Taiwan's technological five-year junior college mechanical engineering curriculum development: 1948 to 1994" (1997). ProQuest ETD Collection for FIU. AAI9820055.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/dissertations/AAI9820055