Education Tech Research Dev (2010) 58:613–628 DOI 10.1007/s11423-010-9168-z INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
A case study of an affective education course in Taiwan Chin-Chiang Wang • Heng-Yu Ku
Published online: 11 September 2010 Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2010
Abstract The purpose of this study was to identify the components of a framework for affective education implementation based on a positive psychology approach. A fifth grade class of 31 students in a public rural elementary school in Taiwan participated in a 13-week long affective education course that consisted of six units: Self-discovery, Love and Gratitude, Empathy, Emotions, Optimism, and Hope. Storytelling and interdisciplinary instruction were utilized as two primary teaching strategies. Constructivist grounded theory case study was used as a qualitative methodological approach and four data sources including participant observations, field notes, artifacts, and self-assessment were collected. A framework for affective education implementation that emerged from the data consisted of three levels: the classroom in/out level, the school/family level, and the society/culture level. Findings on the components of a framework for affective education implementation are presented and discussed. Keywords Affective education Case study Interdisciplinary instruction Positive psychology
Positive psychology, launched by Martin Seligman in 1998, in contrast to the traditional psychological ‘‘pathology model’’, underscores ‘‘a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life’’ (Seligman 2005, p. 3). Positive psychologists emphasize improving people’s ingrained strengths. It may be said whereas traditional psychology often brings patients from minus five to zero, positive psychology helps people rise from zero to plus five (Gable and Haidt 2005; Wallis et al. 2005). Since then, the conception of positive psychology has inspired a C.-C. Wang The Independent School Foundation Academy, Pokfulam, Hong Kong e-mail:
[email protected] H.-Y. Ku (&) Educational Technology Program, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639, USA e-mail:
[email protected]
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myriad of psychologists’ positive comments and many high quality scholarly articles (Fredrickson 1998, 2000; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Seligman 2002a, b). The primary aim of positive psychology is to catalyze a change in the concerns of psychology from preoccupation with repairing the worst in life to a new emphasis on optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions (Gable and Haidt 2005; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Seligman 2005). In addition, the scope of positive psychology extends beyond the bounds of positive thinking and positive emotions (King 2003; Peterson and Park 2003). Positive psychology is founded on three related pillars: the study of positive emotions (happiness, pleasure, gratification, fulfillment, well-being); the study of positive traits (character, talents, interests, values); and the study of positive institutions (families, schools, communities) (Peterson and Park 2003; Seligman 2002b). Moreover, in the temporal continuum, the concern of positive psychology is about valued subjective experiences: well-being and satisfaction (past); joy and happiness (present); and hope and optimism (future). Speaking of the application of positive psychology in the schools, the traditional approach for school psychologists’ work with children and families has focused on problems and disturbances, but recently school psychology has experienced paradigm shifts because of the emergence of positive psychology (Akin-Little and Little 2004; Clonan et al. 2004). A three-tier continuum of prevention prevails in school psychology: primary, secondary, and tertiary (Hightower et al. 1995). Primary prevention is a proactive approach which seeks to eliminate problems before they develop; secondary prevention involves the early identification of problems and intervention; and tertiary prevention refers to treatment (Clonan et al. 2004). Nowadays, many school psychologists strive to build a primary prevention model based on the perspective of positive psychology. Typically, three domains of learning—cognitive, affective, and psychomotor are believed to be important areas in education and training, but the affective domain is the one area which educators have been able to accomplish the least or which teachers have often avoided (Haspeslagh and Wittenauer 1989; Morrison et al. 2007). Affective education generically pertains to the student’s experience of learning (Ackerson 1992). Because affective education also attempts to improve personal integration, oftentimes, it is used interchangeably with ‘‘humanistic education’’ (Miller 1976). Furthermore, Leonard and Ward (1989) defined affective education as assisting students in developing pleasure and joy, and they asserted that the level of affective attainment is usually positive if students achieve the goals of affective education. To integrate the dimension of affective education into a whole educational program is important; that is, a process of learning that ignores affective education is incomplete and inhumane (Beane 1990; Katz et al. 2003). As indicated by Katz et al. (2003), ‘‘Teachers are continually challenged by social and societal problems (e.g., bullying, dropout youngsters, racism, and prejudices), so affective education is an increasingly important aspect of European school practice’’ (p. 362). Consequently, according to Beane (1990), affective education should not be an isolated and differentiated topic in schools. In recent years, many educators in Taiwan have advocated an infusion of affective education, which accentuates the students’ emotional and affective development, into the curriculum for the following two reasons. First, the suicide rate is a tragic and persistent problem in Taiwan. The Department of Health in Taiwan (2004) reported that 67 students died or were injured as a result of suicide in 2004, including six elementary school students. Second, since the late 1990s, Taiwanese society has carried out a series of educational reform policies, including both curricula and pedagogy. Teachers have responsibility for incorporating affective education into the integrative activities curricula
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and to increase Taiwanese society’s awareness of affective education (Ministry of Education in Taiwan 2006). So far, little research has been done on integrating the positive psychology approach into schools. For example, Chaung (2004) taught affective education by using the metaphorical stories, and she found that the experimental group had significantly better outcomes than the control group while integrating the concepts of positive psychology into affective learning. Moreover, Lang (1998) provided a three-level model of affective education, including Reaction/Cure, Proaction/Prevention, and Enhancement, which ‘‘reflects the order in which different aspects of affective education developed in many educational systems’’ (p. 13). However, there has not been a framework for affective education implementation to date, so we have attempted to explore the components of a framework for affective education implementation in this study. The overall research question for this study was, ‘‘What are the components of a framework for implementing affective education based on a positive psychology approach?’’
Methodology Theoretical framework Constructivist grounded theory case study was chosen as the methodology of this study. Charmaz (2006) argued that the original grounded theory is objectivist grounded theory because its thoughts adhere closely to the positive canons of traditional science. On the contrary, constructivist grounded theory resides in the interpretive tradition. Therefore, rather than emphasizing the study’s methods, a constructivist approach emphasizes the study’s phenomena which in this case is affective education. Regarding case study, Stake (2000) pointed out that ‘‘a case study is both a process of inquiry about the case and the product of that inquiry’’ (p. 436). In this study, the case was bounded by time (13 weeks data collection) and place (a rural elementary school) which enabled us to delve into an effective method of implementing the concepts of positive psychology into affective teaching. Research setting and participants The research setting was in a rural public elementary school located on the central west coast of Taiwan. The school was comprised of approximately 200 students, 12 teachers, and 5 staff members. A fifth grade class of 31 students in Taiwan participated in this study. There were 19 boys and 12 girls, and the average social-economics status of the students’ families was the middle class. Additionally, eight students were from single-parent or grand-parenting families. Course content and delivery medium The core of this course in affective education was designed to assist students in understanding themselves, cultivating their mental strengths, and providing them with courage in the face of future potential challenges. The course was offered twice a week for 13 weeks as a 40-min class. The course content consisted of six units: Self-discovery, Love and Gratitude, Empathy, Emotions, Optimism, and Hope, and each unit had objectives that
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were presented in the course plan. In order to achieve the stated objectives, various teaching strategies were employed. The primary teaching delivery utilized in this study was storytelling. According to Brand and Donato (2001), storytelling can provide catharsis which encourages children to reflect upon their inside feelings. In addition to storytelling, some units were designed as interdisciplinary instruction for which I (the first author) cooperated with the other teachers to design thematic lessens. Brodeur (1998) pointed out that interdisciplinary instruction is a powerful means of integrating the cognitive and affective outcomes in elementary classrooms. Along with these two teaching strategies, numerous instructional methods were employed in the course, such as discussion, role-playing, games, and so forth. Methods of data collection Four data sources: participant observations, field notes, artifacts, and student self-assessment were acquired in this study. Participant observations I designed the course, implemented the course in the naturalistic field, and was involved in the school’s central activities. Additionally, to some extent I revealed some information to participants (e.g., why I was here, why I was teaching them), and further obtained their trust. In this study, the data consisted of approximately over 660 h of observation and interactions with participants during a period of 4 months. Field notes The data of observing a classroom was jotted down as field notes in a notebook. Field notes were dense with information pertinent to the study, including the setting and human interactions. In addition, personal journal entries were written which included personal comments about a particular class and reflections on observations. These field notes and personal journal entries were then filed in a computer in order to manage the data systematically. Artifacts Two types of artifacts: records and documents assembled in this study. As for records, I was given permission to examine participants’ personal records. The second type of artifact included documents such as worksheets, self-assessment forms, and writings. Student self-assessment The primary purpose of the students’ self-assessment was to improve the course design and look for students’ perceptions of the course. The students completed self-assessments to examine their performances during week 6. In the self-assessment form, students were encouraged to assess their learning by themselves, to write down their perceptions of the course, and to make recommendations for the course.
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Procedures This study lasted 13 weeks and covered six units. In the first week, all participants received a personal folder to place their work and assignments. Worksheets were distributed to students to address the topic of the class each week. Students completed some worksheets in the classroom and did some of them as homework assignments. At the end of the course, all the students’ portfolios and products were collected. Data analysis The data analysis process of this study focused on the qualitative data and employed grounded theory data analytic methods to answer the research question. Because the process of teaching in the classroom was filled with ongoing dynamic phenomena, data were analyzed as collected with initial coding throughout this study. The function of utilizing initial coding during the study was not only to systematically sort and organize the data piece by piece but also to assist in the modification of the course plan. After completing the data collection, based on the overall initial coding, data were analyzed comprehensively and categories were created. Rather than a linear process, initial coding, focused coding, and axial coding were employed recursively while implementing the study in order to seek more valid information from the setting. In selective coding, central categories were chosen and systematically integrated with other categories. Finally, in order to strengthen the trustworthiness of this study, triangulated methods were used. The summary of qualitative data analysis is shown in Table 1.
Findings The purpose of this study was to delve deeply into the components of affective education implementation, and several components emerged from the data analysis. We used these components to construct a framework for affective education implementation and categorized them into three levels: classroom in/out, school/family, and society/culture. These three levels were further conceptualized as a concentric three-layer circle to represent all components as shown in Fig. 1.
Table 1 Summary of qualitative data analysis Coding
Description
Description
The process of describing detailed information about the case and its setting.
Initial coding
The process of separating data into categories by using the constant comparative method.
Focused coding
The process of using the most significant or frequent earlier codes to sift through large amounts of data. Categories were more directed, selective, and conceptual than initial coding.
Axial coding
The process of relating categories to subcategories.
Selective coding
The process of integrating and refining the theory.
Write and revise a draft
The recursive process of writing and revising a rudimentary manuscript.
Final report
The results presented through writing and diagrams grounded in the data.
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Society/Culture School/Family Classroom In/Out Instruction - Storytelling School Administration
Teacher
- Interdisciplinary Instruction
Student
Family Members
- Teachable Moments
Fig. 1 The framework for affective education implementation
The micro-level: classroom in/out In the diagram of the framework for affective education implementation, the inner circle is the classroom level because the classroom is the primary arena for interaction between teachers and students. In addition to inside the classroom, the teacher-student interaction is also triggered by many catalysts outside the classroom. The classroom in/out level is comprised of three sub-categories: instruction (storytelling, interdisciplinary instruction, and teachable moments), teacher, and student. The interactions of these three sub-categories form a reciprocal circle as seen in the inner circle of Fig. 1. Instruction The focus of curriculum content was to improve students’ mental well-being, and two primary teaching strategies—storytelling and interdisciplinary instruction—were employed in this study. In addition, the category of teachable moments that emerged from the data is a useful teaching strategy in affective education. Storytelling In this study, storytelling was regarded as a main vehicle for delivering the concepts of affective education. According to the student self-assessment data, 25 of the students enjoyed the stories told in this course. In this study, diverse concepts were taught by telling stories. Not only did various stories stimulate students’ interests but the stories were also an effective way of applying a heuristic teaching strategy. Through storytelling, concepts were simplified and become understandable for students. According to my (the first author’s) observations, real stories, such as social news or teacher’s anecdotes, intrigued students most. The reasons were partly because these stories were real and partly because students could try to relate to authentic cases by using what
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they had learned. In addition to stories, many students mentioned that they enjoyed the various activities connected to each story (i.e., role-playing, watching movies, and documentary films). These activities were designed to motivate students’ interests and to reinforce students’ learning. The students’ other favorite activity was to see films related to the topic. A documentary film has stronger effects than a lecture because a film’s vividness may arouse students’ attention and reflection. For example, after the lecture about the topic of optimism, students saw a documentary film, Jun-Han’s Story (National Hsinchu Senior High School 2001). This film recorded how Jun-Han, who has vertebral myoatrophy [a vertebral disease], has battled against death since birth. Students’ responses to the question, ‘‘What have you learned from Jun-Han’s Story’’ were positive. They replied positively: ‘‘Never give up’’; ‘‘I have learned to treasure my life’’; ‘‘Be brave to face adversity’’; and ‘‘Hang in there even if adversity happens.’’ Additionally, most students stated that they would use Jun-Han as a role model while encountering adversity. Cameras were also used in the activity of ‘‘Emotion Snapshot’’ as digital imaging storytelling. Every student was asked to take four photos of his/her facial expressions that represented different emotions, and then students uploaded their photos to their own account that they created on the Yahoo website. One student wrote reflections on her Web Blog: ‘‘Wow! My anger photo is so dreadful. I should smile more in the future.’’ Another student stated, ‘‘I never knew that my smile was so pretty, and I should smile often.’’ Moreover, on the self-assessment form, eight students indicated they liked this activity the most. We concluded three reasons why students relished storytelling: (1) The stories simplified the complex concepts of affective education, (2) the real life stories or teacher’s anecdotes made students feel a sense of reality, and (3) the supplementary activities stimulated students’ interest and fortified students’ learning. Therefore, even if the concepts of affective education seemed abstract (e.g., love, optimism) for elementary school students, storytelling was an appropriate vehicle that assisted them to learn these terms and meanings on a cognitive level. Interdisciplinary instruction Rather than being taught in a particular course or class, affective education pervasively crosses the boundary of disciplines. In this study, interdisciplinary instruction was designed by cooperating with an Arts and Humanities teacher and a Social Studies teacher to deliver diverse teaching materials related to affective education. Colors may represent personal inner emotions, so co-teaching with an Arts and Humanities teacher with a book When Sophie Gets Angry—Real, Real Angry (Bang 2004), which uses saturated colors vividly to reveal the child’s emotions was utilized. In schools, the discipline of Social Studies has also provided an opportunity for students to connect with the outside world. The teacher who taught the students in the Social Studies class discussed his attempt to have students explore the village where they lived by employing digital imaging storytelling. He stated, ‘‘My goal was to enhance students’ understanding of the place where they grew up and further to cultivate their gratitude,’’ so we cooperate to design interdisciplinary instruction. After students were divided into groups for five village locations—the temple, the school, the Tatu River, the fiddler crab spot, and bird-watching spot—students took field trips to take photos of each location. After the field trip, the students presented their final work on Teaching Demonstration Day. According to most of the teachers in this school, they thought that their students often
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lacked confidence when compared with the urban students, so this was an opportunity for establishing students’ confidence, as recorded in the field notes: Finally, the Teaching Demonstration Day is coming. Students had worked hard to prepare their digital imaging storytelling since the day the photos were taken. About twenty teachers from other schools sat in the back of the classroom to attend students’ presentations, so at the beginning, students felt nervous while seeing so many guests. However, when two or three students, the representatives of each group, presented their photo stories, they performed confidently and without haste. At that moment, I was proud of their performances. After class, students shared their perspectives about digital imaging and stated that they had learned how to take photos, edit photos, and organize photos. One girl exclaimed, ‘‘We finally presented our photos. Although it was hard, I did complete it and felt confident.’’ In short, through interdisciplinary instruction, not only can teachers integrate various concepts of affective education into academic subjects, but they also are able to understand students via different disciplines. Therefore, as previously noted, affective education is akin to cognitive education, and interdisciplinary instruction serves the function of synthesizing the knowledge of both fields. Teachable moments Contrary to cognitive curricula, students obtained the knowledge of affective education more in occasional teachable moments than in the classroom. Likewise, the main concern of affective education is students’ individual development (including feelings, attitudes, emotions, etc.), so teachable moments were often employed as a teaching strategy during the research, and indeed I experienced numerous incidents that illustrate the significance of teachable moments in affective education. One prominent example was presented as follows. Wen’s case shed light on the importance of teachable moments. Unlike the other students, Wen always read books quietly when a class was dismissed and teacher who used to teach Wen said that she had been a reticent and an introverted student since the first grade. Likewise, her grandmother shared that Wen seldom speak at home as well. In the seventh week of the course, Wen was often in tears and did not even greet her teachers. After discussing this with her teacher, I decided to meet with Wen in the hope of creating a teachable moment, as recorded in the field note: Today, I talked with Wen about her relationship with her classmates for around 20 minutes. Because Wen had been asked to meet with her teachers many times recently, her eyes were filled with an aggrieved expression when she entered the counseling room. She did not say any words but sobbed and squinted at the door. I did not force her to speak but I suggested how to stand up for her rights if she encountered unfair events. I told her, ‘‘You could tell your close friends, teachers, or parents what’s going on and try to find a way to solve the problem that you have. If you did not speak about the problem, no one can help you even if they wanted to help.’’ In spite of saying no words, the expression in Wen’s eyes became calm at the end of our conversation. After this meeting, I continuously observed Wen’s behavior and sought opportunities to converse with her. However, her answers to my questions were always short. Additionally, she rarely joined her classmates or greeted teachers. Then before Christmas, something amazing happened! One day, some students and I were talking about the Christmas stockings that students had made to decorate the classroom. To my surprise, Wen joined
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our conversation. After the conversation, I told Wen: ‘‘I am glad to see you join us,’’ and she left with a smile. After that, Wen began to talk and play with classmates actively. She, nevertheless, still kept the teachers at a distance. Although Wen did not talk much during the time of teachable moments, I believe she absorbed what I said. The meso-level: school/family The middle circle of the framework for affective education implementation is the school/ family level. As suggested by the presentation of two dotted straight lines which cross the boundaries of the classroom system in Fig. 1, teachers might be influenced by school administrators, whereas students might be influenced by their parents or family members. School The principal of this school, a mid-aged lady with 30 years experience in the educational field, mentioned to me: ‘‘The effect of affective education is to change and influence students unobtrusively and imperceptibly. Now, the school curriculum is sprinkled with affective education rather than drawing it out through a specific course.’’ Her statement was consistent with my understanding that affective education in Taiwan has not yet developed like other academic curricula (e.g., Mandarin, English, and Mathematics). In this school, in order to inspire teachers’ creativity, the principal often shared her experiences or discussed articles related to affective education with teachers in the teachers’ weekly meetings. An instance was recorded in my field note as follows. This afternoon, the principal placed an article on my desk and said, ‘‘This is an article I will share with teachers in a meeting next week, could you share your thoughts or ideas with me about this article?’’ I glanced at that article, which was entitled The Inspiration of the Tenth Place Students Becoming the Number One Scholars, a cover page story of a business magazine. This article discussed a thought-provoking question: Why does the future achievement of a tenth-place elementary school student sometimes surpass that of his/her first-place elementary school classmate? This question intrigued me at once. After perusing the article, I leaned back and thought: this article hit the nail on the head about a crux of the extant education in Taiwan: a student’s scores on academic exams will determine his/her future…. Through the study, I also had several in-depth conversations regarding affective education with the principal. I admired the principal’s incisive and sophisticated opinions on affective education and the principal always humbly stated, ‘‘One of the principal’s missions is to notice the newest information and forward it into the campus to promote teachers’ knowledge of educational theory and to stimulate various teaching strategies.’’ In addition to sharing stories with teachers, the principal periodically told students inspired stories in the school weekly meetings and asked students to write reflections in their notebooks. Family For students, besides school teachers, family members have also played key roles as significant others because family members are whom students live with and believe in. The reason for not confining family to parents was that, of the participants, eight students were from either single-parent or grand-parenting families.
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Pei was a lovely girl with short hair and big eyes who often greeted people with a glorious smile. Pei lived with her grandparents and uncles due to her parents’ divorce. According to Pei, her grandmother was the closest person whom she could confide secrets. However, the person she missed most was her older sister who lived with her mother. She said gloomily, ‘‘Sometimes, at midnight I weep because I miss my sister so much. In fact, I hate my mother.’’ The strong word that she used astonished me. I looked at her skeptically, ‘‘Why did you use such a strong word to describe your feelings about your mother?’’ She restated to me some negative comments that her father and grandparents used for talking about her mother. Pei’s case was an instance that illustrated the family’s impact on children’s mental aptitude. Likewise, several similar cases happened in this class, as the fifth grade teacher indicated: ‘‘Despite the divorce, one student’s father still used abusive language to talk about student’s mother in front of the child.’’ Moreover, the teacher told me that ‘‘these factors derived from the family potentially could influence students’ academic performances and even their mental well-being.’’ On the other hand, because students’ family members were major resources for schools, the administrators in this school strived to get parents involved into the school’s activities in order to strengthen the triangular connection: teacher, parents, and students. An obvious instance was that students’ parents enter the campus to tell stories, as I sketched in my field notes: Today, it was Hua’s mother’s turn to tell a story. Because Christmas was around the corner, Hua’s mother, who was a devout Christian, decided to tell the origin of Christmas, by which to cultivate students’ gratefulness. During the Story Time, students actively interacted with the story-mom. Sometimes, Hua’s mother stopped to pose questions or to make students guess the rest of the story plot. Finally, she stated, ‘‘God made his only son grow up in a humble family, and the main goal of that was to make him experience a humble life and further learn gratitude.’’ After class, I expressed my thankfulness to the story-mom for conveying the meaning of Christmas to students. Overall, school administrators and family members have direct or indirect influence on the application of affective education. Based on the findings, the influence from school administrators was positive, whereas the family members’ impacts were mixed. Negative impacts from family members might cause conflicts between school education and parenting, but they were often hidden behind the students’ academic performances. Therefore, paying more attention to students is essential and enhancing administrator-teacher-family communication will assist students to develop more positive thoughts. The macro-level: society/culture The outer circle of the framework of affective education implementation is the society/ culture level. The classroom system and the school/family are influenced by and included into the society/culture system. Thus, as presented in Fig. 1, influence of the society and the culture permeate extensively through the boundaries of all levels. Society Since the Taiwanese government lifted its previous ban on limiting media sources, the public media has mushroomed in the past decade, and teachers can take advantage of these
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media to enhance teaching materials with regard to affective education. In a conversation with the fifth grade homeroom teacher, Mr. Li, indicated, I often utilize the newspaper clippings to educate students with affective education. The Mandarin Daily News, an education-focused newspaper, is a good resource for my supplementary teaching materials. Recently, it has provided a special weekly column that answers students’ questions. For example, the latest essay is ‘What if I got low scores?’ Another early essay was ‘Why do parents love my sister/brother more than me?’ I posted these clippings on the class bulletin board. Meanwhile, I discussed the topics of the clippings with students…. In addition to the newspaper clippings, the usage of computers could bring teachers and students more in line with society, so Mr. Li designed a class website which provides students a platform for sharing information and emotions. Sometimes, we also shared news reports related to how people endeavor to pursue their dreams with students in order to educate students the meaning of a saying: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. However, media is like fire that can be used for burning but can also burn those who use it. At the latter part of the research period, a piece of news shocked me: A junior student died of a fall from a fourth floor. According to the police report, that student attempted to emulate a web movie clip in which a boy hung upside down on a balcony railing, but the student fell down from the fourth floor because of his dare-devil behavior. The next day, the teacher and I immediately discussed with students about this case in order to develop their ability of judgment. Culture As for the issue of culture, culture in this level refers to the ingrained thoughts people have received from the society in which they live. According to Young (2009), culture plays an influential role in a child’s learning, and it is the way our children see the world and themselves. Chinese culture is different from Western culture, so at times there might be challenges in applying affective education based on positive psychology, as exemplified by my self-reflection: Today, I read a picture book, Guess How Much I Love You (McBratney, 1994) to students, which described many ways a little hare used to express the love to its mother. During a class, I mentioned that it is very common in the West to give a hug or say ‘‘I love you’’ to family members. One girl instantly blurted out: ‘‘It is so gross!’’ As a result of culture difference, it is rare for children in Taiwan to say ‘‘I love you’’ to their parents. It is difficult to point out what causes this state of mind… Challenges from inveterate thoughts derived from family or culture might occur during the application of affective education. For example, a story-mom asked students how to identify a handsome guy or a pretty girl. Students in chorus answer: their appearance. The story-mom said, ‘‘That might be right. But what if a good-looking boy or girl has an ill temper?’’ This conversation inferred that some negative thoughts might emanate from social stereotypical expectations or others’ judgments. In addition, many students still retain a stereotype in Taiwan: A test score of 100 equals a good student. On a worksheet, 12 students’ responses revealed that they were not optimistic on account of having a low test score; whereas similar number of students thought they were optimistic due to high test scores. These students’ responses are worthwhile for educators’ further consideration.
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As the Chinese adage states: The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up, we believe that the social and cultural factors may provide boosts for affective education, but at the same time, they might bring out the challenges which teachers should help students cope with. Accordingly, to break the deep-rooted social stereotypes is likely to be the long-term mission of affective education.
Discussion A framework for affective education implementation that emerged from the data in this study consisted of three levels: the classroom in/out level, the school/family level, and the society/culture level. The micro-level: classroom in/out As a vehicle, instruction was designed to convey the abstract conceptions of affective education from teachers to students, and the methods of instruction in this study included storytelling, interdisciplinary instruction, and teachable moments. In accordance with the emphasis of the study, the design of instruction focused on the affective domain, and Krathwohl’s Taxonomy is the best known of the affective domains (Martin and Briggs 1986). Krathwohl’s Taxonomy consists of five levels: receiving, responding, valuing, organizing, and characterizing (Krathwohl et al. 1964). Therefore, the effects of instruction that emerged from the data will be discussed by utilizing Krathwohl’s Taxonomy as a gauge. The application of storytelling and interdisciplinary instruction could at least lead students to Krathwohl’s first and second levels of receiving and responding because, from the observational data, students actively participated in classroom discussions and activities when the planned instruction for the course was employed. However, most students performed differently in the third level of Krathwohl’s Taxonomy, the valuing level, which consists of three sublevels: acceptance of a value, preference for a value, and commitment. As for the sublevel of the acceptance of a value, the findings of this study revealed that most students were willing to accept the concepts of positive psychology. As for the sublevel of the preference for a value, concrete evidence for students’ achievement of this level was that, in the student self-assessment, each participant expressed his/her personal preference for affective topics which were taught in class. As for the sublevel of commitment, Krathwohl et al. (1964) asserted that ‘‘commitment is never a momentary or occasional enthusiasm or passion’’ (p. 150), so we believe that the long-term appraisal of each student’s behavior is essential for full understanding. The findings of this study also showed that the application of teachable moments can facilitate students’ learning upwards to the fourth level, the organization level, in Krathwohl’s Taxonomy. A teachable moment is an unplanned and unexpected event inside or outside the classroom that educators should capitalize on to provide the opportunity to extend the child’s learning (Bentley 1995; Siegfried 1992). As illustrated previously, students displayed their inner thoughts via outer actions or behaviors that can be used as learning tools in teachable moments so that teachers may understand students’ experiences better and further educate students. In terms of the characterization level, according to Krathwohl et al. (1964), ‘‘realistically, formal education generally cannot reach the characterization level’’ (p. 165). Even so, the findings of this study revealed that the school
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could cooperate with children’s family and society to help children establish solid cornerstones for achieving Krathwohl’s highest level of characterization. The meso-level: school/family The findings in this study revealed the school administrators influenced teachers’ attitudes and their teaching by sharing new information or personal experiences with them. As a matter of fact, the realm of affective education is a lifelong learning process even for adults; as Seligman (2005) stated, the tenets of positive psychology focus on a person’s past, present, and future experiences. Teachers are supposed to be knowledgeable and intelligent people, but as for affective education, they still need to be encouraged continuously to expose themselves in order to absorb the new information on a regular basis. If the school is the first place where the children learn how to relate effectively with peers, the family is the first place where the children receive affective experiences. In accord with the finding of this study that family had both positive and negative impact on students, Bayer (1986) asserted that student self-concept could change as a result of family, such as degree of harmony in the home. In addition, Peterson and Steen (2005) point out that parents’ interpretation of their children’s behaviors and whether a safe environment is provided for the child are two types of parental influences on children’s optimistic explanatory style. Indeed, in terms of the family’s negative influence, it is often difficult for teachers to offer suggestions or to get involved in family matters because these often are perceived as private business. There are two approaches which teachers might be able to use to minimize family’s negative impact. The first approach is to educate students to think about multiple facets of one thing. Through this approach, children can gradually cultivate their abilities of judgment and critical thinking. The second approach is to strengthen the relationship between teachers and the student’s family members. The teacher can take advantage of students’ families as resources in teaching (e.g., by inviting a student’s grandfather into a history class to discuss WWII; by requesting parents’ aid on a field trip). This action can strengthen the teacher-student-family triangular connection, and the factor of family will be regarded as assistance rather than resistance. The macro-level: society/culture In affective education, the issues of society and culture must be considered because we are surrounded by the social and cultural context since birth. With the advance of technology, it is convenient for children to share or obtain a tremendous amount of the information through computers. However, the findings of this study showed that the ever-changing society is replete with paradoxical information and misconceptions which might diminish the effectiveness of courses in schools. Peterson and Steen (2005) found that mass media could be one influential factor for an individual’s explanatory style, and they stated that ‘‘although people of all ages watch television, young people may be especially susceptible to its influence’’ (p. 250). In April 2007, the Virginia Tech massacre led the day’s media coverage, and police suspected that part of shooter’s motivation that caused this tragedy possibly emerged from his watching some revenge films (Cieply 2007). Thus, Eitzen (1992) contends that society is responsible for many of the problems that students experience. In consideration of the solutions to socially-induced problems, educating children in the area of information literacy might be one effective approach. The American Library
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Association (1989) has defined information literacy as ‘‘a set of abilities requiring individuals to locate, evaluate, and effectively use needed information’’ (p. 1). Using this strategy, teachers can integrate information literacy into curricula in order to enable students to filter out paradoxical information from society and to help them subsequently become lifelong learners (Brown and Krumholz 2002). Like the category of society, the scope of the term ‘‘culture’’ is broad and massive. As Young (2009) stated, because learning takes place in a context situated from the learner’s cultural perspective, culture must be considered when designing a course in order to meet the needs of learners. For instance, Hofstede (1984) indicated that the Taiwanese culture has larger power distances and stronger uncertainty avoidance, while the United States culture has smaller power distance and weaker uncertainty avoidance. Although one of the educational goals in Taiwan is to teach students ancient cultural wisdom and to provide them with the means for understanding their society, some stereotypes or myths derived from culture may cause the students to feel pessimistic. For instance, the traditional Chinese society mainly emphasizes students’ cognitive achievements, so hard studying is seen as everything in the child’s entire life, and children who obtain high scores may be labeled as ‘‘good’’ students. Indeed, this thought has been passed on and is still rooted in most parents’ or students’ minds today, as revealed in this study. Therefore, at times, when teaching affective education, educators should contemplate the impacts of cultural issues and clarify cultural stereotypes in order to strengthen students’ positive thoughts.
Recommendations The findings of the study revealed that the scope of the components of affective educational implementation is broad, ranging from the whole culture and society down to a particular person. Three recommendations are presented for educators and researchers. The first recommendation is related to instruction and three aspects are under this dimension. First, no single course or series of courses related to affective education has been offered in elementary schools in Taiwan, so school administrators and teachers should endeavor to implement such courses. Second, the content of affective curricula can reflect not just the campus but the whole community, so each school can develop the particular school-based affective courses based on its geographical features and students can have an opportunity to connect with the community where they live. Third, school administrators and teachers should be encouraged to get together periodically to share experiences or discuss teaching strategies concerning affective education. The second recommendation is the school-family interaction. The school and the family are two important places where children learn the process of socialization, so it must be beneficial to the child’s development if the school and the family establish good communication. The school should provide opportunities for enhancing the interactions between teachers and families (e.g., holding the sport days or parenting workshops). Only with cooperation and communication between the school and the family can affective education achieve its ultimate goal, which is to develop the child’s healthy and positive character. The third recommendation relates to the impact of society and culture in affective education. Lopez et al. (2005) asserted that ‘‘researchers and practitioners must remember that the social and cultural context of life affects how individuals pursue identity development, goals, and happiness’’ (p. 701). Further research could focus on intercultural instructional design and compare students’ affective learning in cross-cultural context.
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Chin-Chiang Wang is a teacher at the Independent School Foundation Academy in Hong Kong. This research was conducted while he was a doctoral student at the University of Northern Colorado. Heng-Yu Ku is an Associate Professor in the Educational Technology Program, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, 80639.
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