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Using in-class questions is an efficient instructional strategy to keep abreast of the state of student learning in a class. Some studies have found that discussing in-class questions in synchronous learning is helpful. These studies demonstrated that synchronous questions not only provide students with timely feedback, but also allow teachers to change the pedagogy adaptively. However, some studies have also shown negative results of synchronous questions in that students may resist being questioned because of anxiety. Therefore, this paper proposes an idea of showing students funny images in order to reward them for providing correct answers. The effect of connecting questions with funny image rewards was examined by collecting data on student test scores, on facial expressions and on electroencephalogram (EEG) responses elicited using this strategy. The data on students' facial expressions indicated that being presented with funny images for correct answers consistently helps to arouse positive emotions in participants. Also, the data on the EEG responses showed that the participants receiving the rewarded questions demonstrated a trend toward increasing levels of attention and relaxation. However, the results also revealed that significant improvements in test scores were not apparent regardless of whether or not amusing visual stimuli were used. The findings imply that showing funny images as a stimulus enhances students' affective states in student-teacher interactions during online learning activities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how mental rotation strategies affect the identification of chemical structural formulas. This study conducted event-related potentials (ERPs) experiments. In addition to the data collected in the ERPs, a Chemical Structure Conceptual Questionnaire and interviews were also admin-istered for data collection. Eighteen university students majoring in chemistry were recruited. In the ERP experiments, the participants were required to identify 2D figures, 2D chemical structural formulas, 3D objects and 3D chemical structural formulas. The contours of 2D figures are similar to those of 2D chemical structural formulas, but they contain no content knowledge. Likewise, the contours of 3D objects are similar to 3D chemical structural formulas without content knowledge. The results showed that all students used similar strategies of mental rotation in identifying 2D figures, 3D objects and 3D chemical structural formulas. However, the high-achieving students used different strategies in identifying 2D figures and chemical structural formulas, while the low-achieving students tended to use similar strategies of mental rotation in identifying both 2D figures and chemical structural formulas. The results indicate that some of the difficulties in identifying 2D chemical structural formulas that students encounter are due to their inappropriate strategies of mental rotation. These results could guide teachers and curriculum designers to develop chemistry learning tools and teaching strategies which could promote students' understanding of chemical structural formulas and practice students' representational skills through mental rotation. Furthermore, this study suggests that ERP technology could be used in further studies to explore the effects of mental rotation on science learning.

Digital video has become a popular instructional media, which makes students more enthusiastic about the subjects they are learning. However, students may not be able to receive these benefits if the videos present the information they contain too quickly. To overcome this problem, this study proposed a video annotation learning system, by which learners can annotate and highlight the interesting or important contents to make them more memorable. A quasi-experiment was conducted on a cardiopulmonary resuscitation course to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed learning approach. Eye-tracking technology was used to examine students' learning process, and assess whether the use of annotations increased their attention. The findings reveal that the proposed approach could encourage students to concentrate more on the critical parts of the instructional video, and thus resulted in better learning performance than the conventional approach to using videos.

Teachers often use in-class questions to examine the level of understanding of their students, while these also enable students to reorganize their acquired knowledge. However, previous studies have shown that students may resist being questioned because of negative emotions. Therefore, this paper proposes the idea of eliciting positive emotions by showing students funny images to reward them for providing correct answers. Three studies were conducted with different courses, using either a video lecture or classroom lecture. The results of Study 1 indicated that 22 learners who watched 10 financial literacy video segments and were rewarded with funny images tended to have more positive emotions, an upward trend in their attention levels, and greater test scores as compared to the other 22 learners watching the same videos who received no rewards. Studies 2 and 3 were conducted in the data structure and computer networks courses, respectively. With regard to affective states, the 52 students in the two courses gained more learning confidence in classes that providing the amusing stimuli as compared to those without such rewards. However, only students in the computer networks course had higher test scores on their mid-term exams when answering rewarded questions compared to when they answered those questions without rewards, although this was not found with the students in the data structure course. The findings suggest that rewarding students with amusing stimuli can enhance students' affective states, even though this instructional strategy does not lead to higher learning performance all the time.

This study applied speech-to-text recognition (STR) technology to assist non-native English-speaking participants to learn at a seminar given in English. How participants used transcripts generated by the STR technology for learning and their perceptions toward the STR were explored. Three main findings are presented in this study. Most participants perceived that transcripts were useful for learning. Nineteen learning strategies to use transcripts were discovered; transcripts were used to understand the topic presented, to find an answer to a question and to write summaries. Participants with different learning achievements demonstrated different learning behaviours when using transcripts. That is, some participants used transcripts effectively (i.e. studied them thoroughly and used the most important parts of them for summaries along with elaborating ideas) but some participants did not (i.e. studied transcripts superficially and employed the copy-and-paste method to complete summaries). Therefore, this study suggests how to teach participants to use transcripts by employing learning strategies meaningfully.

Computerized self-assessment testing can help learners reflect on learning content and can also promote their motivation toward learning. However, a positive affective state is the key to achieving these learning goals. This study aims to examine learning gains and emotional reactions resulting from receiving emotional feedback in the form of applause during computerized self-assessment testing of university students. The participants were asked to solve mathematics problems in a computer-assisted self-assessment system with or without prerecorded applause as emotional feedback while EEG measurements were taken. Using psychological evidence from neuroscience technology, we tested the hypothesis that the part of the brain that generates feelings of reward is more active in male students than in female students during computer-assisted self-assessment testing. The results of this study provide support for the belief that it is useful to reduce negative emotional states in students by using emotional reactions such as applause during computer-assisted self-assessment testing, especially in the case of male students. It is suggested that instructors may wish to create such a positive emotional self-assessment learning environment to encourage students to learn by themselves more efficiently.

This report provides an overview of neuroscience research that is applicable for science educators. It first offers a brief analysis of empirical studies in educational neuroscience literature, followed by six science concept learning constructs based on the whole brain theory: gaining an understanding of brain function; pattern recognition and consciousness; mind maps, mnemonics and other learning devices; concrete multisensory experience; higher-order creative reasoning via a multimedia-infused environment and positive emotion in educational settings. It is vital to the future of results-based education that discoveries regarding the cognitive learning process are taken into consideration when designing instruction. This research offers science educators neuroscience-backed information as a foundation to develop results-oriented curricula and teaching methods. Future research could further extend an empirically driven education system.

This study explored factors of students' mental states, including emotion, intention, internal mental representation, and external mental representation, which can affect their learning performance. In evaluating students' mental states during the science learning process and the relationship between mental states and learning achievement, valid, reliable, and scalable measures of students' mental states and learning achievement are needed. This paper presents the development of the Mental State Conceptual Learning Inventory (MSCLI) to identify students' mental states before and after learning about acids and bases. This instrument is time efficient and convenient and can be administered to large student samples so that teachers and researchers can gain profound insights into their students' learning of acids and bases in science class. The results of this study indicate that students' mental states are highly correlated with their achievement. As a whole, low-achieving students tended to have negative emotions and low intentions, were not good at internal visualization, and were unable to interpret graphics and draw pictures. In contrast, high-achieving students had positive emotions and intentions when learning life-related topics about acids and bases, and were good at internal visualization and drawing and interpreting graphics.

Contemporary research into science education has generally been conducted from the perspective of "conceptual change" in learning. This study sought to extend previous work by recognizing that human rationality can be influenced by the emotions generated by the learning environment and specific actions related to learning. Methods used in educational psychology were adopted to investigate the emotional experience of science students as affected by gender, teaching methods, feedback, and learning tasks. A multidisciplinary research approach combining brain activation measurement with multivariate psychological data theory was employed in the development of a questionnaire intended to reveal the academic emotions of university students in three situations: attending science class, learning scientific subjects, and problem solving. The reliability and validity of the scale was evaluated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Results revealed differences between the genders in positive-activating and positive-deactivating academic emotions in all three situations; however, these differences manifested primarily during preparation for Science tests. In addition, the emotions experienced by male students were more intense than those of female students. Finally, the negative-deactivating emotions associated with participation in Science tests were more intense than those experienced by simply studying science. This study provides a valuable tool with which to evaluate the emotional response of students to a range of educational situations.

This study investigated perceptions of senior high school students towards the Taiwanese information technology (IT) classroom with the What Is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) survey and explored the physical learning environment of the IT classroom using the Computerised Classroom Environment Inventory (CCEI). The participants included 2,869 students from 80 classes of senior high schools, vocational high schools and comprehensive high schools in Taiwan. This study had a mixed-method design in which both quantitative (WIHIC and CCEI scales) and qualitative (classroom observations and interview) methods were used. In order to have a cross-cultural perspective, the results of this study were also compared with the earlier findings of Zandvliet and Straker (Ergonomics 44:838-857, 2001) and Zandvliet and Fraser (Learn Environ Res 8:1-17, 2005), which involved Canadian and Australian students in IT settings. Further, we attempted to understand the influence of different gender compositions (all boys, all girls and mixed-gender classes) on students' perceptions of the IT learning environment and students' satisfaction with the IT course. Both the "Spatial environment" of physical environments and "Autonomy/Independence" of psychosocial environments were found to be indicators of students' satisfaction with learning in IT courses, but physical variables as measured with the CCEI scales were not able to predict students' perceptions of the psychosocial environment. Furthermore, relationships among students' satisfaction, psychosocial environment and physical environment were quite different among students from classes with different gender compositions.

The present study investigated whether gender differences were present on the confidence judgments made by 8th grade Taiwanese students on the accuracy of their responses to acid-base test items. A total of 147 (76 male, 71 female) students provided item-specific confidence judgments during a test of their knowledge of acids and bases. Using the correctness of the answer responses, a confidence rating score, an unweighted rating score, and a relative confidence rating score were calculated for each respondent. The correlations between the boys and girls for each score area showed girls as scoring higher than boys in their knowledge of acids and bases, were more confident in this knowledge, and more willing to express different levels of confidence among the test items.

This study investigated the effects of exposure to pseudoscientific television (TV) programs upon Taiwanese citizens' pseudoscientific beliefs. The beliefs and practices of pseudoscience portrayed in the media may misguide the citizens in making life choices that may lead to negative consequences. Participants of this study included 2,024 individuals who were selected using probability proportional to size sampling method. Interviews were conducted and survey data were quantitatively analyzed by means of stepwise multiple regressions and reported with the use of cross tables. Results revealed exposure to pseudoscientific TV programs as a strong predictor of Taiwanese citizens' pseudoscientific beliefs and that younger citizens demonstrate more pseudoscientific beliefs and practices than older citizens. Researchers of this study proposed the need for making better use of mass media as a way to educate citizens about science and reduce pseudoscientific beliefs.

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the attitudes of Taiwanese adult citizens over 18 years of age toward science and technology. A theoretical model is constructed and evaluated to identify factors that affect public attitudes. Differences in citizens' gender, age, and educational level are also examined to determine whether they parallel differences found in their attitudes. Citizens were selected using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling. A total of 2,024 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The results showed that citizens' scientific knowledge promotes positive attitudes toward techno-scientific issues, which are reflected in their high level of support for scientific development, research and application, as well as recognition of global warming and impression of scientists. Additionally, citizens of different genders, ages, and educational levels have significant differences in their attitudes toward science and technology. Implications for formal and informal science education are discussed.

This study investigated the students' learning process of the concept of concentration at the elementary school level in Taiwan. The influence of different representational types on the process of proportional reasoning was also explored. The participants included nineteen third-grade and eighteen fifth-grade students. Eye-tracking technology was used in conducting the experiment. The materials were adapted from Noelting's (1980a) "orange juice test" experiment. All problems on concentration included three stages (the intuitive, the concrete operational, and the formal operational), and each problem was displayed in iconic and symbolic representations. The data were collected through eye-tracking technology and post-test interviews. The results showed that the representational types influenced students' solving of concentration problems. Furthermore, the data on eye movement indicated that students used different strategies or rules to solve concentration problems at the different stages of the problems with different representational types. This study is intended to contribute to the understanding of elementary school students' problem-solving strategies and the usability of eye-tracking technology in related studies.

This paper presents the results of a case study involving 282 Taiwanese elementary science teachers at the elementary level. These teachers provided responses to the science efficacy instrument (STEBI-A) and also provided personal data regarding how their years of general (YTE) and science (YTS) teaching experience may have influenced student achievement in science. Researchers used two multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to investigate the interaction and influence of YTE and YTS upon the personal science teaching efficacy (PSTE) and science teaching outcome expectations (STOE) of these teachers. The results advocate the position that the years of general teaching experience of elementary science teachers in Taiwan have a significantly greater impact upon their personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectations than years of teaching science. This evidence calls into question whether Bandura and Tschannen-Moran's view of teacher efficacy as both context and subject matter specific at the elementary level can be applied to Taiwan elementary teachers who teach science. The results of this study should benefit educators and policy-makers with respect to future elementary teacher education throughout Taiwan and other developing nations.

The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a new instrument, the "Mental State in Learning Environment Questionnaire" (MSLEQ), to assess student's mental state in a given learning environment. The MSLEQ has high internal consistency reliability values between 0.70-0.92 as well as good construct validity and predictive validity. After conducting a factor analysis, four main factors were extracted and were described as "emotion", "intention", "internal mental representation" and "external mental representation". The important feature of this study is the construction of an economical questionnaire on the mental state in a given learning environment. The questionnaire yielded important information that can be concretely applied to science teaching and learning.