An overview of the book (291 English words):

The book collects eight speeches or seminar papers, which were successively presented by six local Taiwanese educators, educational policy-makers and assessment specialists and one Canadian comparativist (named Prof. David Wilson, coming from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, The University of Toronto, Canada) at the Graduate Institute of Comparative Education at National Chi-nan University in Taiwan in the school year 1996. The range of topics covered widely, ranging from educational psychology to educational reforms, from formal basic and tertiary education to technical-vocation education and from local national education bodies to multi-national or international organizations in the field of comparative education.

Chapter one discusses the applications of individual psychology into micro-sociology, developmental psychology and interpersonal skills. Chapter two firstly pinpoints five typical characteristics of educational reforms taking place in international perspective: accountability, humanistic, core curriculum, deregulation and equality. Secondly, it articulates some causative or correlational factors for recent educational reforms like minimizing studying pressure when further studies, equality of educational opportunities, marketization of higher education, life-long learning and reconstructing teaching and learning materials during holistic reforms.

Chapter three focuses on the relationship between International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement  (IEA) and comparative education. It brings out the historical establishment, formal structure and running mode of IEA. In particular, various aspects of IEA research are scrutinized, including its functions, objectives, models, theoretical frameworks, research hypotheses and methodology.

Chapter four is specified in analyzing the models, trends, organizations and implementation problems of higher education in Taiwan whilst chapter six scrutinizes the educational policy-making process in Taiwan, based on some theoretical frameworks of colonialism and cultural relativism.   .

Chapters five, seven and eight respectively summarize key points of prevocational educational reforms, current situations and future trends of technical-vocational education in Taiwan and Canada.

Back to Book Reviews