News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　National Chiayi University is the result of the merger of Chiayi Junior Teachers College, now the Teachers College of NCYU, and National Chiayi Institute of Technology in 2000. Since its establishment 64 years ago, the Teachers College has shown remarkable achievements in development of preschool and compulsory education. The college consists of six departments/graduate institutes (including Education, Guidance and Counseling, Physical Education, Health and Recreation, Special Education, Early Childhood Education, and E-learning Design and Management), two independent graduate institutes (including Educational Administration and Policy Development, and Mathematics and Science Education), and the all-English Global Master Program of Teaching Profession. The fundamental goal is to nurture high-quality teachers for junior high and elementary schools, special education and kindergartens. It is one of the few comprehensive teacher training colleges in Taiwan dedicated to training of teachers across four domains. By training outstanding teachers with a wealth of academic research results and professional faculty in the field of education, it sees it as its duty to assist schools in the Yunlin and Chiayi region to facilitate high-quality teaching and learning. It also expects itself to offer a high-quality teacher training environment by improving the quality of education as a profession.

Demonstrating the Strength of Education Policy-oriented Research Ranging from Kindergarten to New Immigrant Education
　　NCYU pioneers in nurturing teachers in the Yunlin and Chiayi region, and shoulders the social responsibility of upgrading the teaching, academic research and industry in the region. It is dedicated to applying for research projects and cooperative work opportunities from central and local governments, in such fields as education administration, social administration, health and welfare, as well as from private education institutions. In accordance with teachers’ educational research and practice, it is engaged in conducting studies that are oriented towards educational policies, including: the design project of the kindergarten health promotion toolkit (electronic version); kindergarten quality management promotion project; construction of a database for preschool children’s learning; supporting measures for twelve-year national basic education curriculum; research, compilation and promotion of mother tongue teaching materials for new immigrant families; facilitation of local education counseling and special education for national elementary schools in the Yunlin and Chiayi region; a survey on the principles of universal design for learning implemented in the courses of colleges and universities; integration of CDIO engineering education model and STEM education into programming curriculum; curricular development and teaching design of food education in elementary schools in Taiwan; and a collaborative project on digital medicine textbooks.

Educational Strategic Alliance with 40 Partner Schools for a Win-win Situation
　　NCYU has been signing an agreement on an educational strategic alliance with 40 local and neighboring schools since early 2019. The objective is to provide prospective teachers of NCYU with diversified channels for apprenticeships, internships and visits, integrate literacy-oriented teaching resources in accordance with new curriculum standards, promote academic cooperation, and effectively utilize inter-school resources to enhance the overall effectiveness for both parties. It is also expected to create a win-win situation by facilitating the integration and implementation of new curriculum adopted by elementary and junior high schools in terms of courses, teaching, research and teacher training, and enhancing the quality of education for young students with outstanding potential in Chiayi.

High-quality Teaching Internships that Demonstrate Education as a Profession
　　The NCYU Teachers College has been nurturing teaching professionals in various domains, and proactively working with county and city governments in providing diversified professional services in education. The professional services include professional consulting services in such areas as adaptive instruction, remedial teaching, subject teaching, special education, gifted education, and multiple assessment. They also collaborate with teachers in practice to develop curriculum and teaching methods, diagnose students’ learning problems, and strategize on how to improve teaching practices. By assisting local schools to improve teaching and learning quality, they hope to maintain high-quality teaching internships for teacher training by improving the quality of education in the region where they provide professional consulting services.

The Number Sense Diagnostic Testing System Wins Ministry of Science and Technology Academic Research Award
　　Lifelong Distinguished Professor Yang Der-Ching of the Graduate Institute of Mathematics and Science Education, who has been committed to boosting number sense skills for elementary school students, demonstrates innovativeness and uniqueness in the field of mathematics education. He examines the children’s number sense performance (answer options) through a multiple-stage diagnostic testing system, explores the methods used by the children in answering questions (reason options), assesses children’s confidence in selecting answers based on their answers and the problem-solving methods they employ, thus diagnosing the confusions that may arise in solving math questions. The results are provided to teachers in practice to evaluate the performance, confidence and confusions of the math learners, which helps lessen the burden of the teachers. Prof. Yang had been awarded twice the Ministry of Science and Technology Outstanding Research Award with this research project, first in 2015 and second in 2019. As each scholar may receive the award at most twice in his/her lifetime, it is a testament to the remarkable academic achievements Prof. Yang has made.

Numbers of Teacher Education Scholarships and Publicly Funded Students Increasing Year By Year: Higher Employability with Dual Expertise
　　The declining birthrate has dealt an enormous impact on the educational world in Taiwan, leading to fewer vacancies for in-service teachers. The outstanding performance demonstrated by prospective teachers trained at NCYU after graduation has been acknowledged by education departments of different county and city governments. A quota of more than 100 publicly funded students have been provided to NCYU for teacher preparation since the academic year 2017-2018. Compared with other teacher training educational institutions in Taiwan, NCYU is a teacher training university with a relatively large number of publicly funded students. It won the Excellent School Award in the category of elementary and junior high school and kindergarten teacher training for the academic year 2021-2022. Over the years, the passing rates of NCYU’s recently graduated prospective teachers in national teacher qualification examinations have surpassed the average passing rates in Taiwan, which is a remarkable achievement. To enhance the competitiveness of prospective teachers, it provides a second major training platform, where the trainees may obtain a teacher certificate specifying their second major, thus increasing their future employability.

Teacher Training with a Global Perspective: Teaching Design across Borders
　　To prepare prospective teachers with an international outlook, the Teachers College has proactively signed MOUs on international exchange cooperation with more than 10 universities and colleges in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania and Indonesia, among others, so far. The objecitve is to provide more o