Organized by Taiwan Congress on College General Education (TCCGE), co-hosted by Center for General Education and Core Curriculum and Center for Teacher Professional Development of Office of Academic Affairs, College of Education, and Center for Ocean and Underwater Technology Research (COUTR), TKU, 2022 International Conference on General Education, Teaching Practice Research and STEAM Education, and Annual Meeting of Taiwan Congress on College General Education @TKU was held at Hsu Shou-Chlien International Conference Center on November 18-19. The theme of the conference was “Transformation of Higher Education and Dialogue between College General Education and STEAM Education”. TKU President Huan-Chao Keh, Chairperson Flora Chia-I Chang, Yi-Huah Jiang, Chinese Bud Chair Professor(紫荊講座教授) of National Chung Cheng University (NCCU), presidents of a number of universities, over 200 teachers and students from domestic universities and scholars from the United States attended the conference.

In his welcome speech, President Keh firstly introduced the status quo, “Triple Objectives of Education”, education mission and the goal at current stage of TKU. He appreciated the participation, sharing of their experience of general education, teaching practice research, and STEAM education of all domestic and international scholars and experts. And he wished everyone to return with rewarding results. President of TCCGE, Chair Professor of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of COUTR, Jin-Yuan Liu introduced that general education is the foundation and core of college education, and the cornerstone of professional education. Nowadays, under the rapid development of science and technology and change of the environment, it is critical for college education to train students to possess the capability of humanistic and environmental care as well as interdisciplinary integration. Based on the principle of resource sharing, the conference combines general education, teaching practice research, and STEAM education so that scholars and experts from different but similar fields will be able to exchange and share their ideas and produce more inspirations.

As the Chairman of President Forum, Professor Yi-Huah Jiang mentioned that the importance of general education and the transformation of general curriculum has caught attention since more than 2 decades ago, but in recent years, the situation has changed because colleges and universities developed individually. He hopes that such issues can be discussed during the conference. President Keh, as the moderator of the forum, talked about “New Horizon of Higher Education – Changes and Transformations”, the topic of the forum, from the problem of low fertility and its countermeasures, performance of school running, to building a new landscape of TKU by way of the Fifth Wave, dual-track transformation, and digital transformation and sustainable development. President Tsai-Yen Li of NCCU, President Tai-Wen Hsu of National Taiwan Ocean University, President Victor W. Liu of Chung Hua University, President Mou-Chuan Huang of Asia Eastern University of Science and Technology, and Vice President Shih-Jen Yeh of Dayeh University talked about school governance, general education and other topics. In discussion time, they exchanged their opinions about “How should the latest social trend be included in study plan of each department?”, “The integration of AI and general education”, “Linking Curriculum Guidelines of 12-year Basic Education and college education”, etc.

SDGs #SDG04 Quality Education #SDG17 Partnerships for the Goals

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