Tzu-Hua Wang is a professor of Department of Education and Learning Technology, College of Education, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan (R.O.C.). He is also the Associate Dean of College of Education, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan (R.O.C.). His research interests include e-Learning, digital assessment, science education, teacher education, interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM education, problematic Internet use/Internet addiction and educational sciences research by using electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking technologies. Professor Tzu-Hua Wang won two academic awards from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (R.O.C.), including Ta-You Wu Memorial Award in 2008 and Outstanding Research Award in 2014. In 2020, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang was elected as the President of the Association of Science Education in Taiwan (ASET) (http://www.ase.org.tw/) to promote the science education and public understanding of science in Taiwan. He also serves as the Lead Guest Editor of a special issue published in International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education (SSCI journal) in 2019 and Editor-in-Chief of Tsing Hua Journal of Educational Research and reviewers for several SSCI journals, including Computers & Education, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education etc. Studies of Professor Tzu-Hua Wang focus on four key aspects: self-directed learning strategies in an e-Learning environment, online science learning environment design, educational neuroscience and technology, and interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM education. He has published more than 20 academic papers in SSCI journals. He also has more than 20 academic papers, written in Chinese, published in key academic journals of Taiwan.

Self-directed learning strategies in an e-Learning environment

In 2010, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang proposed the idea of “assessment as teaching and learning strategy (ATLS) (Wang, 2010).” ATLS emphasizes that in e-Learning, teaching and assessment should be seamlessly combined and assessment should be used as a teaching strategy. In this way, learners can learn actively in an e-Learning environment and e-Learning effectiveness can be ensured. Based on ATLS, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang also proposed an innovative e-Learning environment design architecture, named “assessment-centered e-Learning environment. (Wang, 2014a)” The architecture takes the dynamic assessment theory as its basis. It includes the features of personalized dynamic assessment and personalized e-Learning material adaptive annotation. He also put ATLS into practice and developed the GPAM-WATA e-Learning system (Wang, 2011). The system is also effectively applied in the remedial teaching of mathematics and science in elementary and high schools. In 2013, answering the needs of interactive feedback in an e-Learning environment, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang developed the “Instant Questioning-Answering system (iQA system) (Wang, 2013).” The design and related technologies received the invention patent in Taiwan (R.O.C.). Based on the iQA system, he proposed an innovative system architecture and mechanism for students to raise questions online and the system can reply automatically in an e-Learning environment. Learners can leverage smart mobile devices to raise questions online and get different levels of feedback immediately to improve their own learning.

Online science learning environment design

In 2014, answering the needs of scientific argumentation instruction, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang developed the online argumentation learning system- “Web-based Interactive Argumentation System (WIAS) (Wang, 2014b; Fan, Wang, & Wang, in press).” It provides teaching and learning scaffold to learners so that scientific argumentation instruction can be carried out effectively. The contribution of the WIAS is that the system not only has an innovative design architecture for online argumentation system based on the argumentation model proposed by Lakatos (1978) but is effectively applicable to scientific argumentation instruction. Answering the needs of science laboratory instruction, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang also developed the “Web-based Performance Assessment system (WPA system) (Wang, 2018).” The design and related technologies of the WPA system received the invention patent in Taiwan (R.O.C.). Some of the design and technologies have been applied to developing the “Web‐based multimedia assessment system (WMA system).” In 2019, based on the WMA system, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang proposed an innovative teaching model for science laboratory instruction (Wang, Kao, & Dai, 2019). It allows learners to first perform self-assessment in the WMA system and then work on real science experiment. Via operation of and interaction with multimedia test items in the WMA system, learners are given more individualized learning opportunities so that the effectiveness of science laboratory instruction can be improved.

Educational neuroscience and technology

In 2017, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang led a research team to establish the Research Center for Education and Mind Sciences (RCEMS) (http://rems.site.nthu.edu.tw/) in National Tsing Hua University and was elected as the Director in 2018. The vision of RCEMS is to uncover how students learn, improve teacher education through teacher research and construct evidence-based teaching and learning. There are various hardware and software in the RCEMS, including laboratories for EEG and eye-tracking research, EEG devices, eye-tracking devices, VR/AR devices, educational big data analysis systems and etc. The purpose of RCEMS is to promote and facilitate College of Education faculty in conducting interdisciplinary research on educational sciences. Since 2018, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang has won two important research grants in the field of educational sciences. He is the PI in both research projects and leads several professors in College of Education to do interdisciplinary research on educational sciences. The research projects are “Building an Effective Learning System Based on Cognitive Neuroscience: From Individual Needs to e-Learning New Literacy” and “The Physiological Approach: Improving Attention and Optimization of e-Learning System.” In addition, since Professor Tzu-Hua Wang has been working on online learning for a long time, he also pays special attention to the possible negative influences of online learning on students, for example problematic Internet use/Internet addiction (Wang & Cheng, in press). With the support of RCEMS equipment, he is now working on research about problematic Internet use/Internet addiction, hoping that the research results can reduce or improve student’s problematic Internet use/Internet addiction in the e-Learning era.

Interdisciplinary STEM/STEAM education

In 2018, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang also joined the Academic Team of “Tsing Hua STEAM school (https://tsinghuasteam.org),” and was elected as the Chairperson in 2019. The vision of the “Tsing Hua STEAM School” is to popularize STEAM education so that it can be applied in official school hours; all students will thus have equal opportunities to receive high-quality STEAM education so that the goal of local cultivation and employment of interdisciplinary talents can be achieved. The “Tsing Hua STEAM School” emphasizes K-12 students’ gaining of interdisciplinary learning experiences by solving and understanding daily life phenomena and problems via maker practices. In 2019, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang proposed an innovative teaching model, the DDMT teaching model (http://trh.gase.most.ntnu.edu.tw/en/article/content/74), to facilitate teachers in developing effective STEAM curriculum (Wang, Lim, Lavonen, & Clark-Wilson, 2019). The DDMT teaching model has been introduced to several educational institutions and schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Peru. Professor Tzu-Hua Wang was also invited as a keynote speaker in the International Congress on Education and Technology in Sciences (CISETC) which was held at the Catholic University of Santa María, Arequipa, Peru in December, 2019. In the keynote speech, he introduced the DDMT teaching model and its application in STEAM education. He also conducted two workshops for the science teachers in the CISETC. In 2019, Professor Tzu-Hua Wang started to lead a research project- “Constructing Tsing Hua STEAM School: Inquiry, Design Thinking and Maker Practice”, sponsored by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan (R.O.C.). In this research project, he leads the Academic Team of “Tsing Hua STEAM school” to construct K-12 STEAM curriculum, pre-service and in-service teacher training program, teacher and school certification mechanism based on the DDMT teaching model. In the beginning of 2020, there have been globally more than 65 schools and 500 teachers who complete their training using the DDMT teaching model to construct STEAM curriculum.

References (selected publications)

1. Wang, T. H.  & Cheng, H. Y. (in press). Problematic Internet use among elementary school students: prevalence and risk factors. Information, Communication & Society.
2. Fan, Y. C., Wang, T. H., & Wang, K. H. (in press). Studying the effectiveness of an online argumentation model for improving undergraduate students’ argumentation ability. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. (Corresponding author)
3. Wang, T. H., Lim, K. Y. T., Lavonen, J. & Clark-Wilson, A. (2019). Maker-Centred Science and Mathematics Education: Lenses, Scales and Contexts. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 17 (suppl 1), 1-11.
4. Wang, T. H., Kao, C. H., & Dai, Y. L. (2019). Developing a web-based multimedia assessment system for facilitating science laboratory instruction. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 35 (4), 529-539.
5. Wang, T. H. (2018). Developing a Web-based assessment system for evaluating examinee’s understanding of the procedure of scientific experiments. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 14(5), 1791-1801.
6. Wang, T.H. (2014a). Developing an assessment-centered e-Learning system for improving student learning effectiveness. Computers & Education, 73, 189-203.
7. Wang, T. H. (2014b). Implementation of Web-based argumentation in facilitating elementary school students to learn environmental issues. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(5), 479-496.
8. Wang, T.H. (2013). Web-based Answering Robot: Designing the Instant Questioning-Answering system for education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(5), E143-E148.
9. Wang, T. H. (2011). Implementation of Web-based dynamic assessment in facilitating junior high school students to learn mathematics. Computers & Education, 56(4), 1062-1071.
10. Wang, T. H. (2010). Web-based dynamic assessment: Taking assessment as teaching and learning strategy for improving students’ e-Learning effectiveness. Computers & Education, 54(4), 1157-1166.