Student Engagement and Learning Performance at a University in Transition: An Experience from Taiwan

轉型中的大學之學生參與度及學習成效之研究

不同類型的大學，包括單一性別(純女校或純男校)及男女合校，對於男、女學生的學習可能有不同的影響，因而導致不同的學習經驗與成果。本研究旨於探討台南科技大學由純女校轉型為男女合校的過渡時期中，有關學生學習參與度及其學習成果的相關議題。本研究根據亞斯丁博士的學生投入學習理論以及輸入-環境-產出模式，調查學生投入學習的參與度及其學習成果是否與學校環境為單一性別或是男女合校有關聯，研究資料係經由問卷調查和學生成績而來。問卷調查使用的是學生投入學習問卷中文版，共計發出560份，收回537份，回收率達96%。而學生成績則是由校方提供，共含三項成績，分別為大一英文(N=1，198)，電腦資訊與應用(N=1，023)，以及學期平均成績(N=1，719)。研究結果顯示學生投入學習及其學習成果，不論是在不同學習環境(純女生班及男女合班)或是在兩性之間皆有顯著差異，意即顯示學校環境的改變確實會造成學生學習上的影響。隨著學校的持續發展，學校環境如何影響學生投入學習及其學習成果，需要校方及師生加以特別地關注。

Different types of institutions， including single-sex and coeducation， may provide students with varied institutional practices which affect both male and female students in various ways， leading to different learning experience and outcomes. In this study， issues related to the transition from a single-sex to a coeducational university， student engagement， and learning outcomes at Tainan University of Technology (TUT) in Taiwan were examined. Based on Astin’s theory of student involvement and input-environment-outcome (I-E-O) model， this study investigated whether student engagement and learning outcomes were independent of single-sex or coeducational college environment. Data were collected through surveys and from students’ academic scores. A Chinese version of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) questionnaire has been distributed to a convenience sample of 560 students， where 537 of them were returned， and resulted in a response rate of 96%. From random samples， students’ academic scores in English (N=1，198) and Computer and Information Application (N=1，023)， as well as semester average scores (N=1，719) were obtained from the authorities of TUT. Pearson correlation and Spearman’s rho were utilized to examine the correlations among variables. Independent-samples t-test， Mann-Whitney U test， and one-way ANOVA with post hoc test were used to investigate the differences between variables. Regarding student engagement and learning outcomes， significant differences and correlations were found between the single-sex and coeducational classes， as well as between the males and females. With the study presented in this paper， it implied that the environmental change at TUT had repercussions in students’ learning; and this needs special attention by all.