Ⅰ、History
According to the rules from the Ministry of Education, NTUA opens common required courses. However, these affairs have been solved not by chairman, but by office of the dean of studies. As a result, the president started to apply the full-time professor to serve as the chairman in 1998.
In order to make the ideal of perfect people comes true, since the school year of 89, the name of “common courses” has become “General Education Center.”
Ⅱ、Goals
The goal of the general education at NTUA is to guide students to learn comprehensibly and broadly and cultivate humanism quality, civic morality, global perspectives, teamwork spirit, and autonomous learning so as to achieve the goals of lifelong education and society service.
Our courses are divided into five major categories:
1. Languages
2. Humanity
3. Social Science
4. Science & Technology
5. Cross-disciplinary
Our courses are to develop five qualities:
1. Humanism quality
2. Civic morality
3. Global perspectives
4. Teamwork spirit
5. Autonomous learning
Our courses are to boost six core abilities:
1. Linguistic communication
2. Culture appreciation
3. Morality fulfillment
4. People skills
5. Critical thinking
6. Application of technology .
Ⅲ、Courses
Liberal studies and artistic courses are complimentary. Art classes from every department don’t contain liberal studies because they emphasize on Social Science and the Natural Science. In humanity, we want to connect literature, history, and philosophy with art. We hope students can have balanced development and make students understand it through courses. We want to let students realize not only how to be independent people in the modern society by themselves (psychology or physiology) but also the social environment as well as natural world. To respond to the school’s development and social transition, we are trying to implement course redesigning as follows:
A. Implementing “General Education Course Project”:
The Center has reduced required courses and increased elective ones to provide students with multiple choices. There are totally 30 credits in this course design. Besides the 8 credits in language fields, which are all required courses, there are 6 credits to take in each of the other four categories: humanity, social science, science & technology, and cross-disciplinary. The design is to develop the five qualities: humanism quality, civic morality, global perspectives, teamwork spirit, and autonomous learning. In addition, it aims to cultivate the six core abilities including linguistic communication, culture appreciation, morality fulfillment, people skills, critical thinking, and application of technology.
B. Enriching Courses:
To correct the parochialism resulting from students taking only professional courses, the Center has designed a variety of courses. The courses in general fields are divided into the following 4 groups: Humanity, Social Science, Science & Technology and Cross-disciplinary. According to this division, the Center provides a series of courses which altogether constitute the main academic issues of the above groups. Each series of courses is made up of courses that are related. And if students show an approving response to this design, the Center will enlarge the series of courses into a ‘program,’ which consists of more related courses.
C. Reinforcing Teaching Design:
To allocate resources reasonably and to execute curriculum-division, the Center offers basic courses on computer application, engraving, and languages. Entering NTUA, each undergraduate is required to take an exam on English competency. According to the results of this exam, different levels of English courses—from the basic through the intermediate to the advanced—are designed so that learning may be competency-based. In the teaching of Chinese, the emphasis is on reading and writing, with the purpose to enhance students’ reading and writing abilities.
D. Arts and General Education Courses:
In spite of the fact that there are no professional arts courses in this design, the Center will come up with seminars, community activities, lectures (on special topics), and reading groups to promote all kinds of arts, which is the very devotion of NTUA. Besides, the Center will also provide cross-disciplinary courses, in which all kinds of arts can be integrated.
Ⅳ、Teachers
10 full-time teachers serve in the center. These teachers work in six clubs in the center. They need to be responsible for teaching schedule and direction to teaching. In this way, they can help to study and improve education.
The full-time teachers contain 8 associate professors, 2 assistant professor and 2 teaching assistants. The full-time teachers are totally 10 people.
Ⅴ、Equipment
This center is located the fourth floor in the teaching building. Now there are 1central office, 1 teacher restroom, 1 conference room, 1 small discussion room and 7 teacher’s laboratories (every 2 people in one room).
Offices are equipped with a photocopier, a fast printer, 4 portable receivers, an epidiascope, 2 ordinary projectors, 3 Single slide projectors, 2 slide projectors, 2 movable TV sets, 2 movable single slide projectors, 2 notebooks, a digital camera and a few VCD or DVD or books to borrow.
Ⅵ、The Prospect
The center will spare no effort to promote the humanities of accomplishment of the school students from the following aspect:
（Ⅰ）Molding the model of the specialty of the general education: establish the specialty image of the general education in the campus, through the improvement of the general education curriculums, the promotion of the research quality, the popularization of the ideal of the general education.
（Ⅱ） Improving teaching method: improve the teaching quality through the periodical deliberation, the exchange of experiences, and the introduction of new knowledge.
（Ⅲ） Updating teaching equipment: replace the present devices and introduce new video and audio equipment.
（Ⅳ） Implementing course redesigning: reduce required courses and design a series of related courses.
（Ⅴ） Promoting research quality: advocate the research atmosphere, circulate the channel of opinion and effectively develop the scholastic research atmosphere.
（Ⅵ） Developing teaching resources: link up with the inside and outside school resources and quote newest media like long-distance teaching, and expand teaching effect.
（Ⅶ） Enhancing inter-collegiate exchange: further inter-scholastic aspect and resources on curriculum, teachers, experience, research results sharing.
Mainstream Courses
Our courses are designed into two mainstream courses: Social Science and Nature Science. We hope our students will be able to have balanced development psychologically and physiologically through the courses. The students realize not only how to be independent people in the modern society by themselves but also the social environment as well as nature world.
Instructions: The General Education provides courses in five major categories. The minimum credits for graduation will be 26 for full-time students registered as day division.
PS: For foreign students, English courses can be waived if you provide the required documents. ( if you have studied in the secondary school in an English-spoken country for over six years. )
Faculty -
Min-chen Tseng, Professor and Chair
Academic Background: Ph. D. in TESOL, English Department, Tamkang University
Specialty: TESOL,Second Language Acquisition, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Sociolinguistics
Chun-Ying Jang, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Fontbonne Colledge U.S.A MASTER of ART
Specialty: ntroduction of Arts, History of Western Art
Chin-Ho Chao, Associate Professor
Academic Background: M.A.Department of History, National Chengchi University
Specialty: History of Western Culture, History of Chinese Culture, History of Taiwan
Shean-Huey Chen, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Ph.D. Department of History, National Chengchi University
Specialty: History of Modern China, History of Taiwan, History of Cultural China, Oral History
Jui-Fen Chen, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Doctor degree from Chinese Literature graduate school of Chinese Culture University
Specialty: Chinese poetry, Cih(a form of classical poetry in Song dynasty) and Cyu (a form of classical poetry in Yuan dynasty), Selected legends for Tang dynasty, Selected drama for Yuan dynasty, Selected classical novals
Huei-Mei Shih, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Fontbonne Colledge U.S.A MASTER of ART
Specialty: Introduction to Arts, History of Western Art, Color Theory
Hsing-Chih Tsai, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Ph. D., Department of Philosophy, National Chengchi University
Specialty: Philosophy, Logic reasoning
Hong-Lin Li, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Ph. D., Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University
Specialty: Theoretical linguistics, Language and cognition
Chuan-Yu Ko, Associate Professor
Academic Background: Ph. D., Department of Diplomacy, National Chengchi University
Specialty: International relations, IPR, Volunteerism
Li-Hua Chiang, Associate Professor
Academic Background: PhD, Universite de Paris I -Panthéon Sorbonne
Specialty: Art Research Methodologies, History of Modern Art, Contemporary Art Theories, Photography, Contemporary Art
Li-Hua Chiang, Associate Professor
Academic Background: PhD, Universite de Paris I -Panthéon Sorbonne
Specialty: Art Research Methodologies, History of Modern Art, Contemporary Art Theories, Photography, Contemporary Art
Shih-Ping Wang, Assistant Professor
Academic Background: Ph.D. in Chinese Literature,National Taiwan Normal University
Specialty: Zhou Yi, Chinese Philosophy, Chinese Language Teaching, Chinese Reading and Writing