Owing to ethnic groups of Taiwan are diverse, multicultural education becomes an essential issue and has recently drawn the public's attention. The indigenous students and the newly immigrated children were viewed as a minority group in education in Taiwan. In the subjects of science and mathematics, the indigenous students and the newly immigrant students fell behind those of other ethnic children. According to research, if teachers lack multicultural knowledge and ignore students' life experiences, they have difficulties integrating different cultures into science concepts. It might cause different ethic students to lose interests in learning and get low achievements on science curriculums. Based on the above, understanding the cultural differences of ethnic students and how they learn in science subjects should be addressed.
This study attempts to probe deeply into the elementary science teachers' perceptions on multicultural education literacy, curriculum practice and professional development process. Specifically, the purposes of this study are as follows: 1) To understand elementary science teachers' perceptions on multicultural education literacy. 2) To explore elementary science teachers' curriculum practice with regard to multicultural education. 3) To explore elementary science teachers' professional development process. To achieve the above goals, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations will be conducted in this study. Based on the results, suggestions will be provided to the elementary science teachers in carrying out the multicultural education curriculum in the future.
Abstract: