Meng-Jung Tsai

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at National Taiwan Normal University

This study employed eye-tracking technology to examine how students with different levels of prior knowledge process text and data diagrams when reading a web-based scientific report. Students' visual behaviors were tracked and recorded when they read a report demonstrating the relationship between the greenhouse effect and global climate change in...

This study employed an eye-tracking technique to examine students’ visual attention when solving a multiple-choice science problem. Six university students participated in a problem-solving task to predict occurrences of landslide hazards from four images representing four combinations of four factors. Participants’ responses and visual attention w...

This study aims to disclose how eye-tracking technology has been applied to studies of learning, and what eye movement measures have been used for investigations by reviewing studies that have employed the eye-tracking approach. A total of 81 papers including 113 studies were selected from the Social Sciences Citation Index database from 2000 to 20...

How individuals process and understand controversial scientific issues with social implications has been linked to their beliefs about epistemic justification, which concern how knowledge claims can be justified. In this study, we used cluster analysis to classify undergraduate and graduate students (n = 46) based on their beliefs about epistemic j...

This research aimed to investigate the structural relationships among teachers’ computational thinking (CT), design thinking (DT), robotics teaching beliefs, and robotics pedagogical content knowledge (RPCK). A total of 98 in-service and pre-service teachers who participated in a robotics teaching professional development workshop served as the sam...

Background Data visualizations transform data into visual representations such as graphs, diagrams, charts and so forth, and enable inquiries and decision-making in many professional fields, as well as in public and economic areas. How students’ data visualization literacy (DVL), including constructing, comprehending, and utilizing adequate data vi...

While research has shown that students’ epistemic beliefs can be a strong predictor of their academic performance, cognitive abilities, or self-efficacy, studies of this topic in computer education are rare. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, it aimed to validate a newly developed questionnaire for measuring students’ epistemic beliefs a...

Critical reading is required for information literacy in the 21st century. However, how students read and process conflicting information regarding controversial issues is still not clear. Using eye-tracking technology, this exploratory study aimed to identify visual behavior patterns that characterized critical reading strategies when students pro...

This study aims to examine the effects of instructional designs with a pre-training video and real-time cues on game-based learning process and task outcomes. Forty-four university students from different disciplines were randomly assigned into four groups under a 2 x 2 experimental design (with/without a pre-training video versus more/less-relevan...

This study aimed to develop the Computational Thinking Test for Elementary School Students (CTT-ES) to assess young children’s CT competencies in non-programming contexts and also examine the relationship between CT competencies and CT dispositions. A survey including a pool of CTT-ES candidate items and the Computational Thinking Scale (CTS) was a...

Crime scene investigation serves as an important source of information for law enforcement officers when running a case. Effective leads are uncovered based on the knowledge, technique, and experience of the crime scene investigator. This study utilized eye-tracking technology to understand different decision makers'visual behaviors and decision-ma...

Background Collaborative computer simulations are available on some online platforms which support students at distributed locations to synchronously collaborate on the simulations to learn sciences. However, how students collaborate with each other in collaborative simulations is not clear. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate whet...

A prior study developed the Computational Thinking Scale (CTS) for assessing individuals’ computational thinking dispositions in five dimensions: decomposition, abstraction, algorithmic thinking, evaluation, and generalization. This study proposed the Developmental Model of Computational Thinking through validating the structural relationships amon...

This study aims to disclose how the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) neuroimaging approach has been applied in education studies, and what kind of learning themes has been investigated in the reviewed MRI neuroimaging research. Based on the keywords “brain or neuroimaging or neuroscience” and “MRI or diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or white matter o...

Online information problem solving (OIPS) is essential for 21st century information literacy which requires information selection competencies. However, students usually have problems in discriminating information from complex web sources. This study, utilizing eye-tracking technology, aims to examine the relationships among learners’ visual search...

Improving students’ in-depth understanding of physicsPhysics conceptual frameworks is a central goal of physics learning. Traditional instructional approaches, however, have been repeatedly reported as having little effect on achieving this goal (e.g., Hake, 1998; Kim & Pak, 2002; Trowbridge & McDermott, 1981), and many educators have strived to ad...

Robotics education has gradually been emphasized in contemporary school curricula; however, assessment tools for robotics learning are still limited. Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives, this study aimed to develop the Robotics Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (RLSES) with a two-level construct of five dimensions for assessing students’...

Recent advancements in Web and HTML5 techniques have made collaborative simulations able to support a shared workspace and more synchronous collaboration in a single simulation. However, previous studies show divergent findings regarding the effects of the new features of collaborative simulations. To better understand the affordances and limitatio...

Computational thinking has received tremendous attention from computer science educators and educational researchers in the last decade. However, most prior literature defines computational thinking as thinking outcomes rather than thinking processes. Based on Selby and Woodland’s framework, this study developed and validated the Computational Thin...

To explore the role of design thinking in contemporary computer literacy education, this study aimed to examine the relationship between young students’ design thinking disposition and their computer programming self-efficacy. To assess students’ design thinking disposition, this study developed the Design Thinking Disposition Scale (DTDS) with a s...

This study was to explore the relationships between students' visual behaviors and cognitive structures, as well as between their visual behaviors and information processing modes in the reading of controversial reports on a socio-scientific issue. An eye-tracking technique was used to record students' visual behaviors while reading, and the flow m...

The aim of this study was, first, to validate the instruments of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Games (TPACK-Games) and the Game-based-learning Teaching Belief Scale (GTBS). Second, a series of analyses were conducted to examine differences and relationships among the factors of the TPACK-Games and GTBS, in terms of different school le...

This study aimed to investigate the role the students’ prior knowledge in their visual attention and behavioral patterns while playing a digital game. The participants were 39 fourth graders from an elementary school in the southern part of Taiwan. The Tobii 4C Eye Tracker (with a sampling rate of 90Hz) was utilized to track the students’ visual at...

The purpose of this study was to explore how students interacted with guidance to conduct a scientific inquiry in a physics simulation by using the eye-tracking techniques. The participants were 51 7th graders, and an eye-tracking system was used to record their visual behaviors and log data while they were using the simulation. As for data analysi...

Collaborative problem solving is a core ability that has been highly valued in recent years. Collaborative problem solving activities allow learners develop collaboration skills. In science education, collaborative learning with simulations enables learners to manipulate a science problem to explore scientific concepts. However, the collaboration d...

This study aimed to examine how different forms (still pictures vs. animations) of seductive illustrations impact text‐and‐graphic learning processes, perceptions, and outcomes. An eye‐tracking experiment of three groups (static, dynamic, control) was conducted with 60 college and graduate students while learning with PowerPoint slides about infant...

The purpose of the study is to explore user’s online information searching behavior via incorporating eye tracking tool with conventional user research methods and an emphasis on how eye tracking data can reveal a deeper understanding of user behaviors, specifically of interest is scan path analysis. The National Central Library (NCL) website was s...

This study was to investigate the role of students’ game self-efficacy in their game performance as well as in their visual behavior distributions and transfer patterns during their gameplay. A total of 48 university students were recruited for participating in a gameplaying task while wearing with an ASL Mobile Eye eye-tracker. After the gameplay,...

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an online contextualized test for assessing students’ understanding of epistemic knowledge of science. In addition, how students’ understanding of epistemic knowledge of science interacts with learner factors, including time spent on science learning, interest, self-efficacy, and gender, was als...

Computer programming has been gradually emphasized in recent computer literacy education and regarded as a requirement for all middle school students in some countries. To understand young students’ perceptions about their own learning in computer programming, this study aimed to develop an instrument, Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale (CPSE...

The main purpose of this study was to provide instructional suggestions for supporting science learning in digital environments based on a review of eye tracking studies in e-learning related areas. Thirty-three eye-tracking studies from 2005 to 2014 were selected from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database for review. Through a literatu...

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between the self-efficacies and the attitudes toward Web-based Recipe Learning (WRL) of 296 culinary college students in Taiwan. Factors of the WRL Self-Efficacy Scale and the WRL Attitudes Scale were identified in this study using exploratory factor analyses. Both scales showed a good inte...

Using the Game-based-learning Teaching Belief Scale (GTBS) and the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge-Games questionnaire (TPACK-G), this study investigated 316 Taiwanese in-service teachers' teaching beliefs about game-based learning and their perceptions of game-based pedagogical content knowledge (GPCK). Both t-tests and ANOVA analyses...

This study examined the gender difference in students' perceived discussion strategies in face-to-face and online asynchronous contexts. A survey of 363 university students and follow-up interviews of 20 participants was conducted to examine any gender differences within each context and between the two contexts. The Discussion Strategies Scale was...

Online information searching tasks are usually implemented in a technology-enhanced science curriculum or merged in an inquiry-based science curriculum. The purpose of this study was to examine the role students’ different levels of scientific epistemic beliefs (SEBs) play in their online information searching strategies and behaviors. Based on the...

This pilot study was attempted to explore the relationships among cognitive load, visual behavior, and reading comprehension in augmented reality (AR) learning environment. An ASL MobileEye-XG eye-tracking system was used to record the participants' visual behaviors while they read Taiwan traditional folk belief information demonstrated by AR techn...

This study aimed to explore how graphical design effects on learner's E-book control and visual behaviors by an eye-tracking experiment. The participants were twelve university students with novice experience of Spanish who were asked to read and learn basic Spanish vocabularies in E-book display on iPad. Participants were randomly assigned into tw...

This pilot study examined learning English vocabulary by an E-book from cognitive load aspect, and adopted eye-tracking data as a reference to investigate participants' attention distribution among learning targets, pictures and background graphics. An ASL Mobile Eye-XG eye-tracking system was used to record participants' visual behaviors in this s...

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument regarding teachers' belief, confidence and motivation of digital game-based learning pedagogies. A pool of 30 items was developed by revising items from Grove, Bourgonjon and Van Looy (2012)'s scale. A survey was used to examine and validate the instrument's structure and reliability. The parti...

The purpose of the study was to explore the judgment criteria used by university students for evaluating online information about a socio-scientific issue and the associations, if any, with their epistemic beliefs. The problem context was a socio-scientific issue concerning the impact of electromagnetic waves on human health. The participants were...

This study explored graphical design effects on learner's E-book control, visual behaviors and learning performance by a pilot eye-tracking experiment. Twelve university students with novice experience of Spanish language participated in an e-book reading task to learn basic Spanish vocabularies. All participants were randomly assigned into two gro...

This study investigates the role of search context played in university students' online information searching strategies. A total of 304 university students in Taiwan were surveyed with questionnaires in which two search contexts were defined as searching for learning, and searching for daily life information. Students' online search strategies we...

Due to a growing trend of exploring scientific knowledge on the Web, a number of studies have been conducted to highlight examination of students’ online searching strategies. The investigation of online searching generally employs methods including a survey, interview, screen-capturing, or transactional logs. The present study firstly intended to...

This study explored the instructional effects on students' visual attention allocations in game-based science learning by a pilot eye-tracking experiment. Seventeen university students with science or engineering backgrounds participated in a digital game for applying electromagnet concepts to solve problems. A video instruction was used as concept...

Internet‐based science learning has been advocated by many science educators for more than a decade. This review examines relevant research on this topic. Sixty‐five papers are included in the review. The review consists of the following two major categories: (1) the role of demographics and learners' characteristics in Internet‐based science learn...

This paper reviews 46 papers from 1999 to 2009 regarding self-efficacy in Internet-based learning environments, and discusses three major categories of research: (1) learners' Internet self-efficacy, assessing learners' confidence in their skills or knowledge of operating general Internet functions or applications in Internet-based learning; (2) th...

This study aimed to explore nutritional science students' and in-service dietitians' information commitments and Internet attitudes toward online nutritional information. The subjects were 340 nutritional science students and in-service dietitians in Taiwan. Two instruments, Information Commitments Survey (ICS) and Internet Attitude Scale (IAS), we...

This paper investigated the gender differences in junior high school students’ Internet self-efficacy and their use of the Internet. A total of 1080 eighth graders were randomly selected from all junior high school students in Taiwan. The Internet Self-Efficacy Scale (ISES) was developed and used to examine students’ Internet self-efficacy in two d...

This study developed an instrument to evaluate student online information searching strategies based on a framework comprising three domains and seven aspects. Two versions of the Online Information Searching Strategies Inventory (OISSI), including both quick and complete versions, were finally established and exhibited good validities and reliabil...

This paper presents the Model of Strategic e-Learning to explain and evaluate student e-learning from metacognitive perspectives. An in-depth interview, pilot study and main study are employed to construct the model and develop an instrument—the Online Learning Strategies Scale (OLSS). The model framework is constructed and illustrated by four dime...

This study presented a pilot development of the Online Learning Strategies Scale (OLSS) for evaluating students' online learning strategies. In-depth interviews were used for collecting candidate items of the scale. A survey based on the pool of candidate items was then administered to 136 students and a factor analysis was used to examine its cons...

The purpose of this study is to explore gender differences among adolescents who play computer games: key areas of study include hours played, motivation, enjoyment experienced, and the impacts on the students’ lives. The data were obtained from 535 Taiwan high school students. Results indicated that males spent more time playing computer games tha...

People are living in a society with numerous applications of computer technology; hence, achieving the goal of computer literacy is currently implemented in schools at various levels. In general, computer literacy includes basic knowledge and skills of computer technology (computer achievement), computer attitudes, and computer anxiety. This study...

The purpose of this study was to explore students' information searching strategies in Web-based science learning activities and further examine the influence of students' Internet self-efficacy on these strategies. Eight subjects were randomly selected from a pool of 73 college freshmen based on mixed genders and Internet self-efficacy levels. In-...

In order to answer why adolescents like to play computer games and what do they play, this study explores the correlates of Taiwan high school students' motivations, behaviors and pleasures related to computer game playing. Five hundred and thirty five valid data were collected. The results indicate that respondents spend an average of 4.15 hours p...

This study investigated the impacts of strategic learning, cooperative learning, and their combination on junior high school students' computer achievement, attitudes, and anxiety. A total of 155 Taiwanese eighth graders participated in this study. Regarding computer achievement, a significant interaction was found between gender and learning conte...

Although educators over the past decade have developed various scales measuring students' computer attitudes, few of them have constructed scales specifically for attitudes towards the Internet. The purpose of this study was to develop an Internet attitude scale for high school students. Through both revising a previous scale proposed by Selwyn (19...