Abstract
This study employed questionnaire survey to investigate students’ attitudes of civic participation and their perspectives toward improving the commitment to civic participation. The targeted population was students of the senior high continuation schools in Taichung City, Taichung County and Nantou County.
The followings are main findings generated from this study:
1. Generally speaking, the targeted students’ attitudes of civic participation tend to be positive, but still improvable.
2. Female students’ attitudes are significantly positive than male ones’; there is no obvious difference between adult students (who are over 18 years old) and adolescent ones.
3. Students whose parents apply the positive discipline model show significantly positive attitudes of civic participation than those of the indulgent model; there is no obvious difference between students of various linguistic groups or socio-eco statuses.
4. The attitudes of students studying in the non-commercial, non-industrial departments are significantly positive than those of studying in commercial or industrial departments; students with 3-to-4/5-to-6-semester cadre experiences are significantly positive in attitudes than those without such experiences; the higher the level students sense their school’s democratic atmosphere, the more positive their attitudes are.
5. Students who have ever participated in social service organizations or activities are significantly positive in attitudes than those without such experiences; there is no obvious difference between students of various working experiences.
6. The four effective variables in predicting students’ attitudes of civic participation are the school’s democratic atmosphere, the virtual variable of industrial departments, the virtual variable of 3-to-4-semester cadre experience and the virtual variable of Mandarin.
7. Students tend to agree that citizens themselves, the government, political parties, and social organizations are all responsible for promoting students’ commitment to civic participation (shown by the order of importance).
8. Students tend to agree that both legal system and educational approaches are effective for promoting students’ commitment to civic participation, and the educational approach is more important than the legal system one.
9. Students tend to agree that “pervasive and unimpeded approaches of participation”,
“free and adequate access to public affair information”, “understanding the
meaningfulness of participating in civic affairs”, and “possessing adequate knowledge and ability” are all decisive factors (shown by the order of importance).
Finally, suggestions are offered to education organizations, educators, parents, the government, political parties, social organizations, and successive researchers.
Keywords: the three counties/cities in mid-Taiwan, continuation school, attitudes of civic participation, parents’ discipline model, family’s socio-eco status, school’s democratic atmosphere
