| The purpose of this study was to explore Taiwanese women's educational support needs to enter or reenter higher education after they have left school for a period of time for their family or work. Six major research objectives were adopted to guide this study.;A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain data. The population for this study consisted of 970 women who were the members of "Fragrant Mother Association" at Taipei, Taiwan. A Women's Educational Support Needs Questionnaire (WESNQ) was developed by the researcher. A panel of experts consisting of professionals knowledgeable in serving reentry women, research methodology, or adult education was invited to critique and improve the questionnaire. To assure the accurate translation from English to Chinese, both the committee approach and pretesting were adopted.;The reliability of the WESNQ was determined through the data gained from the participating subjects (Cronbach alpha =.89). A cluster sample survey was employed to collect data. For all of the returned questionnaires, 329 of section one (usable response rate = 65.8%) and 130 of section two (usable response rate = 26.0%) were usable. The data analysis involved computing frequency, percentage, mean, factor analysis, ANOVA, and chi-square analysis.;From the results of the investigation, women's educational support needs were identified and categorized into six meaningful factors: (1) financial support needs; (2) coping skills development needs; (3) institutional support needs; (4) academic and career support needs; (5) student oriented programming needs; and (6) relational support needs. Eight items of women's educational support needs had responses higher than 6 on a 7-point scale: (1) practical applications of class material, (2) convenient course timing, (3) classes to help improve study skills, (4) problem solving workshop, (5) child raising and education workshop, (6) peer support group, (7) academic counseling, and (8) help from mentoring system.;Four items of women's educational support needs had responses lower than 4 on a 7-point scale and were included as less necessary areas: (1) student loans, (2) financial aid, (3) child-care services, and (4) delayed payment of tuition.;Seventy-five percent of respondent women were willing to enter or reenter higher education and 24.8% were not willing to attend higher education programs. The major reasons which deterred women from attending higher education were "Not enough learning ability to study in higher education", "Not enough confidence", "No one to share domestic work", and "No one to take care of my children". Most respondent women were interested in pursuing "No degree program", the second place was "Bachelor degree". "Weekdays before 6 p.m." was the most preferred class time, the second preferred class time was "Saturday after 1:30 p.m.". |
