Academic career
After receiving her doctorate, Ko was an adjunct associate professor of education at National Chengchi University and an adjunct professor at Fu Jen Catholic University before becoming a full-time associate professor of teacher education at Tamkang University. She also worked at the University of Southern California as an instructor at its Human Resources Training Center and as a counselor at its Learning Center.
In 1 August 2002, Ko became the inaugural director of Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of Educational Psychology and Counseling, where she remained until July 2008. She initially held the rank of associate professor and was subsequently promoted to professor in the institute.
Ko was appointed dean of student affairs at Tamkang in August 2009, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the university's history. She was still serving concurrently as dean of student affairs and professor of educational psychology and counseling when the Kuomintang nominated her for the Legislative Yuan in November 2015. She was succeeded as dean by Lin Chun-hung at the beginning of the second semester of the 2015–2016 academic year.
During the 2023–2024 academic year, Ko remained a professor at Tamkang University, where she continued to teach and do research in educational psychology, developmental psychology, cognition and learning, learning diagnosis, and creative-thinking instruction. She retired from the university in 2024.
Political career
In November 2015, Ko placed second on the Kuomintang party list, after longtime legislator Wang Jin-pyng. She arrived at the Legislative Yuan to take office on 1 February 2016, with a group of Tamkang students. Shortly after Ko was seated, the Kuomintang asked her to open an office in Pingtung County. She served as convener of the legislative education committee between February 2017 and March 2018, later leading the KMT's women's department. In May 2017, Ko joined the Renewable Power Promotion Alliance founded by Mary Chen.
As a legislator, Ko took an interest in education, LGBT rights, women's rights, pension reform, and energy. She was supportive of many cultural exchanges between Taiwan and other countries, namely China. Soon after taking office, she co-signed a bill proposed by Karen Yu to allow young children into the legislative chamber. In March 2018, Ko remarked that customs deemed discriminatory toward women should be phased out. She approached pension reform from a schoolteacher's perspective, proposing that the monthly pension be capped at NT$32,160, and suggested that pensions be withheld from retired public servants that took positions at government funded agencies willing to pay half of their former salary.
Ko drew attention to corruption on private school boards, the labor rights of graduate students, funding for internships, and policies affecting foreign students. She took an interest in student safety, and to this end, helped pass stricter restrictions on cram school instructors. In November 2017, Ko advised James C. Liao and others affiliated with Academia Sinica to resign from National Taiwan University's presidential selection committee to avoid a conflict of interest, as two candidates under consideration were Academia Sinica's then- and former vice president. When Kuan Chung-ming was named NTU president, Ko pushed the Ministry of Education to confirm his election, though Kuan was also suspected of a conflict of interest.
Upon completing her term in the Legislative Yuan, Ko returned to her professorship within Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of Educational Psychology and Counseling and concurrently headed the National Policy Foundation, a Kuomintang think tank. She was nominated as the KMT candidate for the Kaohsiung mayoralty in June 2022. In November 2023, Ko was ranked second on the Kuomintang proportional representation party list for the 2024 legislative election.
