This research investigated the impact popular novels have on knowledge about and attitudes towards Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), compared to that of traditional college textbooks. Study 1 found that participants in the novel condition chose fewer correct and fewer incorrect responses to questions about ASD. Participants did not differ in their…

The Dunning-Kruger (DK) effect is a form of meta-ignorance of knowledge (Kruger & Dunning, "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology," 77(6), 121-1134, 1999) that has not been explored regarding mental illness public stigma. The current study examined the DK effect in this field by comparing participants' actual stigma (measured…

We explored the scientific argumentation that occurs among university biology students during an argumentation task implemented in two environments: face-to-face in a classroom and online in an asynchronous discussion. We observed 10 student groups, each composed of three students. Our analysis focused on how students respond to their peers'…

The article elaborates on the recollections of schooling under the communist rule in Poland as presented in biographical interviews with contemporary Polish migrants living in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway. An analysis of childhood and schooling nexus is elicited on two platforms, specifically as (1) interviewees' first-hand experiences…

Different communities assess social distance, social power, rights and obligations, and degree of imposition used in specific speech acts differently. As a result of this difference, foreign language learners are likely to make sociopragmatic failure. This kind of failure is harder to correct because of the learners' justifiable sensitivity in…

Gypsy children low school engagement, high rates of school dropout, and pervasive school failure are relevant societal challenges that may be explained by Gypsy people cultural mores, but also by the discriminatory behaviors of school peers. The latter may be a consequence of insufficient accurate knowledge of Gypsy culture. The present study…

A survey was distributed to all enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian (EBCI) college students to compare the experiences of those attending Tribal and non-tribal colleges. The results of the survey provided data for a nonexperimental quantitative study that addressed 18 research questions in an effort to determine whether there…

When world literature as a subject was introduced to schools and colleges in the United States during the 1920s, its early curriculum was premised on the notion of bounded territoriality which assumes that identities of individuals, cultures, and nation-states are fixed, determinable, and independent. The intensification of global mobility in an…

This study examines the apology strategies used by 30 Saudi EFL teachers in Najran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), paying special attention to variables such as social distance and power and offence severity. The study also delineates gender differences in the respondents' speech as opposed to studies that only examined speech act output by…

The purpose of this study is to comparatively examine the student-teacher relationships of preschool children with and without special needs (SN) and to identify the variables which predict student-teacher relationships. In order to collect data from 40 preschool teachers regarding 54 students with and 54 students without SN, the Student and…

The use of specific speech acts have been found to vary with culture, thus to perform a speech act successfully in a second language requires not only linguistic competence but also pragmatic competence of the L2 community. Though previous studies have shown dissimilarities in invitational conversations and general refusal strategies (c.f.…

Background/Context: Schools are cultural contexts that have the power and potential to promote students' cultural assets or "other" youth in a way that keeps them from creating meaningful academic identities. In this study, we build on existing research and theory by defining "othering" as a personal, social, cultural, and…

In this dissertation, the denaturalization of migrants in the US and Italy as represented in newspaper crime reports was identified and compared to the opposing naturalization of Italian crime organizations in Italy and Wall Street/corporate criminals in the US. This was accomplished through careful, multidisciplinary, scientific analysis of over…