Personal growth initiative (PGI), i.e., self-change skills, is necessary for employees to adapt to changing environments, but research examining the antecedents of PGI in an organizational context is limited. The present research investigated the antecedents of PGI in the workplace. Using a two-wave questionnaire survey, data were collected from…

This study examines how the perceptions that twelve teachers of Japanese as a second language (L2) had of extensive reading (ER) changed following 10 months of online English ER. Interviews provided much of the study data, supported by pre-project and post-project questionnaires. The participants' pre-project and post-project vocabulary sizes and…

Supporting study abroad programs' overarching objective of producing global citizens is the goal of developing intercultural competence through participants' interactions with people of different cultures. Asserting the correlation between intercultural competence and acculturation, this study aims to measure the cultural competence of our…

We investigated whether preschoolers' social-emotional competencies predict their peer relationships and academic achievements during grade one. Measures of cool and hot executive functions, theory of mind, social-problem-solving, and peer acceptance were administered to a sample of 48 preschoolers (M = 77.91 months). Academic achievement and peer…

This study investigated developmental changes in metacognitive strategies during elementary school years and examined the effects of intrinsic motivation on metacognitive strategies. A total of 113 Japanese elementary school children participated in a three-year longitudinal survey with eight times measurement occasions. Multilevel modeling…

Developing identities that are well-aligned with sociocultural expectations is a key psychosocial developmental task for adolescents and emerging adults. Most studies have examined identity development focusing on how individuals develop their identities (identity process), such as identity exploration and commitment. Meanwhile, researchers have…

The main purpose of this study is to find the attributes of corporations that prevent hiring of highly educated female new graduates, who hold bachelor's or master's degrees. Our results show that the percentages of new graduates who majored in the field of humanities and of female employees positively correlate with the percentage of female new…

We investigated the relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher participation in multiple types of professional development in Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. Using the Teaching and Learning International Survey dataset of 2013, we employed two-level logistic regression models to estimate the rigorous effects of…

Executive functions (EF) are an important predictor of later adaptive development. A number of environmental influences, such as parenting, have been suggested as important promoters of EF development. However, behavioural genetic research has demonstrated that many environmental influences could be affected by genetic influences. Therefore, it is…

Numerous studies have been published heralding the benefits of physical education in school education. Sport and physical activities form the major content in learning and the arrangement serves as the major source of development in students. This paper identifies "quality" as an internationally concerned issue and within the concept,…

Enabling learners to successfully use their second language (L2) in meaningful ways is a critical goal of instruction. Ultimately, most learners want to meet the L2 demands of the contexts in which they will use the language. To accomplish this, learners must develop linguistic knowledge and apply it in a manner that is contextually appropriate…

This study investigates the effects of linguistic knowledge (vocabulary knowledge) and cognitive abilities (metacognitive knowledge and cognitive styles) on the second language (L2) listening comprehension at different proficiency levels. The study has also sought to investigate whether or not cognitive abilities and L2 linguistic knowledge are…

Despite rapid growth in the popularity of massive open online courses (MOOCs), few studies have investigated learning outcomes among participating university learners. We first examined student growth in terms of knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations (KASA). We then explored the relationships between learning outcomes and three learner…

The capacity to perceive and meaningfully process foreign or second language (L2) words from the aural modality is a fundamentally important aspect of successful L2 listening. Despite this, the relationships between L2 listening and learners' capacity to process aural input at the lexical level has received relatively little research focus. This…

This study investigated the constructs underlying second language (L2) word association (WA) with regard to three dimensions of lexical competence--size, organization, and accessibility--and the lexical performance of speech. One-hundred and thirteen Japanese learners of English completed a computer-delivered oral WA task along with three…