Excellence gaps are differences in advanced education outcomes among student groups. This study replicates and extends an earlier study on the prevalence and magnitude of excellence gaps based on student sex and immigrant status using Grade 8 TIMSS data. Data were included for the 12 countries that have participated in each TIMSS administration…

In recent decades, much international research has been carried out on school climate and its relationship with learning, socioemotional, and health outcomes (Berkowitz et al., 2017; La Salle, Rocha-Neves, et al., 2021; Pizmony-Levy et al., 2019). Limited research has been carried out to investigate the relationship between school climate and…

Decisions to invest in human capital depend on people's time preferences. We show that differences in patience are closely related to substantial subnational differences in educational achievement, leading to new perspectives on longstanding within-country disparities. We use social-media data -- Facebook interests -- to construct novel regional…

This study explores the establishment of communities of practice within teaching and learning centres (TLC) as strategies for advancing faculty development in higher education, examining their implementation in the US and Europe, with a specific focus on Italy. Utilising organisational benchmarking, we employed an explanatory, comparative, and…

Perfectionism measures developed in English-speaking populations have become frequently used in many non-English contexts, including in Italy. Establishing structural and measurement equivalence of instruments between Canadian and Italian samples is therefore important in establishing the validity of these concepts and instruments in Italian…

This study aims to explore the effect of cultural capital on the perception of parental involvement policies offered by schools in various countries. Using PISA (2018) data, a multilevel model is implemented for each participant country to adopt a comparative perspective. While the results suggest a complex effect, moderated by idiosyncratic…

School bullying and cyberbullying are serious public health problems that negatively affect the lives of school-aged children. We examined the correlation between risk behaviors and lack of resiliency factors with bullying and cyberbullying across seven Mediterranean countries. The sample consisted of 33,399 adolescents (51.1% girls) aged 11, 13,…

As primary architects of the 'global classroom,' local faculty who teach visiting U.S. students at study abroad centers across Europe play a critical role in the study abroad experience. This article draws on theories of commodification in study abroad as well as transformative learning theory to unpack how and why local faculty bend to the U.S.…

The aim of this research was to compare the level of digital competence of future pedagogical staff (students of pedagogical faculties) in Italy and Poland. The research was conducted using original measurement tools and knowledge tests. The triangulation of techniques and research tools made possible the determination of the level of knowledge of…

Despite growing interest in evaluating the social and emotional learning of students and the development of standardized assessment tools for this purpose, there remains a dearth of validated instruments for evaluating teachers' social and emotional skills. We set out to address this knowledge gap by investigating the psychometric characteristics…

With the development of technology, security, a core human concern throughout history, has changed and branched out into new areas. Novel security concepts, including environmental security, economic security, and cybersecurity, have emerged as a result of these expanding areas. The importance of cybersecurity has increased in the linked world of…

The transitional and adaptive process of studying abroad for international students is challenging. This study explores the motivation to study abroad (MSA) and the intercultural adaptation (IA) of international Chinese doctoral students (ICDS) at an Italian university by conducting a narrative inquiry approach through semi-structured interviews.…

Purpose: Cross-national research on cultural differences can help understand what drives, in differing contexts, mentors' commitment to school-based mentoring programs. This comparative study aims to explore whether adult volunteers, from Scotland and Italy, experience being mentors of vulnerable youth differently. Design/methodology/approach:…

Research has linked cultural differences between a sojourner's home and host country with their cultural transformation. Nonetheless, the results of empirical studies are inconclusive due to different operationalizations of cultural differences and testing among different groups of sojourners. We extend previous investigations by examining the…

This paper examines the use of vignettes as a research method in a comparative exploration of the provision for children with special educational needs across eleven countries. The investigation selected in-country researchers, who responded to questions with respect to children described in 14 vignettes. The questions related to school placement…