Using the 2012 PIAAC data, our analysis confirms that there are significantly higher earnings and employment returns to "both" increasing levels of formally recognised education, and to increasing levels of numeracy, literacy and information and communication technologies (ICT) skills proficiencies controlling for the level of education.…

As English skills are being increasingly perceived as valuable human capital, an awareness of inequitable access to the acquisition of this "profitable" language has developed. Although this allegedly unequal access, which can be referred to as the "English divide", is a matter of concern to applied linguists, little research…

Based on a one-year longitudinal experimental study with 3,782 kindergarten school children across 15 countries, this article examines the association between prayer and happiness. Results show that the post-test scores on the faces scale were higher for the participant group who had taken the prayer lessons vis-à-vis the comparison group.…

The purpose of this study is to determine the predicting power of mathematics achievement from ICT variables including the Internet/entertainment use (IEU), program/software use (PRGUSE), confidence in internet tasks (INTCONF) and confidence in ICT high level tasks (HIGHCONF) based on PISA 2006 data. This study indicates that the ICT variables…

It is well documented that academic achievement of students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tends to be below their more socially advantaged peers. Several studies have identified factors and conditions that facilitate academic success for disadvantaged students (i.e., promote academic resilience). However, one of the main…

The degree of equality in the delivery of education is an important dimension of variation. Some nations believe that the provision of a highly stratified system enhances quality, at least for the minority who are able to gain entry to the elite academic stream. In contrast, other nations prefer a more egalitarian approach to education where all…

This study investigates whether a common set of student attitudes and behavioral tendencies can account for academic achievement across different, especially high-performing, countries via analysis of the PISA 2009 international data set. The 13 countries examined are 5 of the top-performing Eastern countries/systems, namely Shanghai China, South…

This study examines the self-perceived speaking proficiency development of 204 learners of Japanese who studied abroad in Japan and analyzes connections between self-reported social network development, language use, and speaking development. Learners perceived that they gained the most in areas associated with the intermediate and advanced levels…

The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing attitudes toward sexual activity among early adolescents in Japan. A total of 1,551 students aged 12 to 14 years at 4 junior high schools were divided into either a conservative or liberal group. Results of chi-square tests showed that the liberal group had higher percentages of students…

The present study analyzes the effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) environment on teachers' attitude toward technology integration in Japanese and U.S. elementary schools. Teacher's attitude plays an important role in influencing the effectiveness of ICT education from a variety of perspectives. A number of studies have been…

This study explored the hypothesis that Japanese children perform significantly better on simultaneous processing than on sequential processing. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) served as the criterion of the two types of mental processing. Regression equations to predict Sequential and Simultaneous processing from McCarthy…