We examined the nature and implications of family differentiation among adolescents facing a life transition in 2 European countries with differing family cultures. One hundred and twenty-four Italian and 109 U.K. adolescents completed measures of family differentiation (cohesion and enmeshment), identity threat (perception of threat to the self…

The Modern Racism Scale (McConahay, 1986) was used to assess the impact of education and personality variables on college students' prejudicial attitudes toward African Americans. Prejudice was lower in students who completed a diversity course specifically addressing race and gender issues and in students who measured high in need for cognition…

Developing kindness and compassion for others is a critical part of young children's development. The ability to accept others--even if they are different--and feel compassion for them is an essential component of social competency which is just as important as any academic training. Teaching acceptance and compassion through play can be great…

Any programme of principal induction must find ways to respond to the diversity of its participants, in terms of their backgrounds and learning needs. New Zealand's national principal induction programme uses a self assessment of each principal's capability in the leadership of teaching and learning as one of its main sources of information about…

This yearlong ethnographic study of principals' leadership in Papua New Guinea high schools describes influences of imposing a bureaucratic school organization on principals' decision making in a communal society. Communal values of kinship relationships, "wantok" system, and "big men" leadership challenged principals'…

This article reports the findings of an in-depth qualitative case study that explored the ways in which Chinese-speaking international students adapt to a western learning environment, and the effect that the teaching context has upon student learning. The study explored this effect by investigating a critical thinking task from the perspectives…

Using multivariate discriminant analysis and the data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999, this paper made 5 individual comparisons between the U.S. middle school system and 5 Asian middle school systems, which have typically been top ranked in mathematics and science achievement scores. The discriminant…

The psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale were examined in a sample of 415 Chinese adolescents. Confirmatory factor analyses of the present data disconfirmed the original 4-factor structure. Exploratory factor analysis was then conducted to explore the underlying structure of the data set. A…

This study uses The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to compare students from Hong Kong with students from the US on the mathematics achievement and on a series of family background factors such as mothers' expectations, parental education, presence of study aids, living with different family members, and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the latent structure of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-High School (LASSI-HS) through confirmatory factor analysis and factorial invariance models. A simple modification of the three-factor structure was considered. Using a larger sample, cross-validation was completed and the equality of…

This case study examines the experiences of a young African American English teacher over 3 years as she tried to teach multicultural literature. The study began in her senior year of college when she was enrolled in a progressive undergraduate preservice program in English education and continued through her first 2 years as a high school English…

Recent mathematics assessments have indicated that students in several Asian countries have tended to score above international averages. Research findings indicate that there are cultural differences in expectations for student achievement in mathematics and in classroom practices and instructional strategies. The importance of the motivational…

The current investigation examined the relationship of ethnic identity and spiritual development. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (J. Phinney, 1992), Spirituality Ends Measure (B. Fiorito & L. Ryan, 1998), and Spirituality Means Measure (B. Fiorito & L. Ryan, 1998) were administered to 198 male and female college students from 4…

Cross-cultural residential placement of children and adolescents requires careful attention to the youth's culture of origin, so that the delivery of the treatment service is respectful of his or her way of life. Cultural protection in treatment facilities, as a principle, ensures that the traditions, symbols, values, norms, and the worldview, as…

This article reports research into associations between students' cultural background and their perceptions of their teacher's interpersonal behaviour and classroom learning environment. A sample of 1021 students from 31 classes in seven co-educational private schools completed a survey including the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), the…