When teachers start their first positions, they enter schools armed with what they believe are the most important elements of teaching: lesson plans, teaching strategies, good classroom management, and effective instruction and assessment. They usually feel confident about their content area knowledge and believe that if they follow the…

Specific behavioral problems appear during early adolescence, and they become more pronounced. Although these problems are universal in many aspects, cultural differences are also conspicuous. The author, in addition to analyzing the five studies in the Special Issue, addresses questions concerning the cross-cultural context. The analysis reveals…

Speakers choose a particular expression based on many factors, including availability of the referent in the perceptual context. We examined whether, when expressing referents, monolingual English- and Turkish-speaking children: (1) are sensitive to perceptual context, (2) express this sensitivity in language-specific ways, and (3) use co-speech…

According to a variety of metrics (NAEP, PISA, TIMMS, college completion, etc.), the mathematics knowledge of U.S. students can be described, at best, as mediocre. In light of the growing importance of mathematics for both individual and national economic competitiveness, this weak performance has rightfully alarmed policymakers and the public.…

Drawing from Michel Foucault's notion of "useful" and "dangerous" discourse coupled with the theory of racial knowledge, this article examines how two common counter-discourses about African-American students operate and create racial knowledge in education practice. By "counter-discourse", the authors refer to knowledge, theories, and histories…

Over the years, the benefits of categorically identifying and labeling students with disabilities have been debated on many grounds, particularly when it comes to labeling African-American children who many argue are over-labeled or disproportionately represented in selected categories such as learning disabilities. In this article, the authors…

This research presents a descriptive study regarding collaborative learning in a multicultural classroom at a vocational education school in The Netherlands. The study bridges two domains of research: research on culturally diverse learning environments--which has mostly concerned primary and general secondary education--and studies on…

The present research aims at pinpointing differences in spontaneous and non-spontaneous mental models of water cycle conceptions of two 4th grade student groups: the Jewish residents of a small provincial town and a group of students from an indigenous Bedouin community. Students' conceptions were elicited using the Repertory Grid technique as…

This study examined similar and differing initial motivations to teach between 257 US and 542 Chinese preservice teachers using the recently validated FIT-Choice scale. In both countries, participants were motivated to enter teaching because of their social utility values. US preservice teachers reported significantly higher motivations from…

We present data collected from the research project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain entitled "Audiovisual Narratives and Intercultural Relations in Education." One of the aims of the research was to determine the nature of thought processes occurring during audiovisual narratives. We studied the possibility of…

This study investigates the theorized sources of Academic Self-Efficacy among the higher secondary school students of Kerala, India. Mastery Experience in the form of Academic Achievement, vicarious experience in the form of School Image and Social Persuasion in the form of Parental Encouragement are included as the predictor variables of Academic…

This article proposes an approach for using cross-cultural dimensions exercises to improve and measure learning outcomes in international business courses. The following key issues are highlighted: (a) what are the targeted learning outcomes to be assessed, (b) how to measure the accomplishment of these learning outcomes, (c) the input measures…

In his "Review of Modern Foreign Languages Provision in Higher Education in England", Michael Worton argues that to safeguard the health of their subjects, languages academics will need to establish "greater, sustainable collaborations" with a range of partners including "extra-educational organisations". For Worton's…

All over the world, international development organizations try to increase professional capacity of local staff. These attempts are thought to fail because of financial constraints, but this is just part of the story. Professional development and adult learning theories approach learning from a western perspective, while many developing societies…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate premature dropping out of university study at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus in southern Thailand. 21 Muslim and non-Muslim males and females and four senior staff were interviewed. The findings are discussed in terms of practical implications and also reflecting on…