Issues facing higher education around the Pacific Rim are considered in 12 conference papers. Titles and authors include the following: "Developing Linkages around the Pacific Rim" (Stephen Foster); "A Cooperative Approach to Professional Development: The Canadian Connection" (Peter Murphy); "Using Film in Teaching…

This is an interim report of a special program to assist newly-arrived immigrant children from the Punjab in India. It describes a homogeneous class enrolling twenty pupils, all of East Indian origin and between five and eight years of age. The teacher of the Punjabi-English class kept an extensive anecdotal record of the growth and development of…

At York University (Ontario), a large, urban commuter university, the self-assessed health of first-year students is lower than that of Canadian undergraduates in general and those in the 18 to 24 age category not enrolled in college. Among first-year students, Chinese females and females who anticipated that family problems would interfere with…

A study investigated the academic, sociocultural, psychological, and linguistic adaptation of a shy four-year-old native Cantonese-speaking child enrolled in early French immersion in Canada, learning English and French simultaneously. Areas of future research on trilingualism are suggested, and the popular belief that immersion works only for…

During the past five years, an increasing number of younger international students from mainland China have appeared on Canadian campuses to pursue their first university degrees. What is it like being a international student studying in a foreign language and culture at such a young age? Through narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000),…

The quality of preparation for college provided students by Ontario's educational system was assessed. First-year university achievement was compared for students from Ontario's Grade 13 and for students from the final matriculation year or equivalent of other Canadian provinces. University admission procedures were also studied to determine to…

An international study of adaptation and coping of students, faculty, and administrators involved with foreign student exchange is examined using data obtained in 11 countries--Brazil, Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The following are included:…

A survey of 351 secondary distance education students (181 responses) found significant relationships between 2 academic variables (educational goals and study time) and academic persistence; no relationship between family assistance and persistence; significant relationship between attitudes toward tutors and persistence; and no relationship for…

A study at Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology (Ontario) found 30 percent of freshmen dropped out in the first year. Variables in the student-institution relationship accounted for more variance in persistence and withdrawal than student characteristics, confirming the validity of the person-environment fit dropout model. (Author/MSE)

An ethnographic case study involves a Canadian-born, Chinese Canadian high school student and her art teacher in a Toronto high school receiving many immigrants from Hong Kong. The student's prize-winning art work is analyzed as a pedagogical project that promoted positive development of self-identities, challenged anti-immigrant attitudes, and…

Since 1977, the visa student population in the North York (Ontario) schools has increased from 89 to approximately 540 in the 1983-84 school year, with the vast majority coming from Hong Kong. The current services for visa students were examined with respect to the appropriateness of the educational experience offered to visa students; the…

This is the second of two reports dealing with the residential mobility patterns of children attending an urban elementary public school in Toronto, Canada. The present study aimed to discover whether a significant relationship exists between residential mobility and academic achievement. Children of the 158 parents interviewed for the study were…

The purpose of this study was to identify the different subgroups of students at risk of dropping out of school. The typology was developed based on the three main contexts associated with school dropout risk, namely, the personal, family and school contexts. On the basis of these factors, the clustering results enabled us to categorize at-risk…

Between 1979 and 1987, there was a 73% increase in the number of students transferring from two-year colleges to universities in Alberta (Canada). Three recent studies investigated this rapid growth. The first study, conducted over a three-year period, explored whether a group of 50 transfer students were sufficiently prepared to succeed…

Research has shown that between 20 to 40% of secondary school students feel they are wasting their time in school. A good proportion drop out; others stay on only because they have no better alternative. To determine whether the Greater Victoria (Canada) School District was meeting the needs of its students, 450 students in grades 7, 10 and 12…