This paper examines the extent that material, social, and cultural resources and schools account for the relationship between socioeconomic background and student achievement among 15-year-olds in 30 countries. Generally, cultural factors play a more important role in most countries although in a small minority of countries, material resources…

As has been the case with other public services, the Spanish university system has, over the last few years, undergone radical changes that have completely transformed the form and type of activities carried out therein. The far-reaching effect of these changes and of others that will probably occur in the not too distant future obliges the…

Recently, a multinational team of researchers on a European Union-funded project examined the teaching of mathematics in the age range 10-14 in England, Flemish Belgium, Finland, Hungary, and Spain. In this article, the author (who was a member of this team) discusses how the physical and social characteristics of schools create the conditions for…

This paper reports an evaluation carried out from 1999 to 2003 in 55 schools in the Basque Autonomous Community involving more than 10,000 secondary school students. The variables measured include achievement in Spanish, metacognitive skills, learning strategies and variables related to the students' family environment. The measurements were made…

The authors explored death obsession level and correlates among a sample (N=601) of Palestinians living in the city of Beit Jala, the village of Al-Khader, and the Aida refugee camp in the Bethlehem area. They live in war conditions; the houses of half of them have been demolished. The Death Obsession Scale (DOS) was administered. Its alpha…

The "Decision-Making Questionnaire" (DMQ) was developed and validated in order to examine the factors that affect decision making. The investigation was carried out with two samples, one of 170 participants and the other of 425 of both sexes. Each sample was divided into three age ranges: young students (18-25 years), adults (26-60…

This research report explores the extent to which the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) (Harms and Clifford, 1980) remains a valid instrument when used to make cross-national comparisons of quality, and the advantages and disadvantages of using ECERS for this purpose. ECERS was developed to be used by a trained observer to rate the…

By petition of the regional government of the Balearic Islands (Spain), the authors of this article evaluated activities of environmental education, interpretation, and information carried out in the most important protected areas of these islands. The following is a presentation of the model of the evaluation that was developed. Based on the…

Previous studies have pointed out the importance of empathy in improving attitudes toward stigmatized groups and toward the environment. In the present article, it is argued that environmental behaviors and attitudes can be improved using empathic perspective-taking for inducing empathy. Based on Batson's Model of Altruism, it was predicted that…

In recent years, research on classroom climate has focused on developing instruments to measure the relationships between student perceptions of classroom climate and learning outcomes. However, very little has been done to help teachers improve their classroom climates. This paper presents findings of a study that attempted to improve classroom…

Recognizing the increasing importance of developing inclusive pedagogies in music education, this article offers diverse ways of promoting positive learning experiences and reaching learners who are most at risk of exclusion. The findings reported in this article arise out of a wider comparative research project investigating the pedagogies of…

This paper focuses on family involvement in the education of teenagers at risk of dropping out from compulsory secondary school. A questionnaire was completed by 131 Spanish and Cypriot families with children at six schools--three in each country. The questionnaire investigated: (1) parental perceptions of their children's activities in their free…

This research provides policy-makers, researchers, and educators at all levels with a glimpse of the contextual influence on effective school improvement (ESI) in 8 European countries. What are the factors at the contextual level, particularly at the national level, which influence ESI? Are there any similarities or differences between the…

This paper reports on a small-scale EU-funded study of the teaching of mathematics in the age range 10-14 in Flanders, England, Hungary, and Spain. Drawing on video recordings of sequences of lessons taught on standard topics, and exploiting a coding schedule developed from live observations in each country, the inferable learning objectives of,…

This paper examines the hypothetically bi-directional relationship which links marijuana consumption and school failure among students. To that end, we propose a simultaneous probability model, which is estimated by using the information provided by the three consecutive waves from the Spanish Surveys on Drug Use in the School Population [(1996,…