Herein we examine the dominant image of East Asian schools as marked by a darker side of widespread bullying, leading to high rates of youth suicide. First outlining the substantial literature on bullying in the English language, we turn to show how -- paradoxically -- the rates of bullying and suicide are no higher, or in nearly all cases, lower…

This study examines the different ways in which fractions are dealt with in two elementary mathematics textbook series: Kang Hsuan (KH) in Taiwan and Laskutaito in Finland. The results showed that the total number of fraction questions in Laskutaito is higher than that in KH and that Laskutaito highlights the basic definition of fractions to help…

The present study examined data from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study to address cross-cultural differences in 4th grade students' attitudes towards science and how students' sense of school belonging (SSSB) scores were related to attitude towards science. Regression results indicated that SSSB emerged as a…

The present study tested the hypothesis that children's fluency with basic number facts and knowledge of computational strategies, derived from early arithmetic experience, predicts their performance on complex arithmetic problems. First-grade students from United States and Taiwan (N = 152, mean age: 7.3 years) were presented with problems that…

Previous studies have shown that method effects associated with item wording produce artifactual factors and threaten scale validity. This study examines item wording effects on a scale of attitudes toward learning mathematics for Taiwanese and U.S. samples. Analyses from a series of CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) models support the presence…

The internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model and dimensional comparison theory posit paradoxical relations between achievement (ACH) and self-concept (SC) in mathematics (M) and verbal (V) domains; ACH in each domain positively affects SC in the matching domain (e.g., MACH to MSC) but negatively in the nonmatching domain (e.g., MACH to…

The current study explored how parental inductions and punitiveness were related to the prosocial moral reasoning through perspective taking and sympathy. Data were collected from three ethnic groups: 106 European American, 202 Mexican American, and 196 Taiwanese fifth and sixth graders (approximately 50% girls). Using structural equation modeling…

Out-of-school time constitutes a major context of social and emotional development for children across cultures. Because it is not constrained by school attendance, weekend time allows cultural and gender differences in time usage to emerge. In this study, children's weekend activities, choice, and some of the related emotional outcomes were…

The study examined boys' and girls' autonomy of choice of activities in the after-school hours with samples of children from two different countries. Preadolescent children from Taiwan (n = 289) and the United States (n = 195) completed a questionnaire on their usual after-school activities indicating who determines the choice of any particular…

The construct of self-esteem has received considerable attention in recent years. Self-esteem is defined as a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in attitudes that individuals hold for themselves. This study compared self-esteem of American and Chinese children. Subjects included 446 American elementary school students from the…

The paper is an extended work from a previous study on Taiwanese and German students' conceptions of the universe (Liu, 2005). The study revealed that students discuss astronomical events and entities based on a mental model of universe and their models of the universe seem to have similar underlying principles with historical ones. In present…

A reading test was constructed in English, Japanese, and Chinese to assess the validity of the claim that children learning to read Chinese and Japanese do not evidence reading disabilities. Large samples of fifth-grade children in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were given the test along with a battery of 10 cognitive tasks. (Author/RH)

First and fifth grade students who scored high or low on a mathematics test were tested for intellectual ability and reading achievement. Students and their mothers were interviewed. Results indicated that factors associated with levels of achievement in mathematics operate in a similar fashion across three cultures that differ greatly in their…

A cross-cultural experiment testing the effect of personal choice on learning was conducted with fifth and sixth graders from Canada (n=130) and Taiwan (n=153) using a computerized foreign language learning task. The results show that choice had no significant impact on children's interest, effort, or learning outcome. Although comparable to their…

Examined the relationship between phonological awareness and reading skills in eight-year olds from Britain, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Found that performance of Chinese children on phonological tests was not significantly related to their reading ability, in contrast to performance of English children, whose results continued to show a significant…