While achievement gaps have been well-established, much remains to be understood about the manner and extent to which school leadership either increases or decreases student access to opportunity to learn. The current study uses nationally representative samples of U.S. and Flemish students in Grade 4 from the 2011 Trends in International…

This study, focusing on inverse relations, examines how representative U.S. and Chinese elementary textbooks may provide opportunities to learn fundamental mathematical ideas. Findings from this study indicate that both of the U.S. textbook series (grades K-6) in comparison to the Chinese textbook samples (grades 1-6), presented more instances of…

This qualitative study investigated the perspectives of preservice teachers from the United States on the customs and practices of teaching in primary schools in England resulting from their participation in a study abroad experience. Participants were 17 teacher education candidates from a university in the southeastern United States who studied…

We document and analyze the emergence of a substantial gender gap in mathematics in the early years of schooling using a large, recent, and nationally representative panel of children in the United States. There are no mean differences between boys and girls upon entry to school, but girls lose more than two-tenths of a standard deviation relative…

This study investigated whether infusing "causal" story elements into mathematical word problems improves student performance. In one experiment in the USA and a second in USA, Finland and Turkey, undergraduate elementary education majors worked word problems in three formats: 1) standard (minimal verbiage), 2) potential causation…

Reexamines Preston's 1962 study of reading achievement of American and German boys and girls in the light of implications the study has had on the literature and compares it with recent studies. (MKM)

Examined relations between Children's Depression Inventory, Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Fear Scale Schedule for Children-Revised in 327 British and 336 American children. Relations were similar for both samples, with depression more closely related to anxiety than to fear. Children who reported high levels of depression also…

A referential communication task was used to compare the effects of linguistic structure on the encoding and decoding performances of 120 five- and seven-year-old children. Results suggested that differences in adjective ordering rules and stylistic variation affect encoding and decoding accuracy. (Author/MP)

Lists five possible reasons for Singapore students' success in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Asks readers to reflect on the implications for mathematics teaching and learning in the United States. (ASK)

Explores some of the differences in open classrooms as they are being implemented in the United States, Great Britain, and Israel. Comparisons are discussed in light of psychological, social, and ideological variations. (Author/DB)

Content analysis of 12 Finnish and 18 American primers for grades 3 through 6 published primarily during the 1980s examined story type, plot setting, protagonist's characteristics, dramatic tasks, portrayals of family structure and parental responsibility, and extrafamilial peer and adult relationships. Results suggest that a nation's cultural…

This study compared the creative thinking areas of flexibility and fluency of fifth grade Japanese and American children. A new instrument for cross-cultural settings, consisting of ten flexibility items and six fluency items, was constructed and administered to fifth graders. The results indicated that there were no differences in fluency between…

Describes a study of German children's moral reasoning about prosocial conflicts, and of the interrelations of moral reasoning and prosocial behavior. Reports that hedonistic reasoning decreased from preschool to fourth grade, but direct reciprocity, needs-oriented, and approval/interpersonal reasoning, and reasoning involving references to…

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)