The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of both formative and summative assessment in Taiwan and the United States. The focus is on the comparisons between undergraduate and graduate students and between U.S. and Taiwanese students in their attitudes toward the use of assessment in higher education. Responses from 349 undergraduate and…

Student-centered instruction is a shared goal in English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) settings that embrace communicative language teaching (CLT) principles (East 2015). Student-centered classrooms create opportunities for learners to have consistent and meaningful interactions--two-way exchanges of ideas--using their second language…

The present study investigated outreach activities, developed by STEM-based companies or universities in co-creation with secondary education with the aim to inform students about and motivate them for a career in STEM by connecting the work-context with school-science. Although many of such activities are being offered, little is known about…

This study explored American and Portuguese elementary teachers' preferences in planning for literacy instruction using the Language Arts Activity Grid (LAAG; Cunningham, Zibulsky, Stanovich, & Stanovich, 2009), on which teachers described their preferred instructional activities for a hypothetical 2-h language arts block. Portuguese teachers…

Reading for personal interest and acquiring and using information using various reading processes are important parts of reading literacy that students need to develop in order to progress successfully through their schooling and fully function in the information society. Computer assisted reading instructional activities are assumed useful in…

This study examined how types of tasks influenced student activities/thinking and defined the role of Seatwork in mathematics lessons. It used 60 lessons from the TIMSS videotaped Study. These data indicated that practice was the most prevalent form of tasks in the U.S. In Germany, students completed mathematical calculations after a complex…

The purpose of this study was to develop a richer understanding of teacher effectiveness through cross-cultural analyses of the practices and beliefs of selected China and US teachers who have received national awards for their teaching. This study was based upon a phenomenological design that used semi-structured interviews, classroom…

Introduction: Classroom language demands increase when children enter the middle school environment (Brice & Heath, 1986; Larson & McKinley, 1998; Larson & McKinley, 1987). The pragmatic skills or social language skills of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents from three different backgrounds were the focus of this study…

Activity participation provides a unique context for adolescents and emerging adults to explore interests, talents, and skills and for identity work to occur. Research has found consistent gender differences in the types of activities in which males and females participate. The current study drew on Eudaimonistic identity theory to examine the…

A powerful means to understand young children's normative development in context is to examine their everyday activities. The daily activities of 79 children (3 years old) were observed, for 20 hr each, in their usual settings. Children were selected from 4 cultural groups: European American and African American (Greensboro, United States), Luo…

Presents a learning activity in which secondary students read about and analyze the legal institutions of an African tribe called the Ibo. Students compare the Ibo's precolonial system of resolving disputes with the U.S. system. (AM)

Explores attitudes of parents and professionals in Sweden and the United States regarding early childhood programs. Discusses a survey that covered general attitudes, parent involvement, materials, activities, and caregiver actions. (PCB)

Describes a study of parents' and preschool staff members' views on preschool education in Warwickshire, England; St. Louis County, Minnesota; and Kronobergs Lan in Smaland, Sweden. Compares general attitudes; parental involvement; and importance attributed to various instructional materials and activities, and to caregivers' interaction with…

Examined an e-mail pen pal project between a second-grade classroom in the United States and one in China. Found that the project engaged students in learning through social interaction that enabled them to learn about a culture other than their own. Also found that the project enhanced students' social, cognitive, and linguistic skills, and…

Presents an account of the project approach used by American first graders to study Japan. (BB)