In the "flipped" class, students use online materials to learn what is traditionally learned by attending lectures, and class time is used for interactive group learning. A required quantitative business class was taught as a flipped classroom in an attempt to improve student satisfaction in the course and reduce the "transactional…

This study explored the influences of relational elements and the background of communicators on the framing structure of email messages that were exchanged in an educational Institute in Malaysia. The investigation revealed that social distance played a more significant role than power relations as Malaysian respondents are, generally, more…

Research in veterinary medical education has illustrated the challenges students face with respect to mental and emotional wellness, lack of attention to physical health, and limited opportunities to meaningfully engage with persons from different backgrounds. In response, the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine has…

Guided by the theories of cultural intelligence and social distance, the purpose of this quantitative non-experimental study was to determine whether first-year American-born college students' political party affiliations and cultural intelligence (CQ) relate to their self-reported social distances (SDs) from international students. One hundred…

The focus of this paper is to illustrate Australian regional pre-service teachers' perceptions of an international practicum: their cross-cultural understanding, notions of privilege and teacher/professional identity development. Findings indicate that there were three overlapping dimensions of cross-cultural understanding for pre-service…

Different communities assess social distance, social power, rights and obligations, and degree of imposition used in specific speech acts differently. As a result of this difference, foreign language learners are likely to make sociopragmatic failure. This kind of failure is harder to correct because of the learners' justifiable sensitivity in…

Gypsy children low school engagement, high rates of school dropout, and pervasive school failure are relevant societal challenges that may be explained by Gypsy people cultural mores, but also by the discriminatory behaviors of school peers. The latter may be a consequence of insufficient accurate knowledge of Gypsy culture. The present study…

Focusing especially on biographical competencies that are gained through the experience of migration and socialisation in a certain country or cultural context, this article analyses how professionals define and deploy these "migration-related competencies" when it comes to employment in the field of adult education in Austria. By means…

One of the most universally recognized mechanisms in the sociology of education is the Pygmalion effect: the expectations and prejudices of teachers (from a position of power), projected onto the students, have the potential to become a self-fulfilled prophecy--either positive either stigmatizing. But what elements are used to build these…

Research into the concerning persistence of disability bias in the U.S. indicates that increased knowledge about disabilities promotes more positive attitudes toward persons with disability. This study explored higher education, specifically academic major and vocational interest, as one venue through which to better understand the attitudes that…

In modern society, a large part of the socialization process occurs in schools. Therefore, one of the most significant questions raised with regard to homeschooling concerns the impact of this type of education on the emotional world of the child. However, there is almost no mention in the research of how the nature of the social activity of…

This study sought to better understand the relationship between access to spending money and students' social relationships with peers through a survey and four follow-up focus groups at a public regional comprehensive university. Using sense of belonging as a conceptual lens, findings demonstrated that spending money was a significant influence…

Ethnic prejudice, even among very young children, is a universal occurrence. Yet, little research has been conducted on this issue outside of Westernized contexts. The current study evaluated a storybook intervention in Indonesia, a country of historically high racial tensions, designed to reduce young children's ethnic bias regarding out-groups…

The objectives of this study are to find out Firstly, the politeness strategies of request used by Libyan students and their lecturers in the classroom. Secondly, the politeness strategies of request mostly used by Libyan students and their lecturers. Thirdly, the factors that influence the use of the strategies by Libyan students and their…

The present study explored the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners' ability to negotiate requests in interactions. It investigated the effect of proficiency on learners' use of request strategies and internal modifications and on their sequential realization of requests in L2 Chinese. Twenty-four American English learners of L2…