Introduction,background, and international perspectives: Korean history,culture, and education

Ogbu's (1988) “cultural model of success” guides us in understanding one's success through historical, cultural, structural (normative), and situational factors. Perceptions of schooling and achievement are related and affected by these important factors. Therefore, this chapter gives an overview of the study, its purpose and significance. Background literature on South Korea, such as its demographics and history, is used to introduce the influence of culture on South Korean education. Finally, a brief history of Korean education provides a context for the study.     

Attribution,gender orientation,and adaptability: Reconceptualization,measurement, and research results

Within the framework of attribution theory, this study reconceptualized gender orientation and androgyny. The relationships among gender measurement, androgyny, and adaptability were examined with improved measurement procedures. Socially desirable response tendencies were found for self‐attribution of femininity and androgyny but not for adaptability, nor for gender attributions or androgyny of others. A new scoring procedure producing a single continuous androgyny variable was also developed and tested. Meaningful relationships between this androgyny measure, gender orientation, and adaptability were observed. The central hypothesis tested the relationship between perceptions of stable, dispositional factors and behavioral attributions. Findings were consistent with the predictions provided by attribution theory.     

Rules, Right and Wrong, and Children

The article is an informal distillation of conversations from severalworkshops held with teachers over a period of several years. Discussionswere focused around examples of ordinary classroom occurrences. Teachersin the workshops analyzed incidents, some simple, some multifaceted, asexamples of the domains of social knowledge, including moral, socialconvention, and personal/psychological, which though unique, sometimesoverlap. Conversations included possible resolutions. A final section,observations and affirmations, includes a discussion of the implicationsfor a domain appropriate approach to classroom interactions betweenteachers and children.     

Student and school SES,gender, strategy use,and achievement

A multilevel mediated regression model was fit to Programme for International Student Assessment achievement, strategy use, gender, and family‐ and school‐level socioeconomic status (SES). Two metacognitive strategies (i.e., understanding and summarizing) and one learning strategy (i.e., control strategies) were found to relate significantly and positively to achievement. These strategies were used more by females and students attending higher SES schools. In contrast, males and students attending lower SES schools tended to use a greater number of learning strategies that did not relate to achievement, including memorization and elaboration. In addition, the strategies that did not relate to achievement were used more frequently by students from higher SES families. The findings suggest that schools, as opposed to families, may be the primary vehicle for developing effective strategy use practices for students and thus, targeted interventions may be particularly useful for male students attending low SES schools.     

Girls and Women,Sport, and Self-Confidence

This article explores research examining girls' and women's self-confidence in sport and physical activity. The article begins by addressing how self-confidence has been conceptualized and how researchers have measured it. A theoretical groundwork is presented by comparing three models that link confidence to achievement: Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, Harter's competence motivation theory, and Eccles (Parsons) et al.'s expectancy-value model. Next, research examining variables that have been hypothesized to influence female self-confidence, as well as a discussion of gender differences, is presented. Finally, enhancement strategies and future research directions are offered. It is suggested that researchers examine the impact of specific socializing influences when studying girls' and women's self-confidence and also that they undertake more model testing instead of examining variables in isolation.     

Memory, maternal representations, and internalizing symptomatology among abused, neglected, and nonmaltreated children

A depth-of-processing incidental recall task for maternal-referent stimuli was utilized to assess basic memory processes and the affective valence of maternal representations among abused ( N  = 63), neglected ( N  = 33), and nonmaltreated ( N  = 128) school-aged children (ages 8–13.5 years old). Self-reported and observer-rated indices of internalizing symptoms were also assessed. Abused children demonstrated impairments in recall compared to neglected and nonmaltreated children. Although abused, neglected, and nonmaltreated children did not differ in valence of maternal representations, positive and negative maternal schemas related to internalizing symptoms differently among subgroups of maltreated children. Valence of maternal schema was critical in differentiating those with high and low internalizing symptomatology among the neglected children only. Implications for clinical intervention and prevention efforts are underscored.     

Cairns,Jo, Lawton Denis and Gardner,Roy, eds. Values,Culture, and Education.

International Review of Education -     

Mind, Brain, Education, and Biological Timing

ABSTRACT— Circadian rhythms, in particular the sleep–wake cycle, modulate most, if not all, aspects of physiology and behavior. Their impact on education has recently begun to be understood, including a clear positive relationship between sleep and learning. In fact, sleep deprivation, common to adolescents throughout the world, has a deep effect on academic performance, and this fact is often increased by inadequate school schedules. This special issue of Mind, Brain, and Education deals with the relation between biological rhythms and learning, as discussed in an International Mind, Brain, and Education Society meeting that took place in Erice, Italy in May 2007. The articles (with contributors from Brazil, Croatia, Sweden, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, and Argentina) cover several aspects of this fundamental link between timing and education and suggest strategies to optimize school and sleep schedules for a better quality of life and improved academic performance of students.     

Gender,ethnicity, science achievement,and attitudes

Science achievement and attitudes were assessed for a series of students in Grades 3–12 representing the four major ethnic groups in Hawai'i (USA). It was found that more differences were accounted for by ethnicity and even grade than by gender; in addition, there was little interaction between ethnicity and gender. With respect to ethnicity, Caucasian and Japanese-American students outscored Hawaiians and Filipino Americans at all grade levels. Caucasians also expressed the most positive attitudes toward science and Japanese expressed the most positive perceptions of scientists; Hawaiians generally expressed the least positive perceptions. Younger students generally expressed more positive attitudes toward science but less positive perceptions of scientists compared to older students. Caucasians expressed the most positive perceptions of their own science ability and achievement. With respect to gender, there were no consistent differences in science achievement and very few in science attitudes and perceptions. The major differences were that males reported more experiences with physical science activities and also expressed a more male-stereotyped view of science than females, with some variation by ethnicity and grade. There were differences in enrollment in advanced science and mathematics classes in that females were more likely than males to enroll in many, but for both genders the major reason was college admission: Japanese students were most likely and Hawaiians least likely to indicate science interest as a reason. Findings are discussed within the context of cultural ecology and feminist social theory. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Children,stress, and context: integrating basic,clinical, and experimental prevention research

Findings from the Watamura, Donzella, Alwin, and Gunnar (this issue) study support the growing recognition of the importance of context on physiology and affective and behavioral regulation early in human development. This discussion focuses on the role of context and development on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation in young children. Discussed in this article are the Watamura et al. findings with regard to relevant animal studies, extension of these observations to samples of children at elevated risk for psychopathology, and experimental prevention studies with young children. It is contended that environmental factors operating at key points in development may shape affective and behavioral regulation as well as HPA axis function in children, much as environmental factors have been shown to shape HPA axis regulation in animals.     

Science, Worldviews, and Education

Whether science can reach conclusions with substantial worldview import, such as whether supernatural beings exist or the universe is purposeful, is a significant but unsettled aspect of science. For instance, various scientists, philosophers, and educators have explored the implications of science for a theistic worldview, with opinions spanning the spectrum from positive to neutral to negative. To delineate a mainstream perspective on science, seven key characterizations or “pillars” of science are adopted from position papers from the world’s largest scientific organization, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Based on those pillars and an examination of scientific method, I argue that the presuppositions and reasoning of science can and should be worldview independent, but empirical and public evidence from the sciences and humanities can support conclusions that are worldview distinctive. I also critique several problematic perspectives: asserting that science can say nothing about worldviews and the opposite extreme of insisting that science decisively supports one particular worldview; weakening science so severely that it lacks truth claims; and burdening science with unnecessary presuppositions. Worldview-distinctive conclusions based on empirical evidence are suitable for individual convictions and public discussions, but not for institutional endorsements and scientific literacy requirements.     

Communities,families, and inclusion

Widespread interest in the concept of inclusion for young children with disabilities has been focused primarily on inclusion in day care and classroom settings. While these contexts provide important opportunities for inclusion, many other community contexts are also important. Interviews with families of children with and without disabilities were analyzed to identify factors that facilitated or served as barriers to children's inclusion in community settings. These factors are described in terms of their application to children with and without disabilities and the extent to which they were reflected in communities of varying size and various income levels. Results are interpreted with respect to an ecological model and are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention.     

Anxiety,Depression, and Exercise

Experimental and clinical investigations of the effects of acute and chronic exercise on state anxiety or tension and depression are reviewed. Proposed explanations for the association of exercise with improved mood states are also discussed.