This study examines teachers' perceptions of classroom motivation and achievement among students displaying culture-based classroom behaviors. Sixty-two elementary school teachers read scenarios of hypothetical students who behaviorally manifested themes purported to be consistent with a European/mainstream cultural ethos (competition,…

Mediated learning describes what parents and teachers do to teach and includes four components: (1) intent to teach; (2) competence; (3) transcendence to promote high level thinking; and (4) mediation of meaning, helping children to focus on the importance of what is being focused on. Mediated learning is assumed to be universal for all cultural…

Historians and philosophers of education tend to emphasise the contribution of Rousseau to the development of individualistic trends in modern education. However, other eighteenth-century thinkers also took part in the quest to bring the individual and his happiness to the centre of contemporary educational discourse. The work of some of these…

The objective of this study was to test our alternative interpretation of the separation-individuation hypothesis. This interpretation states that separation from the parents is not a precondition for individuation, but rather separation and individuation are two parallel processes of development during adolescence. We investigated our…

Cultural diversity and the cultural context of adolescent career development are explored through the lens of the cultural syndromes of individualism and collectivism. The individualist cultural value orientation of some of the main theoretical perspectives that underpin career education and counseling practice in schools is highlighted. In…

Many universities today are promoting cultural diversity to prepare students to be competent in intercultural communication and function effectively in an increasingly global world. The purpose of this study is to explore how and why students from different cultural backgrounds are motivated to communicate and interact with each other. It is based…

The third in a series of three reports draws on earlier discussion of theories of discontinuity in human existence to develop a method for studying individual perceptions of existence. The method is Perspective Text Analysis, a form of discourse analysis that focuses on self-reference as a reflection of competence. The model for the methodology is…

To negotiate a balance between an ideological concern for society's historical-economic development and an understanding of the individual's need for a sense of self-realization, social theory researchers should look to B. Dervin's "gap theory model" of communication. Adapted from Kenneth Burke, it offers a dynamic means of understanding…

Political debates often mask underlying differences in people's assumptions about natural behaviors and appropriate values. Ten individuals who had written letters to newspapers from nonmainstream perspectives (from right-wing libertarian to left-wing revolutionary communist) participated in three or four intensive, open-ended, semistructured…

The social backgrounds of Japanese and Americans differ in ways that impede complete communication. The Japanese people, historically controlled by the forces of nature, have formed groups as the minimum functioning social units. The individual is only part of the group, and individual rights and obligations have not been clearly developed.…

The emergence and development of symbolic interactionism, and its implications for the study of social phenomena, journalism, and mass communication, are examined in this paper. The introductory section discusses the emergence of symbolic interactionism in the midst of the rapid rise of industrial institutions in the late nineteenth century,…

This is the first in a two volume set (see also SE 013 664) which displays what the people at the Earth Science Teacher Preparation Project (ESTPP) value about learning, learners, themselves, and their role in helping learners. It records, mainly in their own words, how some people in colleges and secondary schools feel about education and how…

This article presents a discussion on the conflict between the self-interest and autonomy of the individual and the orderly functioning of society as represented by the state and the community. (JD)

Examined historical changes in Canadian women's nuptiality patterns (first marriage rate and age at first marriage) from 1921-1925 to 1981-1985. Found long-term patterns of nuptiality were functions of increasing individualism, increasing singulate sex (masculinity) ratios, and war and economic depression. Results support five social…

College students, particularly those in the United States, exhibit individualistic, isolationist world views. Students in Great Britain display these isolationist tendencies to a lesser degree. The reasons are discussed. To help students develop a world view, sociology teachers should make a more conscientious use of Mills's "sociological…