Rigor and Relevance

The term ‘differentiate' is often used in the field of education to signify the modification of learning based on student readiness, learning profile, and academic skills, with changes being made to the depth, pace, and breath of the process (instruction), content (curriculum), and product (students' work and assessments). This chapter will focus on differentiation as it relates to gifted culturally different students, with an emphasis on the inclusion of cultural considerations within learning profiles discuss the necessity of both rigor and cultural relevance in lessons, while also being affirmed by what is taught. The curricula and program challenges within general and gifted classrooms will also be discussed. A brief overview of Bloom's taxonomy and James Banks's multicultural curriculum model will be shared in addition to an overview of Ford's Bloom-Banks matrix along with a revised layout of Trotman Scott's color-coded layout of Ford's matrix with pros and cons for each matrix quadrant.

Internalising and Externalising Symptoms Before and During the Initial COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK and Turkey: A Cross-cultural Examination

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. Culture can influence emotional and behavioural responses to the pandemic and its consequences, but research is primarily focused on single country experiences. The study examined differences in caregiver worry of infection and experience with the confinement during the initial lockdown and their impact on children’s internalising and externalising symptoms across two culturally different countries which were severely affected by the pandemic: UK and Turkey.Method: Participants were 1849 caregivers with children between 5 and 12 years old in the UK (n= 995) and Turkey (n = 854) who completed a 20 -min electronic survey on child and family wellbeing distributed via social networks during the initial phase of the COVID-19 lockdown (July and August 2020).Findings: Worry of infection was higher amongst caregivers in the Turkish sample and it independently predicted change in children’s internalising symptoms in the Turkish sample only. Caregivers in the Turkish sample reported more difficulty with family coexistence during the lockdown, but regressions analysis showed that difficulty with coexistence independently predicted change in children’s externalising and internalising symptoms before and during the lockdown in both samples. The study revealed cross-cultural differences in the predictors of change in children’s internalising and externalising symptoms before and during the initial national COVID-19 lockdown.

How did covid19 change our communities? Acompared analysis of meetup communitiesbefore and after the pandemic

The year 2020 has been characterized by the outbreak of covid19. The spread of the disease has had a severe impact in many aspects of our lives that go beyond our health. From economical to psychological or social contexts, covid19 caused a halt in our daily activities and forced us to adapt or develop new habits. The following study uses data retrieved from 800 groups in the platform meetup.com to study and compare the impact of the coronavirus in the social life of two vibrant but culturally different cities such as Washington DC and Barcelona. Results suggest that though groups have been able to maintain their activity, mostly through complementing offline with online events, communities have become more fragmented in 2020. The results also suggest that the halt in activity along with the fragmentation has been higher in Barcelona where a very strict lockdown policy was implemented and that Washington DC has been more able to effectively switch to online events after the outbreak of the pandemic.

FEEDBACK: DIFFERENT CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES IN A CULTURALLY DIFFERENT LEARNING ENVIRONMENT? STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

Objective: To assess students’ perceptions of feedback, regarding its understanding, and practices in a traditional undergraduate dental curriculum in Pakistan, where feedback was not part of a formal curriculum as a structured entity. Study Design: Qualitative-phenomenology. Place and Duration of Study: Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Islamabad from Dec 2017 to May 2018. Methodology: Purposive sampling was done, and data was gathered using semi-structured, group interview of 16 BDS students. Data was organized using qualitative software package Atlas.ti 8.0 and analyzed using thematic framework analysis. Results: Feedback, though, being practiced by faculty, was not identify as feedback by students. They did not appreciate it as an essential skillset for learning and performance. Though, conceptions of students regarding this phenomenon varied, five emergent themes displayed the essence of the phenomenon in this learning environment: 1) understanding ‘feedback’ through participants’ response, 2) highly variant experiences of information exchange, 3) modes and forms of feedback, 4) factors affecting feedback and 5) methods achieving learning progression. Conclusion: Our students were devoid of formally instituted feedback practices, so they were unable to identify it as ‘feedback’. Wide range of contradictory and many negative experiences of participants indicated that formal training in feedback and its systematic use might improve students’ experiences.Keywords: , , , , , .

Relatively Happy: The Role of the Positive-to-Negative Affect Ratio in Japanese and Belgian Couples

Satisfied couples in European-American cultural contexts experience higher ratios of positive to negative affect during interactions than their less satisfied counterparts. The current research tests the possibility that this finding is culture-bound. It compares proportions of positive to negative affect during couple interactions in two different cultural contexts: Belgium and Japan. Whereas Belgian relationship goals (e.g., mutual affirmation and self-esteem) call for the experience of positive affect, Japanese relationship goals (e.g., harmony and self-adjustment) call for the avoidance of negative affect. We propose that these differences result in different affect ratios in close relationships. To test this idea, we tracked positive and negative feelings during couple interactions. Fifty-eight Belgian and 80 Japanese romantic couples took part in a lab interaction study, in which they discussed a topic of disagreement. Using a video-mediated recall, participants rated their positive and negative feelings during the interaction; relationship satisfaction was assessed before the interaction. As expected, Belgian couples’ positive-to-negative affect ratios were more positive than those of Japanese couples. Furthermore, in both cultures relationship satisfaction was positively associated with more positive affect ratios, but this effect was significantly stronger for Belgian than Japanese couples. Finally, mediation analyses showed that higher affect ratios were achieved in culturally different and meaningful ways: satisfied Belgian couples showed higher ratios primarily through higher levels of positive feelings, whereas satisfied Japanese couples showed higher ratios primarily through lower levels of negative feelings.

Predicting Trustworthiness Across Cultures: An Experiment

We contribute to the ongoing debate in the psychological literature on the role of “thin slices” of observable information in predicting others' social behavior, and its generalizability to cross-cultural interactions. We experimentally assess the degree to which subjects, drawn from culturally different populations (France and Japan), are able to predict strangers' trustworthiness based on a set of visual stimuli (mugshot pictures, neutral videos, loaded videos, all recorded in an additional French sample) under varying cultural distance to the target agent in the recording. Our main finding is that cultural distance is not detrimental for predicting trustworthiness in strangers, but that it may affect the perception of different components of communication in social interactions.

Understanding Reasons for Lack of Acceptance in HIV Programs Among Indigenous: a Qualitative Study in Indonesia

Background: Melanesians are Indigenous Papuans that are racially and culturally different from most Indonesians. Poverty and inequalities remain high in this region despite having the highest revenues. Furthermore, Papua has the highest HIV prevalence rate, which is 24 times higher than other regions. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an understanding of the acceptance of HIV programs among Papuans.Methods: This is a qualitative study carried out using the grounded theory with data collected from 23 Papuans through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. All interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia, audio-recorded, summarized, and transcribed for analysis.Results: The results showed that to “keep being a good Papuan," emerges from 4 interconnected categories, including 1) Culture and Religion, 2) Dealing with modernisms, 3) Tailoring program and 4) Stigma reduction. As a substantive theory underpinning the experiences of indigenous people with the programs, “Keep being a good Papuan” was a way of overcoming a series of problems and dealing with modernism to eliminating HIV. This is largely focused on the local culture, therefore any adjustment needs to balance keeping their tradition and welcoming modernism.Conclusions: Therefore, the future of the programs needs to be agreed upon, funded, implemented, measured, and achieved. One of the strategies used to achieve this is by elaborating a supportive culture and community-based interventions. Further, implementation needs to be prioritized to integrate and improve the quality of the programs due to the needs of the community and the available resources.