Chinese scientific socialism (CSS) is analyzed as a state of purpose rather than one of ambiguity. Distinct historical contexts and associated semantic shifts are integrated to contemporarily situate CSS, particularly regarding foreign policy and practice in Latin America. Findings indicate Western media and specialists generally analyze Chinese economic dynamics along a continuum of capitalism, failing to capture relevant forms of geopolitical socialist-communist expression and their local-to-global impacts. CSS rhetoric and practice reflect principles of unity and reciprocity, are long term, and enjoy trust in Latin America. Thus, the Chinese development model derives and generates benefits comparatively greater than the traditional capitalist model and impacts US hegemony. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Purpose of Study The diversity that characterizes our world continues to be reflected in U.S. schools, even as our nation's teachers continue to come overwhelmingly from the racial group category of White. Our nation's schools and personnel remain unprepared to manage, much less master, the challenges, both stark and nuanced, that accompany this relentless historical pattern of diversity. The rise in poverty and general economic disparity between the upper income and lower income groups adds to the complexity of our educational challenge. One method to enhance teacher effectiveness that continues to develop and expand within teacher preparation programs relates to providing prospective teachers student teaching experiences in international settings to prepare them for the multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual professional contexts in which they will engage as teachers within U.S. schools and classrooms. The general premise of the student teaching abroad experience being that it will provide future teachers with experiences that will enable them to interact effectively and productively with the increasingly diverse student population that comprises U.S. schools (Martines, 2005). It is understood that teacher preparation programs must provide effective platforms and settings for pre-service teachers to develop, express, and refine the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that will, collectively, establish their foundational competence as culturally responsive teachers. Toward this end, the student teaching abroad experience is projected to provide a substantive platform and setting for student teachers to engage in a multifaceted, culturally distinct experience outside the United States to develop, and even transform, their professional and personal perspectives, and related knowledge and skill bases. We have previously addressed the effects of student teaching abroad experiences (DeVillar, Jiang, & Bryan, 2008; Jiang, Coffey, DeVillar, & Bryan, 2010; Jiang & DeVillar, 2011). The purpose of the current stage of our ongoing research was to determine the influence of former student teachers' student teaching abroad experiences along three dimensions of their teaching practice within U.S. classroom settings: (a) instructional practice, (b) cultural responsiveness toward diverse student populations, and (c) curricular approach. The research was an extension of the researchers' three previous years of on-site and electronically-based investigations regarding the instructional, cultural, and professional development of student teachers in Belize, China, and Mexico (Jiang & DeVillar, 2011). Theoretical Framework Demographic Polarity in Schools and Teacher Preparation The level of knowledge, pedagogical skills, and dispositions that pre-service and practicing teachers have regarding students from cultures different from their own is generally weak and even cause for feelings of professional inadequacy. Thus, knowledge, skills, and dispositions in the area of student cultural diversity are of major importance, particularly as these factors can relate to teachers' effectiveness, or lack thereof, in communicating with and understanding the students they teach (Catalogna, Greene, & Zirkel, 1981; Dee, 2005; Kea, Trent, & Davis, 2002; Neal, Mccray, Webb-Johnson, & Bridgest, 2003; Rueda, Au, & Choi, 2004; Sheets, 1996). This research-based principle is particularly relevant as teacher ethnicity will remain predominately White over the coming decades even as student ethnicity will continue its dramatic path of reflecting diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds other than White (Causey, Thomas, & Armento, 2000). Students designated as minority, for example, comprised 41%, or 22,500,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008b) of the estimated 55 million students enrolled in elementary and secondary schools (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Additionally, in 2006, 23% (12,650,000) of all students had at least one parent who was foreign-born, and 5%, or 2,275,000, of all students were themselves foreign-born (U. …

Impact on student achievement of randomly assigned students working individually or collaboratively in mixed- and matched-gender pairs at a computer on predetermined science tasks was investigated. Collaborative dyads shared a computer and screen as each operated an independent keyboard and mouse. A mixed gender control group working individually at their respective computers was used for comparison purposes. A software application was designed to facilitate collaborative work and track the quantity of text written by users and their respective use of time. A final written assessment was conducted to compare the level of academic achievement between the control group and the experimental. A significant difference in academic achievement resulted.

In this article, the authors examine various nuances relating to demographics on race, ethnicity, gender and income in the United States, and ways in which they relate to educational access, participation and achievement. These nuances persistently remain below the surface of our national consciousness, schooling experiences at all levels, and everyday discourse. Thus, it is necessary to make them explicit and, depending on their positive or negative influence, integrate them into our policies and practices or challenge and discard them. This obligatory culling of the wheat from the chaff is required if our attempts to move forward progressively and steadily in educational, societal and national reforms—meant to refine and strengthen our democracy, character, unity, capital and global competitive standing—are to have any hope of becoming a reality.

As student diversity becomes the norm in U.S. schools, future teachers must be comprehensively prepared to work with the increasingly diverse student population through application of informed instruction that enhances general and individual student learning and outcomes. Teacher-education programs increasingly promote student teaching in international settings as a substantive step in serving to develop teachers who embody these new competencies and instructional practices. This study offers a framework and analysis highlighting similarities and differences among three student-teaching abroad settings—Belize, Mexico and China—associated with a state university in the southeastern United States. The study's research findings support the general research literature in international student teaching and introduce new, pattern-based, evidence that relates the comparative impact of country and school-site contexts on specific cultural, professional, and character development influences on student teachers. Notes 1Definitions of the nine themes and their associated categories are available from the authors. Note that the terms categories and topics can be used interchangeably in the current study.

The United States mainstream populace has been notably deficient in its exposure, sensitivity and understanding relative to cultures, languages and people it considers different, whether within or outside its national borders. This general deficiency extends to the professional realm, and includes U.S. teachers, who, as adults and as a group, engage with students in a long-term, planned, structural and developmental manner that exceeds by far that of any other adult group. Teachers, therefore, have a critical responsibility with respect to accumulating and effectively expressing knowledge, skills and dispositions that will inform whom, what and how they teach in their classrooms, across the panoply of courses offered throughout the preK-12 curriculum. This requirement imperative is especially salient as student diversity continues its accelerated trajectory to become the norm in U.S. schools. Thus, future teachers must be comprehensively prepared to work with the increasingly diverse student population through application of informed instruction that enhances general and individual student learning and outcomes. Teacher Education programs increasingly promote student teaching in international settings as a substantive step in serving to develop teachers who embody these new competencies and instructional practices. This paper presentation offers a framework and analysis highlighting similarities and differences among three student teaching abroad settings, Belize, Mexico and China, associated with a state university in the southeastern United States. Findings relate to cultural, professional and character development influences on participating student teachers and the overall development patterns associated with the particular country contexts, singly and comparatively.