Cultural Theory Of Learning Research Articles

Impact of Social Media on Mental Health and Well-Being across Different Cultures and Age Groups in Nepal

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate impact of social media on mental health and well-being across different cultures and age groups
 Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries.
 Findings: Social media's impact on mental health and well-being varies across cultures and age groups. While it can foster social connection, information sharing, and creativity, it also contributes to negative outcomes such as social comparison, cyberbullying, and sleep disruption. Cultural norms influence how individuals engage with social media, and age-related factors shape susceptibility to its effects, highlighting the need for nuanced approaches to promoting digital well-being.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social comparison theory, cultural learning theory & uses and gratifications theory may be used to anchor future studies on impact of social media on mental health and well-being across different cultures and age groups. Develop culturally sensitive interventions and digital literacy programs that equip individuals with the skills to navigate social media platforms in ways that promote mental well-being. Advocate for evidence-based policies that protect vulnerable populations from the harmful effects of social media while promoting digital inclusion and empowerment.

Teaching Methods and Strategies on Learners’ Motivation in English Language Lectures in Higher Education in Kenya

Purpose: This paper sought to determine the teaching methods and strategies increasing learners’ motivation in English language lectures at the university level. The study was based on social cultural theory of learning.
 Methodology: The study adopted quantitative design, descriptive statistics method to understand the problem at hand. The target population consisted of 375 Bachelor of Education Arts students. Simple random sampling was used to sample 100 third year Bachelor of Education (Arts) students in a public university. Questionnaires and document analysis of research articles were used to collect raw data from 100 students. The data was analyzed using SPSS computer package.
 Findings: The teaching methods that highly motivated students were explanation, discussion, interactive lectures and demonstration, teaching methods that moderately motivated learners were task-based method, case study and communicative language teaching and least motivating was audio lingual method. Highly motivating teaching strategies were group discussion and presentation, CATs and drama and moderately motivating teaching strategies were class assignments, debate, term paper assignments, pair work and dialogues.
 Recommendation: Based on the study findings the study recommends that lecturers to strive to determine their learner’s needs and specific learning styles in order to adopt the correct teaching methods and strategies that motivate them to learn English language.

Critical Reflections on Sociocultural Adaptation

On the occasion of her Lifetime Achievement Award, Colleen Ward critically reflects on the construct of sociocultural adaptation, including its origins, evolution, purpose and measurement. Linking sociocultural adaptation to culture learning theory, she situates the construct in the broader and problematic literature on cultural competence and suggests directions for future research.

DIFFERENCES IN THE PERCEPTION OF POVERTY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS / DIFERENCIAS EN LA PERCEPCION DE LA POBREZA DE ESTUDIANTES UNIVERSITARIOS

The objective of this research is to find significant differences according to the perception of poverty of university students. The perception of poverty has its repercussions in the way ofperceiving the causes of social phenomena such as poverty. Through a sample made up of 100 students from 3 universities, it was found that there are significant differences in aspects such as cultural learning theory, theory of powers that be and deterministic theory. It is concluded that the attribution theory can be used to understand the perception of social phenomena such as the causes of poverty.

Symbolic play as a zone of proximal development: An analysis of informational exchange

AbstractSymbolic play has long been considered a beneficial context for development. According to Cultural Learning theory, one reason for this is that symbolically‐infused dialogical interactions constitute a zone of proximal development. However, the dynamics of caregiver‐child interactions during symbolic play are still not fully understood. In the current study, we investigated informational exchange between fifty‐two 24‐month‐old infants and their primary caregivers during symbolic play and a comparable, non‐symbolic, functional play context. We coded over 11,000 utterances for whether participants had superior, equivalent, or inferior knowledge concerning the current conversational topic. Results showed that children were significantly more knowledgeable speakers and recipients in symbolic play, whereas the opposite was the case for caregivers, who were more knowledgeable in functional play. The results suggest that, despite its potential conceptual complexity, symbolic play may scaffold development because it facilitates infants’ communicative success by promoting them to ‘co‐constructors of meaning’.

The effects of lesbian, gay, and bisexual experiences and internal beliefs on lesbian, gay, and bisexual affirmative counselor competence among Chinese counselors.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) affirmative counselor competence is important for counselors to work effectively with sexual minority clients, but the level of competence is unclear among counselors in China, given the more conservative sociocultural climate. To understand the factors that contribute to Chinese counselors' LGB affirmative counselor competence, this study examined how situational (e.g., LGB experiences) and cognitive factors (e.g., internal beliefs) contribute to such competence in light of cultural learning theory. A total of 672 counselors (79.40% female; Mage = 36.33 years, SD = 7.87) from Mainland China completed an online survey. They provided information about demographics and LGB experiences (i.e., hours of LGB training, number of LGB clients, and number of LGB friends) and completed the Essentialist Beliefs Scale, Social Dominance Orientation Scale, and Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale (SOCCS). Structural equation modeling results indicated that number of LGB friends was positively associated with SOCCS-Attitude. Number of LGB clients had the greatest effect on SOCCS-Skill, followed by hours of LGB training and number of LGB friends. Lower discreteness belief, higher immutability belief, and lower social dominance orientation were associated with higher level of SOCCS-Attitude. Higher universality belief was associated with higher levels of SOCCS-Knowledge and Skill. Interestingly, more hours of LGB training were not associated with higher levels of SOCCS-Attitude and Knowledge. In addition, counselors' gender or sexual orientation did not moderate the effects of LGB experiences and internal beliefs on LGB affirmative counselor competence. The implications for these findings are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Impact of Intercultural Exchange on Secondary School Exchange Students and Their Host Families

The last decade has seen a significant increase of international student mobility and a growing popularity of secondary school exchange programs in the United States and around the world. Drawing upon culture learning theory, the purpose of this study is to understand the impacts, challenges, and rewards of intercultural exchange on secondary school exchange students and their host families. I performed a case study of in-depth interviews with six students who were placed in Hawai’i for an academic year on the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Future Leaders Exchange merit-based scholarships, as well as interviews with their volunteer host families. Findings show that intercultural exchange occurs as a two-way process. Both students and host families reap the benefits of intercultural exchange by way of active interaction and culture sharing that is enhanced by a positive student–host relationship.

TORNANDO-SE UM TREINADOR DE FUTSAL DE ELITE: UM ESTUDO DE CASO BRASILEIRO

O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar o processo de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional de João, ex-treinador da seleção brasileira e campeão da Liga Nacional de Futsal. Para a produção dos dados foi realizada uma entrevista semiestruturada e retrospectiva, analisada pelo método Análise Temática Reflexiva. Com fundamentação teórica na Sociologia Reflexiva de Pierre Bourdieu e na Teoria de Aprendizagem Cultural de Phil Hodkinson e colaboradores, tem-se como principais resultados: a constituição do habitus esportivo baseou-se na familiaridade com o futsal desde a infância; foram fatores relevantes os acessos a capitais oriundos de herança familiar, da posição de jogador de elite, da proximidade com treinadores consagrados e experientes, do aprendizado tanto na vivência prática como treinador, quanto no contexto acadêmico. Como conclusão, sugere-se que processos de educação e desenvolvimento de treinadores estruturem-se pela oferta de modos variados de acumulação de capitais, pautados entre vivências práticas, teóricas e trocas de experiências entre colegas.

Culture learning theory and globalization: Reconceptualizing culture shock for modern cross-cultural sojourners

Culture shock has long been of great concern regarding the wellbeing and mental-health of international sojourners. Over the last three decades, the world has experienced rapid globalization and the introduction of various technologies which have been found to ‘buffer’ the effects of culture shock, yet the conceptualizations concerning the nature, prevalence, and effects of this phenomenon have not been explicitly modernized to suit such a contemporary social landscape. Based on an extensive literature review, particularly concerning the research conducted with international student populations, this paper offers conceptual insight on how the experience of culture shock has evolved in the present information age, and argues modern sojourner experiences are increasingly reflective of culture learning. Specifically, this paper considers exactly how technological advancements have facilitated change in the subjective experience of the psychosocial processes during a cross-cultural immersion. A foundation for future research to explore the mechanisms of culture learning theory is also contributed.

Lived-Experiences of Mobile Teachers in Remote Schools in Antipolo City

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of mobile teachers in remote schools in city school’s division of Antipolo specifically in district II-F. The study was limited to six (6) informants who were teaching for three or more years. The theories guiding in this study were Work as Calling Theory (2018), Work Adaptation Theory (1984) and the Cultural Learning Theory (2010) The study followed the theory and methods of the phenomenological research model proposed by Giorgi (2009) that allowed informants to provide personal perspectives and reflections on their experiences. The following four research questions guided the study. 1) What are the lived experiences of mobile teachers? 2) What work environment aspects play a part in mobile teacher’s decisions to remain in the remote school for three or more years? (relationships with colleagues, students, parents, and community) 3) How do mobile teachers describe their motivators that help them to stay in remote school in Antipolo city? 4) How do mobile teachers face the challenges in terms of adapting to a new culture in remote community? Interviews conducted to gather perceptive data from informants were transcribed, examined, coded, and broken down into themes emerged throughout the research process. The themes identified that were based on distinct experiences of mobile teachers were (1) physically, intellectually and emotionally discomfort, (2) environmental and work adaptation, and (3) positive attitudes towards work. Identified themes based on characteristics of work environment of informants were,(1) sense of belongingness, (2) high respect for teacher and (3) community and school challenges. In addition to that, informants indicated their motivators why they still wanted to remain teaching in their respective school’s despite of the challenges that they encountered were, (1) sense of (2) satisfaction, (3) sense of commitment and (3) meaning of teacher’s life. Being new to the working environment the informants experienced difficulty in communicating with the students, parents and with the community folks, however they possessed cultural competence that made them adjust and adapt to their new environment easier. The findings of the study may help the city school’s division of Antipolo, school administrators in conducting orientations that could help them understand the culture and working condition of mobile teachers who are being assigned in remote school so that they will be attracted and stay in the place for more than three (3) years.

A study on Organizational Learning of Dance Company Based on Cultural Learning Theory

A study on Organizational Learning of Dance Company Based on Cultural Learning Theory

Universities in Latvia – from the Soviet to European Higher Education Area

The paper will describe the development of universities in Latvia from 1950’s to nowadays. The higher education system experienced changes along with the political transformations of the country. Latvia was incorporated in the Soviet Union in 1940, regained its independence in 1991 and joined EU in 2004. Since 2012 Latvia is a fully fledged participant of the European Higher Education Area. The paper will describe the transformations of universities in Latvia from the perspective of a cultural learning theory and transfer of knowledge defined by Gita Steiner-Khamsi. It will provide the reference to an external education model, its modification and metamorphosis into a local educational model. Latvia as a small country and relatively new culture had found itself in the situation to learn from the cultural experiences of countries that have longer experience of democracy and had to overtake the ideas of the education systems from other countries and adopt them to the local needs.

A national sports institute as a learning culture

Background and purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the learning culture for elite athletes who resided at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) from the perspective of the athletes themselves. As a government entity, the AIS is highly regulated by policies and strategies concerning allocation of funding, facilities, services, and resources. There is a substantial body of research examining government interest in elite sport and, in particular, national and state sporting institutes. These meso-level interactions within the AIS context no doubt have an impact on athlete learning. Learning in this context is political and economic as well as social. Thus, the cultural theory of learning is an important tool in considering the political agenda as an integral part of the learning process within the context of the AIS.Data collection and analysis: Participants for this study were purposefully selected from a larger project involving AIS scholarship holding athletes who were residents at the AIS. The final sample of six female athletes from four different sports participated in a single semi-structured interview aimed at gathering a holistic perspective of the current life experiences of the athletes. Thematic analysis involved the three steps of (1) initial coding of text in relation to the research questions, (2) the development of descriptive themes, and (3) the generation of analytical themes. The theoretical lens of the cultural theory of learning shaped the third step of the analysis. As such, the context within which practice took place including the language, social space and hierarchies, and symbolic message systems were foregrounded.Findings: The successful habitus in this field is one which was described by the athletes as organised with a plan, busy, and with multiple interests. Enhanced athletic performance and motivation to train were tied to being able to have time away from sport to relax and do other things. Being in residence at the AIS produced a commodity-driven orientation and encouraged athletes to diversify in order to increase performance, to gain further funding, to maintain their positions at the AIS which afforded the optimum balance for performance, forming a cycle of the interaction between habitus and field.Conclusion: What this investigation offers is an insight into how a set of meso- and macro-level structures around finance and performance are experienced by a sample of national sport institute residential athletes and may demonstrate conditions related to athlete satisfaction. For this group of athletes at least, ‘living sport’ was not conducive to maintaining elite performance and their place at the AIS. These findings are of relevance to coaches of young high-performance athletes and those involved in policy-making and athlete learning in sports institutes.

Hanging up the shirt: an autoethnographic account of disengaging from a social rugby culture

Violent practices are a common feature of homosocial sporting environments. The objective of the current paper is to explore how one individual disengaged from a sporting community characterized by such practices. An autoethnographic approach involving recollection and interactional exchanges is used to create a realist narrative account which offers insight into the process of disengagement. The narrative focuses on the: (1) ongoing nature of cultural participation; (2) agency and the restriction of ways of being in sports teams and (3) the durable nature of personal characteristics that are learned in sporting environments. These issues are discussed in light of cultural learning theory and specifically, the analytic concept, ‘becoming’. The paper concludes with methodological reflections and a consideration of directions for future research.

Beyond Culture Learning Theory

The meta-analytic study examined correlates of cultural competence as assessed by the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale. A total of 17 variables were analyzed from 66 independent studies ( N = 10,672). In line with culture learning theory, situational factors such as length of residence ( r = .16), cultural knowledge ( r = .34), previous cross-cultural experience ( r = .17), cultural distance ( r = −.33), language proficiency ( r = .35), and contact with host nationals ( r = .29) were associated with better sociocultural adaptation. The meta-analysis was extended to personality variables, with small to medium effect sizes found for the “Big Five” traits of agreeableness ( r = .16), conscientiousness ( r = .22), openness/flexibility ( r = .29), extraversion ( r = .29), and neuroticism ( r = −.32), and large effect sizes found for more narrowly defined, culture-relevant factors such as cultural empathy ( r = .49) and cross-cultural self-efficacy ( r = .45). The findings indicate that both personal and situational factors relate to cultural competence and that personality variables deserve greater attention in future studies of sociocultural adaptation.

A study on the model of cultural cognition and cultural learning theory : focusing on Christoph Wulf

A study on the model of cultural cognition and cultural learning theory : focusing on Christoph Wulf

From Learning Cultures to Educational Cultures: Values and Judgements in Educational Research and Educational Improvement

This article outlines a new approach to the study learning and the improvement of education. The approach consists of two elements: a theory of learning cultures and a cultural theory of learning. Learning cultures are different from learning contexts or learning environments in that they are to be understood as the social practices through which people learn. Learning cultures therefore do not exist objectively, but only in function of concrete practices of learning. This requires that the study of learning needs to, ‘follow the learning’. In the cultural theory of learning, learning itself is seen as practical, embodied and social. While learning is often seen as a descriptive term, it is argued that the use of the word learning always implies a value judgement about change (for example change in cognition, behaviour or disposition). Unlike the study of physical objects such as trees or planets, the study of learning therefore needs to start from a conception of good or desirable learning. This becomes even more important when the cultural approach is utilised for the improvement of educational processes and practices. It is argued that in such cases we need to move from the notion of learning cultures to the notion of educational cultures. An educational culture is defined as a learning culture that is framed by particular purposes. A cultural approach therefore not only provides new ways for educational research and educational improvement, but also highlights that both research and improvement can only proceed on the basis of judgements about what counts as good or desirable learning.

The Guest Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue

The International Journal of Early Childhood aims at bringing together the global early childhood community as well as facilitating the interchange of ideas and information. Its purpose is to contribute to an international and critical scientific debate concerning research and practice in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) with an emphasis on children’s rights, children’s general position in society and their education all over the world. In this special issue, ‘‘Learning cultures in early childhood contexts’’ are under scrutiny. As invited guest editors, our aim for the theme of this issue is to contribute to a critical and scientific discussion where the concepts of learning cultures and a cultural theory of learning can be debated, explored and hopefully further developed. All articles are related to learning cultures in some way or another, but they still differ considerably in their perspectives. The authors come from different countries like Australia, Great Britain, Norway and Portugal, and they represent different contexts and kindergarten traditions. Although the articles differ in relation to both theoretical and empirical background, they all have a focus on investigating issues related to a cultural understanding of learning in early childhood education. The variations of contexts in particular bring important dimensions into the field of learning cultures. Issues related to learning, the effects of learning, assessment of learning outcome etc. have received increased attention in recent research in education. International reports discuss and evaluate the desired learning ‘‘outcome’’ of children’s achievements in school (e.g. OECD PISA). As the growing number of national curricula in ECEC institutions and other documents indicate, the focus on learning has increased also in this area in many countries. This raises a number of complex

Commentary

The intent of this volume was to address the following questions: What is considered acceptable knowledge about disabilities? Who decides? Where does knowledge come from? Who uses it and for what purposes? Who benefits? In their article, Artiles et al. (this issue) focus explicitly on the issue of culture and how it has served to impact the field of special education, both in general and specifically in the area of scholarship and research in disabilities. The article notes that issues have traditionally received minimal treatment, including in the LD Initiative, which attempted to synthesize knowledge (Bradley & Danielson, 2004) in the area of disabilities. Artiles et al. also note how narrowly culture as a construct has been conceptualized. The authors consider three aspects of this problem within the field of disabilities scholarship and practice: the ways that factors have been considered in theories of and development within the field, the practices that surround the use of research knowledge in practice, and the practices that are embedded in decisions about what should be sanctioned as acceptable knowledge production. The Need for More Expansive Frameworks One of the main arguments of the article is a call for a broader and more nuanced view of culture, a cultural theory of learning that allows for an analytical focus larger than the individual in isolation. In this proposal, the authors point to the contributions that research in informal might make to such a development. In addition, they consider work from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, including social neuroscience psychology, that have begun to tackle these issues with more expansive frameworks. What does this mean for theory related to disabilities and special education in general? Certainly it would be ideal were we to have at our disposal frameworks that integrate attention to biological, cultural, and cognitive frameworks, and that place them in the historical, institutional, and ecological dimensions of human activity. The truth is that currently we do not. As a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Minority Representation in Special Education (National Research Council, 2002), I, like other members of the team, struggled to come up with the comprehensive framework that might help change the longstanding and exclusive focus on individual deficits that had characterized much of special education policy and practice. The compromise was to embrace the now popular Response to Intervention (RtI) approach, thus broadening the unit of analysis beyond the individual student and acknowledging that disability is as much a function of the individual as it is of the social context. Yet, this approach assumed that valid, research-based interventions were available for all populations, which may not be the case, and as Artiles et al. note, the promise seems to have exceeded the reality because of the narrow ways in which RtI is sometimes implemented. Moreover, a recent expert-consensus white paper has argued that this approach is an inadequate way of identifying specific disabilities (Hale et al., 2010). Interestingly, the psychometric approach recommended does not consider the historical difficulties that have been encountered with groups of students for whom overrepresentation has been a longstanding problem. Cultural Considerations An interesting paradox related to the uneasy relationship between the constructs of disabilities and culture is that the very definition of disabilities excludes culture as a causal factor. At the same time, however, the definitional issues related to disabilities are most problematic with respect to specific racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups where issues are often the focus. This controversy is most notably evident in the relatively long history of research on the issue of overrepresentation of specific subgroups of the population, specifically Latino and African American students, and especially in the judgmental categories, or those cases in which physical or intellectual impairments are not immediately or easily distinghished. …

Value Orientations, Acculturative Stress and Mental Health Among African German Immigrants

This study describes the relationship between value orientations, acculturative stress, and wellbeing of African migrants in Germany. Concepts from culture learning theory are applied in the context of intercultural interaction. Data were collected from 85 African migrants (males=73.4, females=26.5%; age range =18–46 years recruited from several German metropolitan areas. The participants completed the MMPI-2, a stress checklist developed by the author and Schwartz Value Survey. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis and tested with structural equation modelling. Results showed that value preferences significantly influenced mental health: African migrants who cherish self-enhancement values (power and achievement values) experience a poorer mental health than their fellow migrants who place a lower value on the same attributes. Self-transcendence values related to good mental health. Openness values predicted higher perceived racism scores.