Chieh Li

Home-School Partnerships with Culturally Diverse Families: Challenges and Solutions for School Personnel.

SUMMARY Home-school partnership is one of the important contributors to every childs learning. The changing demographics of the United States present an urgent need for home-school partnership with culturally diverse families. Traditional family involvement practices are challenged when working with multicultural families. The authors propose an ecological model as a possible solution, with an illustrative case study with Hmong parents. Examples of parent involvement programs that apply some aspects of the ecological model with culturally diverse families are presented. Future directions and recommendations are discussed.

The Effect of Writing Chinese Characters on Success on the Water-Level Task

This study examined why Chinese undergraduates performed better on an eight-item water-level task (WLT) than did American undergraduates. Based on cognitive developmental theory, it was hypothesized that ability to write Chinese characters may facilitate performance on the WLT. This hypothesis was tested along with an additional hypothesis that extensive training in mathematics, especially geometry, facilitates WLT performance. The participants were three groups of Chinese undergraduates: 295 native writers of Chinese from Beijing, China; 49 Chinese American writers of Chinese; and 129 Chinese Americans who could not write Chinese. Results suggest that the combined effect of writing Chinese and strong math training contribute significantly (p < .01) to skills necessary to master WLT. Among Chinese Americans, the effect of writing Chinese is significant for males (p < .05) but not for females. Scholastic Aptitude Test math score has a significant correlation (p < .001) with success on WLT.

School Consultants as Agents of Social Justice for Multicultural Children and Families

This article discusses some of the social justice issues that multicultural students and families encounter that are directly relevant to school consultation practice. The issues include culturally fair education, fair expectations of the child from the family and school, fair assessment, evidence-based intervention, and evaluation of responsiveness to intervention for culturally/linguistically diverse (CLD) students. A case study is provided that illustrates how an ecological framework is useful in understanding the challenges multicultural children face and what consultants can do to promote social justice. Consultants are encouraged to (a) diligently increase their own multicultural competency; (b) actively consider the social, economic, environmental, political, and cultural contexts of consultation; (c) be mindful of school-specific social justice issues in consultation practice; (d) promote fair collaboration between the school and CLD families; and (e) advocate for just treatment for CLD children.

WRITING CHINESE CHARACTERS AND SUCCESS ON MENTAL ROTATION TEST

Our recent study with Chinese and Chinese-American undergraduates indicated that writing Chinese characters was associated with better performance on the Piagetian Water-Level Task for Chinese-American men. The current study investigated whether the same effects would apply to the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test. Two alternative hypotheses (bilingualism and birth place) were also tested. Participants were two groups of Chinese-American undergraduates: 48 writers of Chinese (21 men, 27 women) and 130 nonwriters of Chinese (58 men, 72 women). Analysis suggested that writing Chinese and birth in the USA contributed significantly to the success on Mental Rotation Test. Students who were born in the USA and able to write Chinese scored the highest on this test. Being bilingual was not associated with performance on the Mental Rotation Test. Men performed significantly better than women.

Familial handedness and spatial ability: A study with Chinese students aged 14–24

This study tested Annetts right-shift theory on spatial ability with two samples from China. The Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test (MRT), Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, and Family Handedness Questionnaire were administered to 266 high school students and 297 undergraduates. We found very few r++ or r-- among Chinese students. Most Chinese are either moderately right-handed or ambidextrous. Consistent with Caseys finding, we found using different methods to classify handedness leads to different conclusions. However, we did not find the effect of familial handedness that Casey found. Visual strategy is related to success on the MRT but handedness is not.

A Test of the Piagetian Water-Level Task With Chinese Students

A sample of 486 children in Beijing, China, were tested on the water-level task (WLT; J. Piaget & B. Inhelder, 1948/1956). The participants were 256 boys and 230 girls from 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 11th grades. Three levels of mastery of the WLT were found. Level 1 consisted of 4th and 5th graders, who averaged about 71% correct. Level 2 consisted of 6th and 8th graders, who averaged about 83% correct. Level 3 consisted of 11th graders, who averaged 97% correct. The results provide partial support for the Piagetian theory of age-related developmental differences in performance on the WLT. The findings depict an interactive relationship of maturation with culture and education in the development of the ability to solve the WLT.

Is Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Culturally Appropriate for Muslim American Counselees?

The mental health needs of Muslims are considered in the context of their religious and family values, expectations of therapy, intra-group diversity and a hostile post-9/11 environment in the US. SFBT is different from traditional modes of psychotherapy due to its emphasis on minimal self-disclosure, short-term treatment, empowerment and a positive orientation. The review of the available literature and examination of the cultural match between SFBT and Muslims and Muslim Americans provide support for the cultural sensitivity of SFBT and its potential efficacy with Muslims. The resulting conceptual analysis and conclusions can be clinically useful and provide a launching pad for more formal empirical research to follow.

Writing Chinese and Mathematics Achievement:A Study with Chinese-American Undergraduates .

Two recent studies indicated that writing Chinese is correlated to Chinese-American (CA) students’ spatial skills. The current study investigated whether writing Chinese would have the same relationship to mathematics skills. The Scholastic Assessment Test—Mathematics (SAT-Math) scores were analysed for 150 CA undergraduates: 42 writers of Chinese and 108 non-writers of Chinese. The results suggested a strong correlation between writing Chinese and success on SAT-Math. An underlying mechanism may be the common cognitive components that encompass writing Chinese, spatial tasks, and SAT-Math. Contrary to previous findings with other populations in the USA, CA females scored slightly higher on SAT-Math than males. The finding supports the cultural relativity theory of gender difference on SAT-Math.

Chinese Immigrant Parents’ Perspectives on Psychological Well-Being, Acculturative Stress, and Support: Implications for Multicultural Consultation

ABSTRACT This study investigated Chinese immigrant parents’ perspectives on Chinese immigrant children’s psychological well-being, acculturative stress, and sources of support. We conducted focus groups with 22 Chinese immigrant parents of school-aged children (16 mothers and 6 fathers); obtained participants’ sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds and acculturation levels through a self-developed questionnaire and the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale; and coded and analyzed the verbatim transcripts of the focus groups through deductive and inductive procedures. Results yielded 8 definitions of psychological well-being, 2 acculturative and 6 general themes of stresses, and 3 themes of support. A comparison of the results with previous research findings reveals convergent views regarding essence in psychological well-being, acculturative stresses, sources of support, and wanted interventions at home and school among Chinese immigrant parents, adolescents, and mental health providers. The common and different perspectives between parents and children on these issues provide a helpful reference for multicultural consultation.

School-Based Assessment with Asian Children and Adolescents

This chapter explores how to conduct culturally appropriate school-based assessments with Asian-American or Asian immigrant children and adolescents. Within the wide range of school-based assessment, the chapter focuses on its essence—evaluation for special education based on the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2004) criteria. The chapter begins with specific cultural considerations of the assessment context including the school and home cultures, followed by the IDEA requirement of nondiscriminatory evaluation and its implications for professionals involved in the school-based evaluation, especially school psychologists. Then, it analyzes culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment of commonly identified disability categories defined by IDEA, including specific learning disability, autism, developmental delay, intellectual disability, and speech/language impairment. Cultural considerations for using the RTI (response to intervention) model, an alternative approach that is becoming more popular in school-based assessment, in determining the need for special education are also discussed.