This series presents substantial results from around the globe in selected areas of educational research. The field of education is consistently on the top of priority lists of every country in the world, yet few educators are aware of the progress elsewhere. Topics discussed include the extent to which family social and economic background interact with other factors such as gender, ethnicity and attitudes toward schooling in influencing student educational outcomes in two lower secondary schools in rural Vietnam; the introduction of formal mentoring programs in an Irish school setting; the effects of teaching strategies on cognition and performance; outcomes-focused teaching strategies; learning in a city versus learning on a campus and the spatial criteria for university progress; eating patterns of American mainstream children and Asian immigrant children in an American elementary school; and looking at educational technologies through constructivist school laboratories.