Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Pedagogy - Pedagogic Sociology, grade: very good (1,3), Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft), course: Internationalization, Cultural Difference, and Migration: Developing a Curriculum for Teacher Education, language: English, abstract: Dropping out of school and tardiness are problems that may have severe consequences for the lives of students as well as for the society as a whole. These problems are rooted in the motives of students and the working climate at school. So, the most promising question to ask is: why do successful students go to school? What makes them interested in school and which motives may be dissatisfied? Therefore a survey was carried out at a high school in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. In the survey, 63 students (male and female) were asked about their motives to come to school and the satisfaction of these motives. Also, some research was conducted on prior studies. In this way, a cross-cultural comparison between the students motives and their satisfaction at the Canadian high school and at two German high schools became possible.