Are there positive effects of having a sibling with special needs? Empathy and prosociality of twins of children with non-typical development

This study examined whether typically developing (TD) twins of non-TD children demonstrate enhanced empathy and prosociality. Of 778 Hebrew-speaking Israeli families who participated in a twin study, 63 were identified to have a non-TD child with a TD twin, and 404 as having both twins TD. TD twins of non-TD children (27% males) were compared to the rest of the cohort of TD children (46% males) on measures of empathy and prosociality. Participants were 11 years old. TD twins of non-TD children scored significantly higher than TD twins of TD children in a measure of cognitive empathy (d = .43). No differences were found in emotional empathy and prosociality. The specificity of the positive effect on cognitive empathy is discussed.     

Determinants of Internet standards adoption: The case of South Korea

We develop an adoption model of infrastructure technologies and test it with survey data collected from companies in six industries in South Korea (hereafter: Korea). The implementation of a new Internet standard such as Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) depends on the usefulness of the technology to the adopting organizations and the environment in which they operate. The adoption of IPv6 in Korea is mostly driven by a governmental strategy that created user demand, and normative pressure. IPv6 adoption in Korea is also driven by perceived resource concentration and power due to the uneven allocation of IPv4 addresses. Conversely, killer applications, technical sponsorship and financial factors had no influence on the adoption decision by Korean companies. Taken together, the findings of our explorative study suggest the need to consider technical as well as social and policy factors to understand the adoption dynamics of infrastructure technologies.     

Parental entrepreneurship in public education: a social force or a policy problem?

Parental involvement in public education is an expression of joint responsibility between parents and the state in which parents are expected to comply with current educational policy. Moreover, parents are often perceived as reactive, whereas the educational administration is seen as proactive, mainly by reducing barriers and establishing mechanisms for parental involvement. Referring to proactive involvement in which parents practice noncompliance while fighting the system, this study conceptualizes ‘parental entrepreneurship.’ The practical aspects of parental entrepreneurship are analyzed based on three well-known manifestations: homeschooling, the integration of children with special needs, and parental cooperatives within early childhood education and care. Parental entrepreneurship further exemplifies the blurry boundaries between parents and administration as regards children’s education and demonstrates that the entrepreneurial role parents may play in reforming formal public education. Parental entrepreneurship also illuminates the ongoing renegotiation of the foundations of the social contract between parents and the government, primarily in relation to professionalism, legitimacy, and authority.     

Social Competencies and Difficulties of Gifted Children Compared to Nongifted Peers

This study, conducted in Israel, examined the social and emotional difficulties of gifted children, in comparison with nongifted children. The gifted children were further compared in two educational settings: segregated classes and pull-out programs. The 974 participants were from the fifth to twelfth grades. The dependent variables included loneliness, social competence, empathy, and self-concept. The results indicated that gifted children score higher on need fulfillment, empathy, academic self-concept, and lack of emotional anxiety and lower on self-disclosure and physical self-concept. Few differences were found between the two settings for gifted children. The conclusion is that gifted children differ from nongifted children only on some of the social–emotional variables examined, mainly for the better.     

Are teachers’ psychological control,autonomy support and autonomy suppression associated with students’ goals?☆

This study investigated associations between student-perceived teacher behaviours and students’ personal goal orientations. Thus, the study applied theoretical concepts from self-determination theory and parenting style in an attempt to enhance understanding of additional environmental characteristics possibly affecting personal goal orientation. Moreover, it examined psychological control in a classroom context, whereas it was previously investigated mainly within parent–child relationships. Junior-high school students (n?=?191) completed questionnaires to reveal their perceptions of teacher practices and their own personal goals. The distinction between teachers’ psychological control and autonomy suppression was supported by confirmatory factor analysis; however, they were highly correlated. When regarded as two dimensions of teachers’ compelling behaviours, they associated positively with performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals and negatively with mastery goals. Teachers are advised to avoid various compelling practices.     

Reliability and Validity of a Hebrew Version of the Kogan's Attitudes Toward Old People Scale

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Hebrew version of Kogan's (1961 Kogan , N. ( 1961 ). Attitudes Toward Old People: The development of a scale and an examination of correlates . Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology , 62 ( 1 ), 44 – 54 . doi: 10.1037/h0048053 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Attitudes Toward Old People scale. A self-administered questionnaire in Hebrew was given to a convenience sample of 300 people under the age of 65 who resided in three neighborhoods in Tel Aviv. The Hebrew version of the Attitudes toward Old People scale demonstrated good psychometric properties. Internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha was high (α = .89). Factor analysis showed five loading factors. The Israeli version of the scale was found to be a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the general population's attitudes toward older people. It can be a useful instrument for studies in Israel as well as for cross-national and comparative studies to assess the degree of ageism towards older people.     

The Never-Ending Story: Structural Dilemmas and Changing Solutions in the Communication Field

This article examines the idiosyncratic development of Israel's communication field against the backdrop of the field's main structural dilemmas: (a) emphasis on research orientation versus on professional journalistic training and (b) firm boundaries for the field based on its mother disciplines (humanities or social sciences) versus open boundaries adopting different disciplines' research topics/methods that touch on communication phenomena. The article suggests a theoretical framework based on criteria anchored in the sociology of science and then applies these criteria to an analysis of the institutionalization and development of the Communication Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from its foundation in 1964 through the 1990s. The study is based on documents from the university archive and the Guttman Institute for Applied Social Research, curricula and catalogs of communication departments in Israel, and interviews with senior researchers in the field.     

Her physics,his physics: Gender issues in Israeli advanced placement physics classes

Gender gaps in physics in favour of boys are more prominent in Israel than in other countries. The main research question is to find out what gender issues are at play in Israeli advanced placement physics classes. Matriculation exam scores from approximately 400 high schools were analysed across 12 years. In addition, semi-constructed interviews were conducted with 50 advanced placement physics students (25 girls and 25 boys). In terms of participation, it was found that the ratio of girls to boys has been unchanged from 1988 to 2000 and is roughly 1:3. In terms of performance, it was found that the final matriculation scores of boys and girls are similar. However, breaking up the final scores into its two components - teachers' given grades and matriculation test scores - showed that boy's test scores are usually higher than girls' test scores, while girls' teachers' given grades are usually higher than boys'. Results from semi-constructed interviews pointed to two factors that are especially unfavourable to many girls: excessive competitiveness and lack of teaching for understanding. Girls' yearning for deep understanding is seen as a form of questing for connected knowledge. It is suggested that instructional methods that foster students' understanding while decreasing competitiveness in physics classes might contribute to girls' participation and performance in advanced physics classes while also supporting the learning of many boys.     

The learning processes of two high‐school biology students when reading primary literature

Biology education, like education in any other discipline, strives to make students familiar with the knowledge, activities, and ways of thinking of the community of biologists. We produced a curriculum in developmental biology based on learning through primary literature, in an attempt to develop biological literacy among highschool students. Here we characterize the way in which two high‐school biology students read a research article in developmental biology. Mere reading resulted in superficial comprehension. In contrast, when the students answered questions about the text, deeper comprehension evolved. The students could overcome readingcomprehension problems by applying well‐established reading strategies, but encountered difficulties resulting from the classical structure of research articles. We hope that our characterization of the learning process of research articles by high‐school students will enable the use of these complex texts in high‐school biology classrooms.     

Athletes in transition: German immigrants to Mandatory Palestine – between integration and segregation*

The Brit Maccabim Atid sport club was founded by immigrants from Germany who came to Palestine during the 1930s. The circumstances surrounding this organisation’s establishment differed from those of the sports organisations operating in Palestine until then. We consider sports culture as a tool for analysing immigrant absorption processes. Our discussion is based on the claim that sports served as a means of social integration for German Jews. In Palestine, sports served as an arena of conflict between the political camps in the Jewish settlement. In response to this political reality, immigrants from Central Europe began organising to establish separate sports clubs along political and ethnic lines, thus responding to the needs of immigrants identifying with German cultural circles. Brit Maccabim Atid constitutes a test case for the social and cultural changes in the meaning of sports in the move from one country to another. The paper describes two sociological models, each of which examines the impact of involvement in sports on the extent to which immigrants become integrated into society. Our findings indicate that sports participation in an immigrant society can be a unifying and assimilative factor and at the same time a segregating factor.