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.     

Characterizing children’s spontaneous interests in science and technology

This article reports the results of an analysis of 1676 science and technology questions submitted by Israeli children to a series of television programmes. It categorizes the children’s questions with reference to five different coding schemes: field of interest, motivation for asking the question, type of information requested, country‐specific aspects, and source of information. The results point to the popularity of biology, technology, and astrophysics over other sciences, indicate a shift in interests and motivation with age, and reflect a variety of gender‐related differences within the sample. The implications of the findings for some current trends in curriculum development and for informal science education are discussed with reference to the wider context of the pupils’ voice in education.     

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.     

Toward Bridging the Mechanistic Gap Between Genes and Traits by Emphasizing the Role of Proteins in a Computational Environment

Previous studies have shown that students often ignore molecular mechanisms when describing genetic phenomena. Specifically, students tend to directly link genes to their encoded traits, ignoring the role of proteins as mediators in this process. We tested the ability of 10th grade students to connect genes to traits through proteins, using concept maps and reasoning questions. The context of this study was a computational learning environment developed specifically to foster this ability. This environment presents proteins as the mechanism-mediating genetic phenomena. We found that students’ ability to connect genes, proteins, and traits, or to reason using this connection, was initially poor. However, significant improvement was obtained when using the learning environment. Our results suggest that visual representations of proteins’ functions in the context of a specific trait contributed to this improvement. One significant aspect of these results is the indication that 10th graders are capable of accurately describing genetic phenomena and their underlying mechanisms, a task that has been shown to raise difficulties, even in higher grades of high school.     

Attitudes of Secular and Religious Israeli Adolescents Towards Persons with Disabilities: a multidimensional analysis

Differences between religious and secular people in their attitudes towards persons with disabilities may originate in social-cultural factors, such as values and norms, as well as in personality factors like dogmatism. Since religious and secular people differ in these characteristics, it was expected that they would differ in their attitudes as well. Attitudes towards persons with disabilities reflect complex interpersonal and intrapersonal processes and therefore should be assessed with multidimensional measures. In the present study the attitudes of 83 religious and 51 secular Israeli adolescents were measured with Siller's Disability Factor Scale–General (DFS-G). The questionnaire included seven factors that reflect psychodynamic processes operating to protect the individual against the threat and anxiety associated with the presence of a person with a disability or even by the mere consideration of his/her condition. Level of dogmatism was measured as well. No differences in dogmatism were found between the two groups. Secular participants expressed more positive attitudes than religious participants on two attitude scales—Generalized Rejection and Authoritarian Virtuousness. These two scales express special, segregative, and unequal attitudes. The findings give some support to the claim that religious affiliation, even if it encourages care for persons with disabilities, is associated with segregation and attribution of unequal social status to these people.     

Maltreatment of primary school students by educational staff in Israel

OBJECTIVES: This paper reports on the prevalence of emotional and physical maltreatment of students in primary schools by school staff in Israel. Victimization by staff was analyzed according to students' gender, age group (4th, 5th, and 6th grade), cultural group (Jewish-non-religious, Jewish-religious, and Arab schools), school characteristics (school size and class size), and by socio-economic status of the students' families. METHOD: Data were obtained from a nationally representative sample of 5472 students in Grades 4-6 in 71 schools across Israel. The students completed questionnaires during class, which included a scale for reporting physical and psychological maltreatment by staff. Data on the socio-economic status of the families of the students in each school were also obtained. RESULTS: Students reported generally high rates of maltreatment by staff members. Almost a third reported being emotionally maltreated by a staff member, and more than a fifth (22.2%) reported being a victim of at least one type of physical maltreatment. The most vulnerable groups for maltreatment were males, students in Arab schools, and students in schools with a high percentage of students from low-income and low-education families.CONCLUSIONS: These high rates of primary school students' victimization by staff are unacceptable. We recommend educational campaigns among teachers, as well as allocating more resources to support staff in low socio-economic neighborhoods.     

Sleep and Temperament: Maternal Perceptions of Temperament of Sleep-Disturbed Toddlers

Research findings: In order to assess the relations between sleep problems and temperament in infants, temperament ratings of 63 toddlers who presented with night waking problems were compared to those of 35 non-referred toddlers. An objective method to assess sleep patterns was used to validate the distinct sleep patterns of the two groups prior to the comparison of the temperament scales. Measures included: Toddler Temperament Questionnaire (TTQ) and the child's scales of the Parental Stress Index (PSI). On the TTQ, Night Wakers were rated as having lower sensory thresholds compared to the controls. Night Wakers were also rated as less adaptive than the controls. On the PSI, Night Wakers were rated as more distractible; less reinforcing; less adaptive and more demanding. Practice or policy: The results suggest that sleep disturbances in early childhood are closely associated with negative maternal perceptions of child temperament. It is proposed that early detection and treatment of sleep problems during early childhood may prevent some of the associated negative behavioral consequences.     

Factors Involved in the Implementation of Pedagogical Innovations Using Technology

This paper analyzes the factors involved in successful implementation of innovative pedagogical practices using ICT in ten Israeli schools. The research questions addressed are: 1. What is the configuration and intensity level of the various factors involved in the implementation of innovative pedagogical practices using ICT in schools? 2. Can a connection be identified between the level of intensity of the different factors affecting the innovation and the level of change in various domains of innovation (e.g., teacher role, student role, curriculum, and time and space configurations)? Data from ten case studies in Israeli schools were analyzed using the framework developed to measure the intensity of the factors involved in the innovation. Infrastructure, factors within the school, school climate and educational policy were found to be the most involved categories. These factors mostly affect aspects of the innovation related to teacher roles, instructional contents and teaching methods.