College students’ perceived learning environment and their social media engagement in activities unrelated to class work

The aim of this study was to assess the connection between students’ perceived constructivist learning environment and their involvement in activities unrelated to class work via social media engagement (SME), while considering the moderating role of their openness to diversity and challenge (ODC) in explaining both variables. Another aim was to measure the impact of SME on students’ achievement (GPA). Data were gathered from 271 undergraduate students. According to the structural equation modeling results, a negative coefficient result was shown between the perception of the learning environment as constructivist and SME constructs. ODC was found positively connected to both variables. The students’ GPA was mainly explained by their cultural affiliation. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Multicultural perspectives in the curricula of two colleges of education in Israel: ‘The curriculum is a cruel mirror of our society’

This study reveals the multicultural perspectives in the curricula of two colleges of education in Israel. It examines the perceptions of teacher educators with regard to: the importance of the teacher's role in educating students for sensitivity and diversity; the needs of students from different cultural backgrounds in colleges of education; the roles of the teacher and the college; and an evaluation of how multiculturalism is dealt with in teacher education in Israel. Faculty members in both colleges perceived multiculturalism as relating to two domains: student population and curriculum. The findings and conclusions confirm the existence and increasing awareness of multiculturalism in the two colleges. However, it is obvious that as yet the concept has not been thoroughly investigated, nor has it penetrated all realms of activity. Clearly, teacher educators know the meaning of multiculturalism and believe that it should play a more significant role in colleges of education. However, they seem to be uncertain as to how to go about it.     

Educational achievements of graduates of an experimental elementary school

This is a study of the educational achievements of graduates of an experimental school in comparison to those of a regular school. The experimental school aims to enhance school effectiveness in coping with individual differences and to mediate between private and public knowledge. A quasi-experimental method was used. The results show an advantage for all graduates of the experimental school (i.e. the excellent, average and slow) in most of the variables measured: test results, skills, self-efficacy and motivation. We suggest that the overall systemic framework of the experimental school contributed to its increased effectiveness.     

Decision-making modes regarding the inclusive dilemmas of students with educational challenges in mainstream classrooms

In the last 20 years, increasing numbers of students with educational challenges (SECs) have been included in mainstream schools. Inclusion creates complex classroom situations for mainstream teachers who need to have excellent decision-making skills and the ability to face and resolve ethical dilemmas. College students and pre and in-service teachers were asked about their attitudes towards SEC inclusion, as well as three open-ended dilemmas during vignettes depicting challenging situations in inclusive class forcing decision-making. An online closed and open-ended questionnaire was administered (n = 489). The analysis revealed significant differences in the type of solution to these dilemmas in the three groups. There was a significant interaction between high sensitivity to the feelings of the inclusive students and the participants' overall tendency to support the inclusion of the SECs, positive attitudes towards inclusion, low expression of stigma and a higher sense of self-efficacy. Implications and practical offers are discussed.     

Enhancing parent–child shared book reading interactions: Promoting references to the book's plot and socio-cognitive themes

The study examined the efficacy of an intervention designed to promote parents’ and preschoolers’ references to storybooks’ plot and socio-cognitive themes during shared reading within a sample of 58 families from low-SES background. All parents were given four books, one new book weekly, and were instructed to read each book four times per week to their children. Parents in the control group were given no further guidance, whereas parents in the intervention group were guided in reading the books interactively with their children using Bruner's (1986) structure of the complete storybook reading experience. These parents were taught a four-reading model that guided them to first focus on the book's plot aspects (vocabulary, sequence of events, story structure) and then move on to its socio-cognitive aspects (mental terms, mental causality, references to the child's life). After the intervention, parents and children in the intervention group referred more than their control counterparts to both the book's plot and its socio-cognitive themes. The advantages of the intervention were maintained beyond effects of parental education and of children's gender, vocabulary, and social cognition level. The study revealed the importance of direct guidance of parents and the potential of shared reading contexts for eliciting rich conversations between parents and children. Discussion emphasized the importance of encouraging parents to refer to both the book's plot and its socio-cognitive themes.     

Roots and patterns in Hebrew language development: evidence from written morphological analogies

Morphology is one of the organizing principles of the mental lexicon. It is especially important in Hebrew, where word structure expresses a rich array of semantic notions. This study investigated the ability of Hebrew-speaking children to solve written morphological analogies by reading and completing two sets of real and invented root- and pattern-related nouns using a closed set of responses. In the first experiment, 152 gradeschoolers (2nd–6th grade) were administered an analogy task with real words, where they had to read written stimuli and elicit root and pattern components from them. In the second experiment, 148 gradeschoolers were administered a similar reading task with pseudowords. In both experiments, the results clearly indicate an early and robust ability of Hebrew-speaking children to perform morphological analogies using both roots and patterns. Most errors involved the root morpheme rather than the pattern morpheme, but pseudowords elicited more pattern errors. These results are discussed in view of models of morphological processing and morpho-lexical development in Hebrew.     

Parental writing support and preschoolers’ early literacy,language, and fine motor skills

The current study examines the nature and variability of parents’ aid to preschoolers in the context of a shared writing task, as well as the relations between this support and children's literacy, vocabulary, and fine motor skills. In total, 135 preschool children (72 girls) and their parents (primarily mothers) in an ethnically diverse, middle-income community were observed while writing a semi-structured invitation for a pretend birthday party together. Children's phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, word decoding, vocabulary, and fine motor skills were also assessed. Results revealed that parents provided variable, but generally low-level, support for children's approximation of sound-symbol correspondence in their writing (i.e., graphophonemic support), as well as for their production of letter forms (i.e., print support). Parents frequently accepted errors rather than asking for corrections (i.e., demand for precision). Further analysis of the parent–child dyads (n = 103) who wrote the child's name on the invitation showed that parents provided higher graphophonemic, but not print, support when writing the child's name than other words. Overall parental graphophonemic support was positively linked to children's decoding and fine motor skills, whereas print support and demand for precision were not related to any of the child outcomes. In sum, this study indicates that while parental support for preschoolers’ writing may be minimal, it is uniquely linked to key literacy-related outcomes in preschool.     

Elementary school mathematics teachers’ perception of their professional needs

This study explored Israeli elementary school mathematics teachers’ perceptions of their professional needs, with the purpose of developing in-service training courses which cater to these needs. Eighty-four teachers responded to the questionnaire and were interviewed. The results indicate that the respondents’ main needs are associated with strengthening their didactical knowledge capability of dealing with emotional aspects that relate to pupils’ learning of mathematics. Although most of the respondents lack formal mathematics education, they attribute less importance to their need to enhance knowledge in the field. In light of Israeli pupils’ relatively low attainments in mathematics, the authors believe that the education system should require teachers to expand their mathematics knowledge and that only teachers with appropriate knowledge will be permitted to teach the discipline.     

Students with LD in higher education: use and contribution of assistive technology and website courses and their correlation to students' hope and well-being

This study examined the extent and patterns of usage of web courses, and their contribution to the academic and social perceptions of 964 undergraduate students with and without learning disabilities studying in higher education. Students were asked to complete four questionnaires examining the usage patterns of various adaptive technologies and their contribution to the student. The questionnaires assessed Perceptions of Learning through Online Usage; Accessibility of Campus Computing; Hope Scale and Subjective Well-being Scale. A detailed examination of the usage patterns of online courses revealed that, compared to the comparison group, students with LD log more often into the course sites, going into the forum more frequently and leaving significantly more messages on the forum than students in the comparison group. Findings indicated that students with LD are more familiar with assistive technology and use it more than the comparison group. Students with LD reported higher scores on the Hope scale, they felt an increased drive to find different pathways to attain their goals, as well as being motivated to pursue those goals, and their subjective well-being was higher that of the students in the comparison group.