Testing a model linking environmental hope and self-control with students' positive emotions and environmental behavior

ABSTRACT

This study examined a moderated mediation model with 254 Israeli junior high school students, hypothesizing that students' environmental hope would simultaneously mediate the relationship between their engagement in school-based environmental activities (green engagement) and their environmental behavior as well as their positivity ratio, but that students' self-control skills would moderate these mediation processes. The results showed that engagement was linked to self-reported pro-environmental behavior, as well as experiencing more positive than negative emotions. Multigroup structural equation modeling indicated that the model provided a good fit to the data, and rigorous bootstrap analysis confirmed the simultaneous mediating role of environmental hope—but only for students with high self-control skills. The limitations and implications of the findings are discussed, and future directions are presented.     

Relations between EFL teachers’ formal knowledge of grammar and their in-action mental models of children's minds and learning

We studied the relations between English as a foreign language teachers’ grammar knowledge and their in-action mental models (MMs) of children's minds and learning. The grammar knowledge we examined was English wh-constructions. A total of 74 teachers completed an assessment task and were classified to have deep, intermediate or shallow knowledge. Ten teachers (five with deep and five with shallow level) were videotaped teaching wh-questions. The data were analysed qualitatively to determine the teachers’ MM, and then quantitatively to test similarities/differences in their MM's expression. The findings revealed an identical MM among all teachers that is expressed differently as a function of knowledge level.     

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.     

Judging Hebrew adjective agreement across development: syntactic and morpho-syntactic awareness

Reading and Writing - Grammatical awareness of syntax and morphology is important in children’s literacy development for both reading and writing. Hebrew, a language with rich inflectional...     

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.     

Self learning of negative number concepts by lower division elementary students through solving computer-provided numerical problems

Research has identified difficulties in students' understanding of concepts of either signed or negative numbers and in operations on these numbers. The present study examines the feasibility of teaching certain negative number concepts and procedures to students of a much younger age than is presently done in schools. The method suggested employs the computer for promoting autonomous learning processes through solving challenging problems that are adapted to students' aptitudes, using the number line as an intuitive model. Two fourth grade classes served as the treatment and no-treatment groups. The findings support prior evidence that students have pre-instructional intuitions and informal knowledge of negative numbers and can perform simple operations on them. Such knowledge and intuitions show for high achievers to a much larger extent than for low achievers. Students' related misconceptions are also identified. Pre- and post-treatment tests and interviews reveal that students who received the treatment gained significantly more than those in the no-treatment group regarding all but one of the concepts and procedures of the negative numbers and on the overall score on the test. Low achievers gained at least as much as the high achievers, indicating that the method used here of adjusting the level of challenge to students' aptitude works well. Performing operations on negative numbers proves to be particularly difficult for the lower-achieving students.This research was supported by the BASIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION administered by the ISRAEL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES.     

The ABC’s of Chinese: maternal mediation of Pinyin for Chinese children’s early literacy skills

In the present study, maternal Pinyin mediation and its relations with young Chinese children??s word reading and word writing development were explored. At time 1, 43 Mainland Chinese children and their mothers were videotaped on a task in which children were asked to write 12 words in Pinyin (a phonological coding system used in Mainland China as an aid to reading Chinese characters) with help from their mothers. The videotapes were later coded on a scale (adapted from Aram & Levin, 2001) of mothers?? writing facilitation techniques. Scores on this scale of maternal mediation of Pinyin uniquely explained children??s reading of Chinese words, but not writing of Chinese words, after statistically controlling for maternal education and age, and children??s non-verbal IQ, age, and phonological awareness. At time 2, 22 of the children from time 1 were further tested on Chinese word reading and word reading task 1?year later. After controlling for children??s age and non-verbal IQ, maternal Pinyin mediation uniquely explained 6% of the variance in children??s word writing and 7% of the variance in children??s word reading performance at time 2. Results underscore the potential importance of the maternal scaffolding role for reading acquisition both theoretically and practically in a domain not previously explored (i.e., use of a common coding system (Pinyin) for learning to read, rather than word reading itself).     

The contribution of early home literacy activities to first grade reading and writing achievements in Arabic

This longitudinal study assessed the literacy development of native Arabic-speaking children from kindergarten to the end of first grade, focusing on the role of home literacy activities (mother–child shared book reading and joint writing). The contribution of these activities in kindergarten to children’s reading and writing at the end of first grade were evaluated, controlling for family SES and children’s early skills (vocabulary and letter naming). Eighty-eight Arabic-speaking children and their mothers participated in the study. Results revealed that family SES, children’s early skills and home literacy activities in kindergarten correlated with children’s achievements at the end of first grade. Joint writing contributed significantly to children’s literacy in first grade and the contribution of shared reading was almost significant. Joint writing was found to contribute to children’s literacy achievements in first grade beyond book reading. The study extends our knowledge on literacy acquisition in Arabic, highlighting the significance of early parent–child literacy activities as a predictor of Arabic-speaking children’s literacy achievements in school.     

Educational e-books: a support for vocabulary and early math for children at risk for learning disabilities

Mathematical learning difficulties can originate at an early age. However, research on young children’s math development, especially those who are at risk, is in its early stages. The current study is the first to examine the effects of an activity with an educational e-book on emergent math with 52 preschoolers at risk for learning disability (ALD). The effects on their emergent vocabulary of the e-book intervention was also tested. The findings revealed that following the intervention, children in the experimental e-book group improved both their vocabulary and early math skills as compared to the control group who engaged in their regular preschool activities. The implications of these results are discussed.