An Experiment in Jewish Secondary Education

Introduction

A Student's Attitude toward his school's atmosphere, facilities, personnel, learning and extracurricular activities significantly affects his motivation, commitment, and satisfaction with the school. Positive school satisfaction has been shown to make the compulsory school day more enjoyable and stimulating for the student (Epstein and McPartland, 1978). Therefore, a major educational concern has become the development of programs and curricula that nurture and maintain student satisfaction (Bloom et al., 1971; Jackson, 1968; Jencks et al., 1972; Krathwohl, 1964; Lortie, 1975). Presumably, enhanced student satisfaction is related to greater commitment and motivation to pursue one's studies. Despite this trend, very few studies have investigated the specific variables related to student attitude toward school. This issue becomes of even greater importance in our Jewish supplementary schools, where the goal of a life-long commitment to Judaism is exchanged for a few hours of educational and spiritual exposure in temple per week.     

The Contribution of a Decision Support System to Complex Educational Decisions

This study examined the effect of complexity of problems on the degree of disparity between intuitive (PDM) and computer-assisted (DSS) decision-making. 840 teachers chose intuitive solutions for educational dilemmas, and recorded the relative importance of the guiding criteria. Utilizing this information, DSS calculated preferred solutions. Of the 2 measures of complexity, the number of alternatives contributed more significantly than did the number of criteria to explanation of the variance between PDM and DSS. This finding casts light on cognitive processes activated during complex decision-making and clarifies the conditions under which the use of DSS in schools is advisable.     

Using virtual microscopy to scaffold learning of pathology: a naturalistic experiment on the role of visual and conceptual cues

New representational technologies, such as virtual microscopy, create new affordances for medical education. In the article, a study on the following two issues is reported: (a) How does collaborative use of virtual microscopy shape students’ engagement with and learning from virtual slides of tissue specimen? (b) How do visual and conceptual cues scaffold students’ reasoning? Fifteen pairs of medical students participated in two sessions in which the students used a virtual microscope as a diagnostic tool in the context of learning pathology. The slides provided the students with varying levels of visual and conceptual cueing. The sessions were videotaped, and the students’ reasoning while using the microscope was analysed. The students’ written answers were analysed in terms of the findings they made and the diagnoses suggested. At a general level, the results show that students engage actively in this kind of virtually-mediated environment. The visual and/or conceptual cues improve students’ performance, and guide the students’ perception and reasoning in a manner that is productive from the point of view of learning to make clinically relevant observations. Scaffolding students’ reasoning process through cues furthermore assists the students in avoiding the most obvious pitfalls such as overlooking critical areas of a specimen. Overall, visual and conceptual cues improve students’ reasoning in perceptual and cognitive terms, while still allowing space for the making of “relevant mistakes” that may further the students’ diagnostic skills.     

Mobilitätskonzept in Sporttherapie und -wissenschaft

The international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF) is a concept developed for the healthcare sector by the World Health Organization, which considers the health problems of a person with respect to functional ability, impairments and context factors. Mobility is an important basic functional element, central health criterion and an important prerequisite for participation in social life. In addition to all routinely relevant daily movements (e.g. walking, lifting and carrying), activities at the workplace and sport-related activities are also taken into consideration. Because mobility is internationally established as a central criterion of health by the World Health Organization, this results in a series of interesting connecting factors from sport scientific and kinesthesiological perspectives: movement is the central object of kinesthesiology and exercise therapy. Mobility is of exceptional importance for human existence and dealing with the world at large. Analogous to the discussion on basic motor competences with respect to compatibility in educational sciences, utilization of the ICF can be the basis for a common language in the medical-therapeutic milieu. The orientation to mobility allows the targets, contents and methods of exercise therapy to be addressed for the context-related importance in individual cases. This article presents possible perspectives for sport scientific disciplines, sport and exercise therapy with respect to mobility. The importance of mobility for health is emphasized and the relevance is discussed based on the development of diagnostic procedures and application of therapy.     

The Education of Students with Immigrant Background in Iceland: Parents’ and Teachers’ Voices

In recent years Icelandic schools have seen an increase in students with immigrant background. These changes require schools and teachers to respond to the educational needs these students may have. The aim of this article is to examine these changes by looking at the experience of teachers and parents of immigrant students regarding their education. As part of this qualitative research, 38 teachers were interviewed in focus groups with a view to the challenges and experiences of teaching immigrant students. Ten parents were also interviewed individually about their experiences of Icelandic schools and their children’s education. The findings revealed that teachers are unsupported in their quest for understanding and managing multicultural education and that the Icelandic school system challenges foreign parents’ understanding of school as a traditional place for learning. It is suggested that addressing the lack of collaboration and discussion between both parties on students’ needs and parents’ expectations could improve the education of immigrant students.     

Teacher empowerment,horizontal and vertical organisational learning,and positional mobility in schools

Purpose: To examine the contribution of horizontal and vertical organisational learning and its timing to the effective integration of teachers in classes they have not previously taught. Three hundred and forty-five teachers from 64 schools, with at least 4 years of teaching experience, completed questionnaires about the extent of horizontal (OL) and vertical (KCM) organisational learning, its timing and its benefits to teachers as they began to teach classes they had not taught before. The hypothesis was confirmed that independent components of OL and KCM contribute to preparing teachers for their classes. The timing of teachers’ exposure to this learning was found to serve as a mediating factor between OL/KCM and the benefit that teachers gain from the information. The organisational learning process is presented in a broad theoretical perspective that clarifies the reciprocal relations between vertical/horizontal dimensions and their benefits. More effective ways are discussed for introducing educational knowledge.