The school psychologist as a facilitator of a community-wide project to enhance positive learning climate in elementary schools

This study describes a community-wide experimental change program that was initiated by a school psychologist who served as a system facilitator and change agent. The program strived to improve social climate in the classroom, and was executed in the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade classrooms of an entire school system in northern Israel. This paper describes the program's design and rationale as well as its activities. Thirty-three classrooms participated, all of which were assigned randomly into three treatments: two experimental programs working on topics in classroom life, one in small-group settings and the other in whole-class settings, and one control (no program). Classroom climate was measured twice (pre-and posttest) during the school year by answering a modified Hebrew version of the Walberg and Anderson questionnaire developed by Hertz-Lazarowitz and Sharan (1979). Results indicated that increase in positive social climate control occurred in the experimental small-group program in all grade levels. The whole-class treatment showed improvement in higher grades, whereas the no-program control classrooms showed a significant decrease in classroom climate during the year. Three main factors were explained as contributing to the impact of the program on positive social climate. From an organizational perspective, (a) the participation and collegial support of teachers within the school with (b) the active leadership of the school psychologist helped improve social climate. Lastly, (c) the children's responses revealed the importance of experiencing cognitively and affectively the content of the program. This program, with certain modifications, became a consistent part of the school curricula.     

Fostering higher‐order thinking in science class: teachers’ reflections

The study reported in this article aimed at exploring what teachers know and do about fostering higher‐order thinking skills in teaching science, and how they see themselves involved in achieving this end. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 11 teachers experienced in teaching high school physics, which is considered a relatively difficult but well‐established discipline. The findings highlighted a diversity among the teachers in four areas: meta‐strategic knowledge of the concept of higher‐order thinking; practical utilization of instructional strategies related to fostering higher‐order thinking in the classroom; beliefs about students’ abilities to acquire higher‐order thinking skills; and self‐perception regarding teaching towards higher‐order thinking. Regarding the second area, for example, some of the teachers reported using teaching strategies in class that could impede the development of students as autonomous thinkers; others occasionally try to foster higher‐order thinking among their students but regard this as a way of conveying subject content better; only a minority of the teachers see the fostering of higher‐order thinking as an important objective of teaching physics. In summary, teachers are frequently puzzled or uncertain about the entire issue of fostering higher‐order thinking in school. Introducing elements of constructivist pedagogy combined with the specific steps aimed at fostering higher‐order thinking into the science class is required to make the development of higher‐order thinking a regular ingredient in science teaching within the current schooling.     

“Spanish as a foreign language” teachers’ profiles: inclusive beliefs, teachers’ perceptions of student outcomes in the TCLA program, burnout, and experience

The present study focuses on the Temporary Classroom of Linguistic Adaptation program (TCLA program) in which specialist teachers (Spanish as a foreign language teachers—SFL teachers) teach Spanish to immigrants who are not proficient in the language. We suggest that support for immigrant students in Spanish schools should adopt a new inclusive educational approach. The present investigation is a preliminary attempt at characterizing the profiles of SFL teachers by assessing, simultaneously, five relevant variables (through cluster analysis): inclusive beliefs, teachers’ perceptions of student outcomes in TCLA program, general burnout, diversity-related teacher burnout, and years of teaching experience. Eighty-one SFL teachers from 132 schools in Spain (EU) were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire. Cluster analysis found two clearly differentiated groups: the larger one, Innovative SFL Teachers and the smaller, Traditional SFL Teachers. The Traditional SFL Teachers are characterized by more years of experience, lower inclusive beliefs scores, lower teachers’ perception of student outcomes in the TCLA program scores, and higher burnout scores as compared with the Innovative SFL Teachers. Moreover, Traditional SFL Teachers conceptualize their teaching role as a "teacher of Spanish" whereas Innovative SFL Teachers see themselves much more as playing a supportive role.     

Effects of Problem-Based Learning on Recognition Learning and Transfer Accounting for GPA and Goal Orientation

Conflicting research results have stirred controversy over the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) compared to direct instruction at fostering content learning, particularly for novices. We addressed this by investigating effectiveness with respect to recognition learning and transfer and conducting an aptitude-treatment interaction analysis. We also examined how students' goal orientations may moderate learning in PBL and lecture/discussion environments. Participants included 197 preservice teachers in an undergraduate educational psychology course. Controlling for GPA, students in the PBL condition performed significantly better than students in the lecture/discussion condition on a transfer measure (p <.001, partial η² =.271) and equally on a recognition learning measure (p =.530). We also found an aptitude-treatment interaction for recognition learning (p =.012, partial η² =.034) but not transfer (p =.088). Results of goal orientation on learning outcomes were inconclusive.     

An Examination of a Counsellor Self-Efficacy Scale (COSE) using an Israeli Sample

This study explored the reliability and validity of a counsellor self-efficacy scale (the COSE) with an Israeli sample of candidates seeking entry into a university graduate program in school counselling. The COSE measures were compared to measures of self-monitoring and evaluation of adaptability to counselling studies that were determined before admission to the program. Findings question the reliability of the COSE for Israeli counselling students, suggesting that the construct of counsellor self-efficacy might be culturally dependent. This has major implications for counsellor education and the measurement of counsellor efficacy.     

DNA Methylation: A Mechanism for Embedding Early Life Experiences in the Genome

Although epidemiological data provide evidence that early life experience plays a critical role in human development, the mechanism of how this works remains in question. Recent data from human and animal literature suggest that epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation, are involved not only in cellular differentiation but also in the modulation of genome function in response to early life experience affecting gene function and the phenotype. Such modulations may serve as a mechanism for life‐long genome adaptation. These changes seem to be widely distributed across the genome and to involve central and peripheral systems. Examining the environmental circumstances associated with the onset and reversal of DNA methylation will be critical for understanding risk and resiliency.     

Impacts of learning inventive problem-solving principles: students’ transition from systematic searching to heuristic problem solving

This paper presents the outcomes of teaching an inventive problem-solving course in junior high schools in an attempt to deal with the current relative neglect of fostering students’ creativity and problem-solving capabilities in traditional schooling. The method involves carrying out systematic manipulation with attributes, functions and relationships between existing components and variables in a system. The 2-year research study comprised 112 students in the experimental group and 100 students in the control group. The findings indicated that in the post-course exam, the participants suggested a significantly greater number of original and useful solutions to problems presented to them compared to the pre-course exam and to the control group. The course also increased students’ self-beliefs about creativity. Although at the beginning of the course, the students adhered to ‘systematic searching’ using the inventive problem-solving principles they had learned, later on they moved to ‘semi-structured’ and heuristic problem solving, which deals with using strategies, techniques, rules-of-thumb or educated guessing in the problem-solving process. It is important to note, however, that teaching the proposed method in school should take place in the context of engaging students in challenging tasks and open-ended projects that encourage students to develop their ideas. There is only little benefit in merely teaching students inventive problem-solving principles and letting them solve discrete pre-designed exercises.     

Just for Sport!? Sport,Gambling and Politics in Israel

By adopting a developmental approach, this essay describes and analyses the key processes that led to the establishment and institutionalization of sports gambling in Israel. The socio-historic examination of these processes (1951–1971) suggests that sports gambling in Israel was primarily designed to satisfy a convergence of political interests among governmental decision-makers, leaders of sports institutions and powerful private entrepreneurs.