“… but it has its price”: Cycles of alienation and exclusion among pioneering Druze women

The positive aspects of women from traditional societies acquiring higher education have been widely documented, while the loss and pain entailed in the process, involving transition and changing gender roles, have usually been ignored. This narrative research explores the experience of Druze women who were the first or among the first, from their villages to study at Israeli universities, focusing on their return home following their studies. Studying in university involved crossing boundaries of gender and culture, leading the women through a path profoundly different from that of their families or childhood friends. Upon return, feelings of pride and accomplishment were accompanied by alienation, hybridity and pain. These aspects, previously overlooked in research literature, are discussed in the present article, adding a new dimension to the understanding of emotional and social facets in the lives of women from so-called ‘traditional’ societies who seek higher education.     

Stressors,coping, and coping effectiveness: Gender,type of sport,and skill differences

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine stressors, coping, and coping effectiveness as a function of gender, type of sport, and skill. The sample consisted of 749 undergraduate athletes (455 males, 294 females) aged 18 – 38 years (mean = 19.8 years). Skill was classified as international/national, county, university, and club standard. Participants completed a stressor and coping concept map (Novak & Gowin, 1984 Novak, J. D. and Gowin, D. B. 1984. Learning how to learn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). The results revealed gender, type of sport, and skill differences in relation to stressor frequencies, coping strategy deployment, and coping effectiveness. In contrast to previous research, females used a variety of problem-focused (e.g. planning, communication, technique-orientated coping) strategies more frequently than males. Team sport athletes reported a variety of sport-specific stressors relating to the demands of playing in a team environment. The group of national/international athletes reported using more planning, blocking, and visualization, and also reported that their coping was more effective than that of less-skilled athletes.     

HOLOCAUST AWARENESS AND EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Experimentation in Holocaust education began in American schools in the mid‐1970s. After construction of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the subject gained momentum. The last two decades have seen continuous development. In five states, Holocaust education is required at all school levels; in sixteen others, it is highly recommended. Serious teaching of the Holocaust started in earnest only long after World War II, when the horrors were at a distance and survivors started breaking the silence. Only then did systematic research begin. Teaching about the Holocaust developed as a result of Holocaust consciousness and of the growing feeling of its relevance to American culture. Such instruction also developed against a background of ongoing public debate concerning the Holocausts uniqueness, a controversy that has found its way into various teaching programs.     

Letter Processing and the Formation of Memory Representations in Children with Naming Speed Deficits

The ability to recognize letter patterns within words as a single unit is important for fluent reading. This skill is based on previously established memory representations of common letter patterns. The ability to form these memory representations may be impaired in some poor readers, particularly readers with naming speed deficits (NSD). This study explored factors that influence letter processing and the subsequent formation of memory representations of letter strings in children with and without a NSD. Children were presented with a letter string, followed by a probe unit that was either a single letter, a two-letter cluster, or a repetition of the whole string. Children indicated whether or not the probe had been present in the preceding string. Two factors were manipulated: (a) amount of time to process the initial letter string, and (b) level of orthographic structure present in the letter string. Results indicated that overall, children with NSD performed less accurately than children without NSD. However, children with NSD showed no differential benefit in performance as a result of longer time to process a letter string. In addition, all readers were able to make use of the orthographic structure in a letter string to aid performance. Implications of results for establishing memory representations of letter strings are discussed.     

The role of children's lay theories about the malleability of human attributes in beliefs about and volunteering for disadvantaged groups

Two studies with 9- to 12-year-old children supported the hypothesis that lay theories about the malleability of human traits impact judgments of and behavior toward groups in need of volunteer help. The more children endorsed an incremental view (attributes can change), the more they reported liking, desiring social contact with, and perceiving similarity between themselves and a disadvantaged outgroup (homeless, UNICEF-funded children). Moreover, children endorsing more of a malleable view reported greater past volunteering, active participation in collecting money for a UNICEF event, and intentions to volunteer again. These findings held when controlling for the effects of participants' gender, self-esteem, and perceived social pressure to help others. How a malleable view and intergroup volunteerism may be mutually sustaining is discussed.     

Feeling the forces within materials: bringing inter-molecular bonding to the fore using embodied modelling

We developed a computerised simulation that utilises embodied modelling by letting students play the role of particles in a liquid. We compared the learning of two eight-grade classrooms that used the embodied modelling simulation during a weeklong learning module on phase change, with a comparison group that used an ordinary simulation with no embodied modelling. In the pre-test, neither group mentioned inter-molecular forces in their explanations. In the post-test, significantly more students from the embodied modelling group mentioned inter-molecular bonds in their explanations than their counterparts who used the regular simulation, and realised that inter-molecular forces influence the motion of particles. However, we found little difference between the groups in students’ ability to relate the magnitude of the inter-molecular forces to the magnitude of the boiling point of the material, showing not only the potential but also the limits in developing complex conceptualisations through this approach. Building on these findings, we discuss the affordances of embodied modelling for learning complex models, and suggest future directions for research into embodied modelling.     

Fluency Transfer: Differential Gains in Reading Speed and Accuracy Following Isolated Word and Context Training

While fluent reading is recognized as a primary goal of educational instruction, the methods that best promote the development of fluency remain unclear. Two experiments are reported that examined increases in reading fluency of a novel passage following two types of training. In the context training condition, children learned to read a set of target words in a story context, while in the isolated word training condition, fluency with a target word set was gained from a computerized word naming game. Transfer of fluency to reading these words in a new context was then measured by gains in reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of a novel story. Results indicated that young readers showed speed benefits on transfer stories following both context and isolated word training, but the increases were larger following context training.     

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: A Zero Tolerance Professor and Student Registration Choices

College and university faculty and administrators are responsible for constructing academic honesty policies and communicating them to students. This is often attempted through institutional honesty policies and university-wide honor codes. While these approaches have been widely researched, less attention has been given to the role of individual faculty members. That role is examined in this study by addressing student reactions to professors based on their academic honesty policies. In addition to demographic information, data were gathered about student attitudes and beliefs concerning academic dishonesty and their decision to enroll in or avoid a course being taught by a professor with zero tolerance for academic dishonesty. The findings regarding different instructors’ approaches toward academic dishonesty indicate that an intolerant policy will keep dishonest students away, but at a price—it will also detract many honest students.