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.     

Student Engagement and Student Learning: Testing the Linkages*

This study examines (1) the extent to which student engagement is associated with experimental and traditional measures of academic performance, (2) whether the relationships between engagement and academic performance are conditional, and (3) whether institutions differ in terms of their ability to convert student engagement into academic performance. The sample consisted of 1058 students at 14 four-year colleges and universities that completed several instruments during 2002. Many measures of student engagement were linked positively with such desirable learning outcomes as critical thinking and grades, although most of the relationships were weak in strength. The results suggest that the lowest-ability students benefit more from engagement than classmates, first-year students and seniors convert different forms of engagement into academic achievement, and certain institutions more effectively convert student engagement into higher performance on critical thinking tests. *A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, April 2004.     

On improving Tunstall codes

Though many compression methods are based on the use of variable length codes, there has recently been a trend to search for alternatives in which the lengths of the codewords are more restricted, which can have useful applications, such as easier processing and fast decoding. This paper explores the construction of variable-to-fixed length codes, which have been suggested long ago by Tunstall. Using new heuristics based on suffix trees, the performance of Tunstall codes can in some cases be improved by more than 40%.     

3D technology of Sony Bloggie has no advantage in decision-making of tennis serve direction: A randomized placebo-controlled study

This study aimed at exploring whether 3D technology enhances tennis decision-making under the conceptual framework of human performance model. A 3 (skill-level: varsity, club, recreational)?×?3 (experimental condition: placebo, weak 3D [W3D], strong 3D [S3D]) between-participant design was used. Allocated to experimental conditions by a skill-level stratified randomization, 105 tennis players judged tennis serve direction from video scenarios and rated their perceptions of enjoyment, flow, and presence during task performance. Results showed that varsity players made more accurate decisions than less skilled ones. Additionally, applying 3D technology to typical video displays reduced tennis players’ decision-making accuracy, although wearing the 3D glasses led to a placebo effect that shortened the decision-making reaction time. The unexpected negative effect of 3D technology on decision-making was possibly due to participants being more familiar to W3D than to S3D, and relatedly, a suboptimal task-technology match. Future directions for advancing this area of research are offered.

Highlights

• 3D technology augments binocular depth cues to tradition video displays, and thus results in the attainment of more authentic visual representation. This process enhances task fidelity in researching perceptual-cognitive skills in sports.

• The paper clarified both conceptual and methodological difficulties in testing 3D technology in sports settings. Namely, the nomenclature of video footage (with/without 3D technology) and the possible placebo effect (arising from wearing glasses of 3D technology) merit researchers' attention.

• Participants varying in level of domain-specific expertise were randomized into viewing conditions using a placebo-controlled design. Measurement consisted of both participants' subjective experience (i.e., presence, flow, and enjoyment) and objective performance (i.e., accuracy and reaction time) in a decision-making task.

• Findings revealed that wearing glasses of 3D technology resulted in a placebo effect that shortened participants' reaction times in decision-making. Moreover, participants' decision-making accuracy decreased when viewing video scenarios using 3D technology. The findings generated meaningful implications regarding applying 3D technology to sports research.

     

The contribution of higher education to the development of objective and subjective judgment in day‐to‐day decision‐making

In order to make effective decisions based on probability, one must be able to distinguish between the objective‐factual aspects of the decision and the subjective aspects. This study examines the hypothesis that academic studies contribute to the development of the ability to make such distinctions in day‐to‐day decision‐making. Some 940 subjects, including some holding Bachelor's degrees and others with Master's degrees in the Exact Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities, responded to a questionnaire on decision‐making situations which examined the degree of their awareness of the objective and subjective elements of decisions. It was found that the respondents made the distinction in the situations with which they were presented. A rise in academic level from the Bachelor's degree to the Master's Degree led to increased awareness of the objective aspect of decisions among scholars in the Exact Sciences and the Humanities. Holders of Master's degrees in all of the fields of specialty showed a greater awareness of the subjective aspect than did holders of Bachelor's degrees. The application of these insights in the field of education is discussed.     

Planning middle school schedules for improved attention and achievement

The literature describes research comparing scholastic success in the morning and afternoon in elementary and high schools. The present study examines the relationship between time of day and scholastic performance in middle school. The progress of 850 seventh and eighth grade students in academic subjects taught at different hours of the day was studied. Mean achievement, as expressed in final grades, rose moderately from morning lessons to those conducted at later hours. Significant but temporary declines in achievement were observed immediately after the 10:00 recess and again during the 13:00 lesson. Variance within classes increased sharply during the day. Previous studies attributed such changes to biological rhythms. This paper indicates that many diurnal changes in scholastic performance may be clarified by integration of concepts of biological rhythms with current theories with respect to attention level. Implications of these findings for planning daily school schedules are discussed.     

The effect of computer-mediated collaborative learning on solving III-defined problems

The positive effects of collaborative learning in a face-to-face environment are well known. However, little empirical research exists to determine if such effects transfer to a computer-mediated environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computer-mediated collaboration on solving ill-defined problems. Participants first worked through a Web-based instructional program that taught them a four-step problem-solving process. Then they worked in computer-mediated dyads or alone to apply the steps to solve a realistic problem scenario. Results indicated that participants who worked in computer-mediated collaborative dyads performed significantly better than did participants who worked alone. The results also indicated that dyads spent significantly more time than participants in the individual treatment. Both treatment groups had positive attitudes toward working collaboratively, Internet-based instruction, and transfer of problem-solving skills. Implications for the implementation of computer-mediated collaboration in distance learning are discussed. During article preparation, he was a PhD student at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the United States government.     

Multimodal Literacies in Science: Currency, Coherence and Focus

Since the 1990s, researchers have increasingly drawn attention to the multiplicity of representations used in science. This issue of RISE advances this line of research by placing such representations at the centre of science teaching and learning. The authors show that representations do not simply transmit scientific information; they are integral to reasoning about scientific phenomena. This focus on thinking with representations mediates between well-resolved representations and formal reasoning of disciplinary science, and the capacity-limited, perceptually-driven nature of human cognition. The teaching practices described here build on three key principles: Each representation is interpreted through others; natural language is a sign system that is used to interpret a variety of other kinds of representations; and this chain of signs or representations is ultimately grounded in bodily experiences of perception and action. In these papers, the researchers provide examples and analysis of teachers scaffolding students in using representations to construct new knowledge, and in constructing new representations to express and develop their knowledge. The result is a new delineation of the power and the challenges of teaching science with multiple representations.     

Empirical Research on Performance Improvement

Renewed interest in research on performance improvement provides an ideal opportunity to examine how much empirical work is actually published and to identify the focus of research in the field. This paper describes a study conducted to examine the empirical research on performance improvement. The study involved a content analysis of articles published in PIQ from 1997 through 2000. Results indicated that empirical research accounted for about one‐third of all articles published in PIQ. A detailed analysis of the empirical research studies published in the journal is provided.