Science Education in Primary Schools: Is an Animation Worth a Thousand Pictures?

Science teaching deals with abstract concepts and processes that very often cannot be seen or touched. The development of Java, Flash, and other web-based applications allow teachers and educators to present complex animations that attractively illustrate scientific phenomena. Our study evaluated the integration of web-based animated movies into primary schools science curriculum. Our goal was to examine teachers’ methods for integrating animated movies and their views about the role of animations in enhancing young students’ thinking skills. We also aimed at investigating the effect of animated movies on students’ learning outcomes. Applying qualitative and quantitative tools, we conducted informal discussions with science teachers (N = 15) and administered pre- and post-questionnaires to 4th (N = 641) and 5th (N = 694) grade students who were divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group students studied science while using animated movies and supplementary activities at least once a week. The control group students used only textbooks and still-pictures for learning science. Findings indicated that animated movies support the use of diverse teaching strategies and learning methods, and can promote various thinking skills among students. Findings also indicated that animations can enhance scientific curiosity, the acquisition of scientific language, and fostering scientific thinking. These encouraging results can be explained by the fact that the students made use of both visual-pictorial and auditory-verbal capabilities while exploring animated movies in diverse learning styles and teaching strategies.     

The impact of an online collaborative learning program on students’ attitude towards technology

This quantitative research examined the contribution of an Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) program on attitudes towards technology in terms of technological anxiety, self-confidence and technology orientation among M.Ed. students. The advanced online collaborative program was implemented at two teacher training colleges in Israel for a period of 10 weeks. It was based on the TEC model that used technology to increase trust between students from different cultures through online learning. Students from the intervention group (N?=?47) and the control group (N?=?45) completed questionnaires which dealt with their level of collaboration, intrinsic motivation, satisfaction, and attitudes towards technology. Findings of the SEM path analysis indicated that a high level of OCL promoted positive attitudes to technology. Thus, involving students in OCL programs could reduce technological anxiety and increase technological self-confidence and technological liking. However, students’ motivation and satisfaction were found to have a strong effect on the change of attitudes towards technology in OCL environments.     

Israeli teachers make sense of global citizenship education in a divided society- religion,marginalisation and economic globalisation

ABSTRACT

Global citizenship education (GCE) has recently been promoted by national education systems and supranational organisations as a means for facilitating social cohesion and peace education. We examined the perceptions of GCE held by teachers from the three main education sectors in Israel: secular-Jewish, religious-Jewish, and Palestinian Arab, and found stark differences in the way teachers from each sector interpreted the term. For marginalised groups (Palestinian Arab), GCE is seen as offering a way of securing a sense of belonging to a global society. For already well-resourced social groups (Jewish secular), GCE is viewed as a way of promoting global futures. Meanwhile, for the Jewish religious minority in Israel, GCE is seen as a threat to national identity and religious values. Our findings cast doubt on the unifying potential of GCE, and we conclude by calling upon scholars and policymakers to examine unique obstacles facing GCE in their various contexts.     

Media representations of national and international standardized testing in the Israeli education system

This study applies discourse analysis to Israeli media coverage of national and international standardized examinations within Israel's public education system. Through systematic analysis of the topic in the two main Israeli financial publications between the years 2000 and 2013, we explore the nature and narrative of the media and compare the coverage of national and international standardized testing. We find that most of the media attention was devoted to international examinations, while national examinations were covered in a more limited yet critical way, perceived as unnecessary and even dubious. International examinations, in contrast, were described as axiomatic components of the education system. Articles on both national and international standardized testing criticize the education system, blaming teachers, the Ministry of Education, budget constraints, and marginalized populations for Israeli students’ inadequate results. We frame our analysis by alignment of the articles along global–local and also neoliberal–humanistic axes. We structure our assessment within the global–local nexus and discuss the broader implications of the role of the testing in framing the local educational public discourse.     

Cloud Pedagogy: Utilizing Web-Based Technologies for the Promotion of Social Constructivist Learning in Science Teacher Preparation Courses

The new guidelines for science education emphasize the need to introduce computers and digital technologies as a means of enabling visualization and data collection and analysis. This requires science teachers to bring advanced technologies into the classroom and use them wisely. Hence, the goal of this study was twofold: to examine the application of web-based technologies in science teacher preparation courses and to examine pre-service teachers’ perceptions of “cloud pedagogy”—an instructional framework that applies technologies for the promotion of social constructivist learning. The study included university teachers (N = 48) and pre-service science teachers (N = 73). Data were collected from an online survey, written reflections, and interviews. The findings indicated that university teachers use technologies mainly for information management and the distribution of learning materials and less for applying social constructivist pedagogy. University teachers expect their students (i.e., pre-service science teachers) to use digital tools in their future classroom to a greater extent than they themselves do. The findings also indicated that the “cloud pedagogy” was perceived as an appropriate instructional framework for contemporary science education. The application of the cloud pedagogy fosters four attributes: the ability to adapt to frequent changes and uncertain situations, the ability to collaborate and communicate in decentralized environments, the ability to generate data and manage it, and the ability to explore new venous.     

The global–local nexus: desired history curriculum components from the perspective of future teachers in a conflict-ridden society

This study reveals the views of future teachers from Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Arab communities regarding the desired school history curricula. We applied a quantitative and qualitative survey to a sample of 528 students studying in teachers’ preparation programmes in three higher education institutions: one research university with a large Jewish majority and only Jewish respondents to our survey, one Palestinian-Arab college and one Jewish secular college. In both Jewish and Arab sectors, we found a major gap between teachers’ perceived desired curriculum and the official (nationalistic) one. The results indicated that the university students, who come from higher socio-economic backgrounds, prefer significantly more internationally oriented curricula than Palestinian-Arab students and Jewish students in colleges. In addition, students who are studying in the university were found to attribute more importance than all college students to globally oriented curricular content for their pupils’ future success. Notably the Jewish students choose to include more globally oriented subjects than are currently found in the official curriculum. On other measures, there was less difference between Jewish and Palestinian-Arab students. The qualitative phase of our research revealed that this seeming anomaly is due to the relative lack of sector-specific content in the formal curriculum covering the history of Palestinian-Arab population. This study yields important implications for history curricular design in the context of the global-local nexus, particularly within conflict-ridden societies.     

The influence of web‐based chemistry learning on students' perceptions,attitudes, and achievements

The goal of this study was to investigate whether integrating a website into chemistry teaching influences 10th‐grade students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment, their attitudes regarding the relevance of chemistry, and their understanding of the concept of chemical bonding. Two groups participated in this study: an experimental group and a comparison group. The main study was conducted during the academic year 2005. The teachers in the experimental group were asked to implement four relevant activities from the website that was developed, all dealing with the concept of chemical bonding. Quantitative tools of the study included: A Chemistry Classroom Web‐Based Learning Environment Inventory to assess students' perceptions regarding the relevance of chemistry to their life and attitude towards chemistry studies, a feedback questionnaire that examined the students' response after performing the website activities, and an achievement test that assessed their knowledge and understanding of the concept of chemical bonding. We found that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group significantly in most of the research categories. This led us to conclude that the web‐based learning environment has potential to enhance the comprehension of chemistry concepts, students' attitudes and interests and to increase students' awareness regarding the relevant aspects of chemistry to daily life.     

Gendered views of managing discipline in school and classroom

The current study explored male and female principals’ views of classroom and discipline management from a gender perspective. Based on semi‐structured interviews with 16 primary school principals from Israel, the study points to gendered views of school discipline, in that certain perspectives to prevent or handle discipline problems in school were indicated either by the male principals or by the female principals. Likewise, there are differences between men and women in principalship regarding the idealized role of the principal in managing school discipline and the essential aims of effective school discipline. Several research implications for the research on gender in educational administration are suggested.