The contribution of morphological awareness to reading comprehension in early stages of reading

The contribution of morphological awareness to reading comprehension in Hebrew was studied in 298 second grade students who practiced two types of inflections, plural and possessive. Reading tasks at the beginning and end of the school year indicated that all improved on all tests in that period. Orthographic word recognition and morphological awareness predicted reading comprehension at the end of year. Students with low (LPD) and high (HPD) phonological decoding skills clearly differed qualitatively in reading comprehension. In the HPD students it was predicted by awareness of possessive inflections; in the LPD students it was predicted by orthographic word recognition ability. The results highlight the importance of examining the different components of morphological awareness in readers with different levels of phonological decoding ability.     

How Young Children Construe Pain Experienced by Self and Others: A Case of Naive Theory

We investigated young children's construal of pain in relation to (a) the self, (b) other humans, and (c) animals, plants, and objects, to elucidate children's cognitive understanding of this complex, abstract, subjective concept. We interviewed 17 Kindergarten students using a variety of non-painful stimuli and procedures to prompt discussion of pain's causes, consequences, intensity, contagion, and treatment. Findings suggest that young children use naive theory to describe pain that only partly agree with canonic knowledge and were cognizance of the need to treat pain and cope with it. Awareness of children's construal of pain may promote caregivers' and teachers' ability to effectively treat pain-related situations and contribute to the design of a relevant curriculum for enhancing their knowledge about pain.     

Cosmetic surgery as a commodity for ‘sale’ in online news

A controversial but increasingly prevalent aspect of media research suggests that the media contributes to the demand for plastic surgery procedures in modern society. This study analyzes the online news content on cosmetic surgery procedures in Korea. Data were collected from ‘Naver,’ the largest Korean portal news archive, from 2007 to 2013. Based on the findings from a quantitative content analysis, the number of articles that pertain to plastic surgery has dramatically increased each year, and since 2007, more than 60% of the news articles portrayed plastic surgery in a positive light. News articles also used strategic patterns to include promotional content. The findings suggest that amid journalism in a highly market-driven environment that struggles to reconcile its role and commercial challenges, plastic surgery, which is a part of the largest advertising sector of online news, has become a commodity.     

School websites as a novel internationalization assessment tool

This article presents a case study on internationalization assessment. The international, intercultural and global dimensions at the school level are examined, focusing on the case of one particular secondary school in Israel. A novel, practical assessment tool is presented for the measurement of internationalization intensity and scope at the school level, based on systematic analysis of school websites and adapted from the existing assessment tool for higher education institutions. The results are verified by an in-depth interview with the principal of the focus school, confirming that the proposed tool can be easily used in large-scale studies. According to the assessment conducted, it was found that internationalization processes take place in each of the tested domains, although a large variation was found in intensity and appearance. This case study of an Israeli secondary school may serve as a point of departure to study internationalization in the secondary education system through the proposed comprehensive, reliable and easy to use school website assessment tool.