Reciprocal Nominations,Reciprocal Rejections and Loneliness among Students with Learning Disorders

The study examined the relations between reciprocal nominations, reciprocal rejections and loneliness among children with learning disorders. The sample consisted of 238 Israeli students: 110 students with learning disorders (LD) and 128 students with no LD (NLD) drawn from 2nd to 6th Grades (ages: M = 9.83 years, SD = 1.35). Participants were assessed on: loneliness, sense of coherence, friendship quality, reciprocal friendship and reciprocal rejection nominations. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that loneliness experience was significantly predicted by sense of coherence, peer reciprocal rejection and conception of friendship qualities. Students with LD who had at least one reciprocal rejection with a classmate felt more lonely and less coherent than did their NLD peers. Within the LD group, those children who had at least one reciprocal rejection with a classmate felt more lonely and less coherent than did LD children who had no reciprocal rejection. Such significant within‐group differences were not found in the NLD group. The discussion emphasises the importance of the examination of intra‐ and interpersonal variables in the understanding the loneliness experience among LD children, with special focus on the role of reciprocal negative nominations.     

Attitudes and Psycholinguistic Aspects of First Language Maintenance among Russian‐Jewish Immigrants in Israel

ABSTRACT This study investigated the social attitudes and academic skills in Russian and Hebrew of Russian‐Jewish immigrant students in northern Israel. The Russian community in Israel is unique in that its members maintain their language and culture and always show their singularity as a strong cohesive ethnic group. A total of 60 participants took part in the study. They answered an attitude questionnaire and the following tests in Russian and Hebrew: working memory, oral cloze, visual condition, phonological condition, orthographic condition, word attack, word identification and spelling test. Further, for validation of attitudes results beyond self‐report questionnaires, 30 open interviews were conducted. The results indicated that these Russian new immigrants were inslrumentally oriented towards learning Hebrew. They possessed moderate anxiety and did not learn Hebrew for army service purposes or to integrate into Israeli society. Their attitude towards the class‐learning situation was not very positive. The results of the linguistic skills in Russian and Hebrew indicated superiority of the former. Regression procedures indicated that only the spelling test score of the Russian language was a significant predictor of Hebrew word recognition.     

Reliability and Validity of Play‐based Observations: relationship between the PLAY behaviour observation system and standardised measures of cognitive and social skills

Little, if any, examination of the reliability and validity of play‐based assessment exists in the current literature. Thus, the present study specifically examined the relationship between scores obtained on a classroom‐based play observation system and standardised measures of cognitive and social competence with preschool children. High reliability between observers was established for the play‐based assessment measure. In addition, concurrent validity was assessed by comparing scores on the PLA Y assessment measure with scores the children obtained on the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) and Social Skills Rating Scale (SSRS‐T). Significant positive correlations in the predicted directions were obtained: Children rated as more cognitively and socially competent were found to engage in higher levels of play behaviours (e.g. associative‐constructive and co‐operative‐dramatic), while children identified as less cognitively and socially competent engaged in lower levels of play behaviours (e.g. solitary‐functional and onlooker). The study suggests that, when operationally defined play observation methods were used, observers were able to record accurately the level of play exhibited by each child, and these play behaviours did reflect the child's current cognitive and social developmental functioning.     

Framing the Problem: effects of wording on children's statistical inferences

ABSTRACT A total of 96 children aged 11 to 12 years were given statistical inference problems (base‐rate and law of large numbers) designed to test the effects of wording on their answers. The wording of the problems was manipulated to make the information on base‐rates and on the law of large numbers either more salient or less salient. The latter condition was established by adding extraneous information to base‐rates, or, in the case of the law of large numbers, making the context unfamiliar or focusing choice on a particular person rather than on the group. A significant main effect of wording was found across all problems in favour of the salient condition. The results indicated that the children had a high level of statistical intuition and that they knew when to reason statistically and when not to.     

Peer Assessment of a Group Project in a Primary Mathematics Education Course

This paper discusses the problem of discriminating between individual contributions in the assessment of group projects. It is argued that peer assessment is a necessary element of any proposed structure but that the use of any ‘weighting‐factor’ system is contrary to the philosophy underpinning collaborative groupwork. A structure that separates the process and product elements of the assessment is described and a set of generic criteria for the process peer assessment identified. This structure was implemented with a group of students at Hong Kong University and evaluated using questionnaires and in‐depth interviews. The paper discusses the results of this evaluation and in particular identifies the need for ‘benchmarking’ when using the criteria and also the problematic nature of the ‘insider‐outsider’ syndrome as an important cultural factor.     

Environmental Education as Critical Education: how teachers and students handle the challenge

Previous research studies suggest that environmental education for social change has to be considered as critical education rather than as nature study. In a participatory research approach, classroom projects with teacher teams in five senior high schools were initiated and in‐service seminars were offered. A theorising debate about environmental education resulted in a critical environmental education concept based on human action in local social systems and the questioning of the norms and value judgements of the people concerned. Classroom projects were analysed with respect to locally constructed critical knowledge and in view of the teaching/learning culture. This study shows that teachers are most concerned about ways of handling a complex and value‐laden process. It is concluded that reflection on processes and methods is essential if teachers are to understand their students’ critical exploration of social issues.     

When Does 'Good News' Become 'Bad News'? Relationships between Government and the Integrated Schools in Northern Ireland

The development of a set of religiously integrated schools in Northern Ireland since 1981 is often portrayed in wholly positive terms. However, the continued growth of the movement has generated serious tensions at a number of levels which have wider implications for any analysis of the implications of parental choice.