Social information processing, security of attachment, and emotion regulation in children with learning disabilities

This study examined the contribution of attachment security and emotion regulation (ER) to the explanation of social information processing (SIP) in middle childhood boys with learning disabilities (LD) and without LD matched on age and grade level. Children analyzed four social vignettes using Dodge's SIP model and completed the Kerns security scale and the children's self-control scale. Study results demonstrated major difficulties in SIP, lower attachment security, and less ER in children with LD compared to children without LD. Attachment as well as the interaction between attachment and ER emerged as important contributors to most SIP steps, suggesting that children with higher security who also have better ER skills will have better SIP capabilities along the different steps, beyond group inclusion. Results were discussed in terms of practical and clinical implications regarding the importance of mother-child attachment and ER skills for social cognitive capabilities in children with LD.     

Social information processing and emotional understanding in children with LD

The present study aimed to comprehensively examine social cognition processes in children with and without learning disabilities (LD), focusing on social information processing (SIP) and complex emotional understanding capabilities such as understanding complex, mixed, and hidden emotions. Participants were 50 children with LD (age range 9.4-12.7; 35 boys, 15 girls) and 50 children without LD matched on grade, age, and gender. Children analyzed 4 social vignettes using Dodge's SIP model and completed 2 emotional recognition tasks (pictures and stories) and 4 emotional knowledge tasks, such as providing definitions and examples for 5 emotions (e.g., loneliness, pride, embarrassment). Study results demonstrated that children with LD had major difficulties in SIP processes and consistent difficulties with the different tasks in the understanding of complex emotions and in higher emotional understanding capabilities, such as understanding that 2 conflicting emotions (love and hate) can be simultaneously experienced. We discuss the implications of such difficulties for the understanding of social competence in children with LD as well as their implications for social skills intervention.     

Ultra-orthodox Jewish teachers' self-efficacy and willingness for inclusion of pupils with special needs

The main aim of the present study was to investigate the attitudes of boys' teachers (N = 68), and girls' teachers (N = 68), in the independent educational system of the ultra-orthodox (Haredi) community, towards inclusion of pupils with special needs in regular classrooms. Forty of the subjects lived and taught in two major cities in which reside, beside other citizens, the majority of the Haredi community in Israel, and 73 of them lived in a small town in which reside only the Haredi community. Results show that willingness to include pupils with special needs in their class of teachers in the cities is significantly more positive than their counterparts in the small town. In addition, within those cities the willingness to include of the boys' teachers is more positive towards inclusion of mildly disabled children, while the willingness to include of girls' teachers is more positive towards inclusion of severely disabled pupils. Findings indicate also that the Haredi teachers, males and females alike, have a different perception of disability as compared to the common spread of the professional perception of this term. Results indicate the effects of a major change in the state's educational policy on its independent minorities' educators.     

The efficacy of reciprocal teaching in fostering the reading literacy of students with intellectual disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of strategy instruction on the reading literacy of students with mild and moderate intellectual disability. Students aged 15–21 with intellectual disability (n=35) participated in 24 sessions of literacy strategy instruction (experimental condition) or remedial literacy‐skill acquisition‐ lessons (control condition). The main objective of strategy instruction was to foster comprehension monitoring. Through shared dialogues, students were trained to generate questions about text, to summarise what was read, to clarify difficult words and to make predictions. The strategies were taught using the reciprocal teaching method developed by Palincsar and Brown. This method involves provision of support adjusted to students’ difficulties and peer teaching of strategies. Control subjects were exposed to direct instruction of basic reading skills that were presented sequentially and practiced solitarily by the students. Opportunities were given to respond to questions and to summarise but no strategy instruction was provided to foster comprehension monitoring. Two different measures of comprehension and a measure of strategy use were administered to test for variation across different methods of instruction. Findings on all measures provide support for the claim that strategy instruction is indeed superior to traditional remedial methods of skill acquisition in fostering reading literacy comprehension. These findings challenge the common perception that literacy is an organic impossibility for people defined as intellectually disabled. Moreover, the results add to recent research in sociocognitive instruction that supports the need to modify prevailing methods of reading curriculum and suggests a reconceptualisation of the comprehension process and its instruction to students with intellectual disabilities.     

Student Self-Reported Learning Outcomes of Field Trips: The pedagogical impact

In this study, we used the classification and regression trees (CART) method to draw relationships between student self-reported learning outcomes in 26 field trips to natural environments and various characteristics of the field trip that include variables associated with preparation and pedagogy. We wished to examine the extent to which the preparation for the field trip, its connection to the school curriculum, and the pedagogies used, affect students’ self-reported outcomes in three domains: cognitive, affective, and behavioral; and the extent the students' socioeconomic group and the guide's affiliation affect students' reported learning outcomes. Given that most of the field trips were guide-centered, the most important variable that affected the three domains of outcomes was the guide's storytelling. Other variables that showed relationships with self-reported outcomes were physical activity and making connections to everyday life—all of which we defined as pedagogical variables. We found no significant differences in student self-reported outcomes with respect to their socioeconomic group and the guide's organizational affiliation.     

Challenges with graph interpretation: a review of the literature

With the growing emphasis on the development of scientific inquiry skills, the display and interpretation of data are becoming increasingly important. Graph interpretation competence is, in fact, essential to understanding today’s world and to be scientifically literate. However, graph interpretation is a complex and challenging activity. Graph interpretation competence is affected by many factors, including aspects of graph characteristics, the content of the graph and viewers’ prior knowledge. For instance, the prior theory and expectations that students have may lead to biases and misinterpretation of graphs. One basic controversy that remains unanswered, for example, is what should we teach first in order to make students scientific literate, how to graph or how to interpret a graph? If it is the case that the ability to interpret a graph be developed prior to the ability to create, then it is important to understand what graph interpretation entails. This paper reviews current literature on graph interpretation competence and argues that it should be explicitly taught given its importance and its complexity.     

The first ‘Hebrew’ teachers in Eretz Yisrael: characteristics,difficulties and coping methods (1881–1914)

The founding fathers of the new Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel, or Palestine) as well as many philosophers, public figures, educators and authors both in Israel and in the Diaspora were preoccupied with the image of the new Israeli Hebrew. The educational system was seen as an instrument to create the ‘new Hebrew’ (identifying with the ancient Hebrews) and to instil new values and behaviours in the young Palestinian‐born generation. During the first three decades (1981–1914) of Jewish education in Palestine, the typical teacher had neither pedagogical training nor prior experience in education, lacked the vocabulary for teaching subjects in Hebrew, and was familiar only with educational systems that differed from the one that she/he dreamed of creating. Individual teachers had no contact with one another and no institutionalised support system. They worked as ‘lone soldiers’, contending with a severe shortage of reference books, textbooks and reading material, struggling with the necessity to create a curriculum and set its priorities, and to translate and prepare material. Yet despite these tremendous difficulties, many educators did manage to realise their educational aims. What characterised these early teachers? What were the difficulties they faced? How did they manage to achieve their aims? This article attempts to answer these and other relevant questions.