Toward a definition of a Latino family research paradigm

This paper analyzes some of the methodological requisites for a Latino qualitative family research paradigm. The paper explores the philosophical underpinnings, purposes, parameters, and influences of the role of the researcher. Elements of critical race theory, feminist standpoint theory, and Puerto Rican culture and experience are incorporated in the development of the paradigm. Thus, the framework reveals an epistemology that is sensitive to Latino cultural knowledge production and holds an explicit social objective to challenge existing structures, that is, to produce knowledge that presents Latinos as active agents facing constraints or exhibiting resistence behaviors within a social structure. The framework's parameters outline the boundaries all Latino groups share in the United States, such as bicultural identity, Spanish language, and cultural citizenship. The researcher's influence is examined from a Latina (Puerto Rican female) perspective to find some of the continuities and discontinuities that may influence the inherent power dynamic within the researcher informant relationship.     

The Effect of a Computerized Simulation on Middle School Students’ Understanding of the Kinetic Molecular Theory

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a dynamic software simulation on the understanding of the kinetic molecular theory by 7th graders. Students in the control group (n = 62) studied a curricular unit that addressed the differences in arrangement and motion of molecules in the three phases of matter. The experimental group (n = 71) studied the same unit combined with a few computer lessons using a software simulation. The results indicate that the students in the experimental group scored significantly higher than those in the control group. Nonetheless, while both groups of students improved their understanding of the kinetic molecular theory, the overall achievements were very low. These findings suggest that the simulation improved the understanding of the 7th graders; however, it was insufficient in itself to promote meaningful learning. Statistically significant gender differences were not observed. This paper concludes with a discussion of the educational implications of this study.     

Who Are Students of Physical Therapy? A Case Study: The Academic College of Judea and Samaria and the Ben Gurion University

This study focuses on the attributes of students of Physical Therapy, and compares the profiles of students of Physical Therapy in two institutions of higher learning in Israel, Ben Gurion University (BGU) and the Academic College of Judea and Samaria (ACJS), Israel's largest public academic college. This study focuses on this department, where studies have an occupational/applicative/practical orientation and a high status in the higher education system.     

Religious justification,elitist outcome: are religious schools being used to avoid integration?

Despite ongoing efforts to promote ethnic, racial and socio-economic integration, segregation continues to challenge education administrators and legal scholars. Privileged parents seeking to avoid integration employ various strategies such as attending private schools or buying houses in neighbourhoods with good school. This paper offers a combined empirical and legal research of another such strategy: the resort to religious schools. The research is conducted within one specific context, that of Israeli Religious State Schools. The empirical study examines whether “Torani” religious state schools (a category of religious schools that offer enhanced Jewish studies and a strict religious environment) induce socio-economic segregation. The findings indicate that “Torani” schools are indeed socio-economically segregated and serve children from higher socioeconomic class than regular religious state schools. It also shows that “Torani” schools are less reflective of their surroundings than regular religious state schools, and are more likely to be established by privileged parents in poor areas, where they are dissatisfied with the local state schools. The legal research offers an explanation of how legal regulation can determine whether religious schools will become a means for avoiding integration. Specifically, it points to three areas in which “Torani” schools are regulated differently than regular religious state schools – the rules regarding the establishment of new schools; the rules concerning school funding; and the rules concerning student enrolment – and argues that special treatment meant to protect religious interests is responsible for making “Torani” schools socially segregated.     

Cultural Framework and Objective Obstacles of Arab Students in Two Public Colleges in Israel

This article presents the results of a survey of 459 Jewish and Arab students at two public colleges in Israel in 2005. The study aimed at gaining understanding of Arab students' access to higher education in comparison to access of Jewish students by the objective obstacles to such access as reflected in the admission profiles and socio‐economic background of Jewish and Arab students at two public colleges. Analyses indicated that these academic campuses constitute a site of encounter for two very different population groups, a fact that has significant implications for access and admission policies, and student aid programs. The findings of this study are the first step in further consideration of issues relating to equal opportunities and access to higher education for Arab students, and shed light on potential means for reducing the gaps between Arab students and their Jewish counterparts.     

Hope,optimism and loneliness among first-year college students with learning disabilities: a brief longitudinal study

The goals of the study were to examine personal resources and social distress during the first month in college among students with learning disabilities (LD) and to compare their experiences with non-LD peer. The sample consisted of 335 first-year undergraduate students falling into two groups: 85 students with LD and 250 non-LD students. Questionnaires assessed hope, dispositional optimism and loneliness. We hypothesised that, after participation in a single-session hope intervention workshop, the hope and optimism levels of both students with LD and without LD would increase, while their loneliness would decrease. However, after a month of facing the academic and social demands of their new college environment, we expected that the hope and optimism scores of students with LD would be lower than their peers without LD and that their loneliness scores would be higher. As hypothesised, both groups reported enhanced hope and optimism, as well as lower loneliness, immediately after the workshop. However, students with LD – but not their peers – returned to baseline levels of hope and loneliness after a month. Loneliness after a month predicted lower hope, after controlling predictors from the beginning of the year.     

Tracing research trends of 21st-century learning skills

Recently, learning technologies have become a pivotal constituent of teaching–learning processes. Contemporary studies indicate that in order to effectively utilize these technologies, instructors and learners alike must master a range of cognitive and socio-emotional competencies, commonly termed “digital literacy competencies” or “21^st century skills.” This study employs a content analysis methodology to trace trends of change in the research of core digital literacy competencies as reflected in the educational academic literature of the past 37 years (1980–2016). Based on well-established frameworks of digital literacy competencies, this research examined seven skills: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical thinking, Information literacy, Problem-solving and Socio-emotional skills. Data were collected through advanced search queries of peer-reviewed publications in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. Findings reveal that among the examined terms, Communication is the most prominent digital literacy skill, followed by Problem Solving and Collaboration. Furthermore, within the context of Skills, the most prominent terms are Information Literacy and Critical thinking; Technology and Collaboration are least mentioned. Our findings suggest that awareness of digital learning competencies in educational research literature is marginal, implying that educational research seems to lag behind the need to understand the ever-changing digital competencies that instructors and learners need.     

High-School Chemistry Students' Performance and Gender Differences in a Computerized Molecular Modeling Learning Environment

Computerized molecular modeling (CMM) contributes to the development of visualization skills via vivid animation of three dimensional representations. Its power to illustrate and explore phenomena in chemistry teaching stems from the convenience and simplicity of building molecules of any size and color in a number of presentation styles. A new CMM-based learning environment for teaching and learning chemistry in Israeli high schools has been designed and implemented. Three tenth grade experimental classes used this discovery CMM approach, while two other classes, who studied the same topic in the customary approach, served as a control group. We investigated the effects of using molecular modeling on students' spatial ability, understanding of new concepts related to geometric and symbolic representations and students' perception of the model concept. Each variable was examined for gender differences. Students of the experimental group performed better than control group students in all three performance aspects. Experimental group students scored higher than the control group students in the achievement test on structure and bonding. Students' spatial ability improved in both groups, but students from the experimental group scored higher. For the average students in the two groups the improvement in all three spatial ability sub-tests —paper folding, card rotation, and cube comparison—was significantly higher for the experimental group. Experimental group students gained better insight into the model concept than the control group and could explain more phenomena with the aid of a variety of models. Hence, CMM helps in particular to improve the examined cognitive aspects of the average student population. In most of the achievement and spatial ability tests no significant differences between the genders were found, but in some aspects of model perception and verbal argumentation differences still exist. Experimental group females improved their model perception more than the control group females in understanding ways to create models and in the role of models as mental structures and prediction tools. Teachers' and students' feedback on the CMM learning environment was found to be positive, as it helped them understand concepts in molecular geometry and bonding. The results of this study suggest that teaching/learning of topics in chemistry that are related to three dimensional structures can be improved by using a discovery approach in a computerized learning environment.     

A study of the integration of passage-, document-, and cluster-based information for re-ranking search results

Cluster-based and passage-based document retrieval paradigms were shown to be effective. While the former are based on utilizing query-related corpus context manifested in clusters of similar documents, the latter address the fact that a document can be relevant even if only a very small part of it contains query-pertaining information. Hence, cluster-based approaches could be viewed as based on “expanding” the document representation, while passage-based approaches can be thought of as utilizing a “contracted” document representation. We present a study of the relative benefits of using each of these two approaches, and of the potential merits of their integration. To that end, we devise two methods that integrate whole-document-based, cluster-based and passage-based information. The methods are applied for the re-ranking task, that is, re-ordering documents in an initially retrieved list so as to improve precision at the very top ranks. Extensive empirical evaluation attests to the potential merits of integrating these information types. Specifically, the resultant performance substantially transcends that of the initial ranking; and, is often better than that of a state-of-the-art pseudo-feedback-based query expansion approach.