Families of Disabled Children in the Israeli Kibbutz: A Community Which Provides for All Needs

One hundred and two families of disabled children in the Israeli kibbutz were studied. Parental responses during the interview revealed that the availability of material and financial resources, which the kibbutz provides, the sharing in the day to day care of the child, and the overall acceptance by the community are important in reducing stress. Yet, parents still experience a number of major hardships and stressors including encounters with the kibbutz “system”, a sense of loneliness, and concerns about their children's social integration and their futures. Similar hardships are reported in the literature for parents of disabled children in other cultures and societies. Implications for educators and family service providers regarding the need for community training, the training of peer case managers and for emotional and practical support are discussed.     

Linguistic influences on professional communication and recognition: A study of chemists and engineers in two Quebec universities

Linguistic influences on networks of professional communication and recognition among engineers at two Quebec universities were examined. It was hypothesized that chemists and engineers affiliated with the French medium University of Montreal and the Ecole Polytechnique would be less active in research and more likely to obtain scientific recognition locally and to feel professionally unrecognized outside Quebec compared to their colleagues at McGill University. The findings suggest that the localizing effects of using a medium of scientific training which is not the predominant language of international scientific communication and recognition (French) are ambiguous. Although chemists and engineers at the French medium institutions were less active researchers, their language of professional communication with other scientific communities was English and there was little sense of isolation.This research has been supported by grants from the Canadian Council and the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal. The authors also wish to thank Miss Madeleine Palmer, Miss Daniella Quiniou and Miss Rosalba Casas for their help in data collection for this paper.     

Implementation of the Mason,DeMers & Middleton consultation and program evaluation model in an Israeli school integration project

A project designed to foster integration between middle and upper-middle socioeconomic status students on the one hand and lower SES students in need of special educational attention and enrichment on the other was initiated at the Gush Etzion Regional Elementary School in Israel. Two school counsellors were invited to serve as consultants to and evaluators of the project. The counsellors decided to adopt the consultation and program evaluation model suggested by Mason, DeMers & Middleton (1984) as a basis for their work. A qualitative analysis of the consultation and program evaluation indicates that the model employed facilitated an effective and efficient contribution by the counsellors to the success of the integration project, especially regarding the advancement of the lower SES population both educationally and socially.     

JEWISH TEXTS,EDUCATION AND IDENTITY: INSEPARABLE

The study of traditional Jewish texts is perhaps the single most critical and engaging activity in Jewish education. Students spend the greater part of their classroom time delving into this source material, much of it ancient, some of it recent, in order to gain a better understanding of their heritage and how it relates to them in profound and in routine ways. Jewish educators are deeply aware of the importance of textual study in the curriculum, and it is their concern and their children's needs that were addressed by the 1987 Conference on Jewish Texts, sponsored by the Melton Center at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. More than 20 educators and psychologists were invited to Jerusalem from widely scattered sites, mostly North American and Israeli, to attend a series of meetings where some presented and all discussed the papers that appear in the present volume. The statements range in substance from the philosophical to the pedagogical and from the original to the traditionally derivative interpretation of textual sources in educational contexts. All are intended to bring a fresh perspective on issues that are as old and vital as Jewish education per se.     

Social‐environmental characteristics (family climate) and sense of coherence in kibbutz families with disabled and non‐disabled children

ABSTRACT

Family climate and sense of coherence were studied among two groups of Israeli kibbutz families: (a) 67 pairs of parents of disabled children and (b) 60 pairs of parents of non‐disabled children. Significant differences were found between the two groups concerning profiles of family climate and the sense of coherence. Parents of the disabled children demonstrated a lower sense of coherence than the control group, were less satisfied with their lives and experienced more conflict. Family systems were less cohesive, and less encouraging of personal growth. Sense of coherence related to the familial quality of relations for all parent groups, although fathers of disabled children were particularly aware of reduced opportunities for personal growth. Findings suggested when major resources were provided by the community, the ‘tragic crisis’ was expressed in two aspects of the family climate: interrelations within the family system; and opportunities for personal growth. Intervention planning should consider these aspects.     

Teaching Classic Probability Problems with Modern Digital Tools

This article is written to share teaching ideas about using commonly available computer applications—a spreadsheet, The Geometer's Sketchpad, and Wolfram Alpha—to explore three classic and historically significant problems from the probability theory. These ideas stem from the authors’ work with prospective economists, mathematicians, and teachers. The historical contexts include the problem of the division of stakes (14^th century), the problem of the Grand Duke of Tuscany (17^th century), and the problem of co-primality of two natural numbers chosen at random (19^th century). The suggested use of computers can be extended to other probability contexts to achieve at least two goals: to make complex mathematical ideas more accessible and to emphasize the importance of experimental evidence as a means of conceptual development in mathematics for all student populations.     

Google and Libraries in Russia: First Experience

The paper describes the Russian library system's current landscape and outlines its relationship with electronic technologies and Internet technologies in particular. The author discusses Google projects in Russia, and then analyzes possibilities for more substantial and elaborate Google activities in the Russian and CIS library and information sector. The paper concludes with specific project proposals.     

Gender Differences in Multiple-Choice Tests: The Role of Differential Guessing Tendencies

The present study focused on gender differences in the tendency to omit items and to guess in multiple-choice tests. It was hypothesized that males would show greater guessing tendencies than females and that the use of formula scoring rather than the use of number of correct answers would result in a relative advantage for females. Two samples were examined: ninth graders and applicants to Israeli universities. The teenagers took a battery of five or six aptitude tests used to place them in various high schools, and the adults took a battery of five tests designed to select candidates to the various faculties of the Israeli universities. The results revealed a clear male advantage in most subtests of both batteries. Four measures of item-omission tendencies were computed for each subtest, and a consistent pattern of greater omission rates among females was revealed by all measures in most subtests of the two batteries. This pattern was observed even in the few subtests that did not show male superiority and even when permissive instructions were used. Correcting the raw scores for guessing reduced the male advantage in all cases (and in the few subtests that showed female advantage the difference increased as a result of this correction), but this effect was small. It was concluded that although gender differences in guessing tendencies are robust they account for only a small fraction of the observed gender differences in multiple-choice tests. The results were discussed, focusing on practical implications.