Elementary Schools In Israel Research Articles

School principals’ skills and teacher absenteeism during Israeli educational reform: Exploring the mediating role of participation in decision-making, trust and job satisfaction

The current study deals with the question of whether affective trust among the teaching staff and teacher participation in decision-making (PDM) might influence the relationship between principals’ skills (cognitive and interpersonal) and organizational outcomes (job satisfaction and teacher absenteeism) during the first year of educational reform implementation. The research model was further compared with schools that did not undergo the reform. Participants included 1370 teachers and 106 principals from 106 randomly selected elementary schools in Israel that implemented the “New Horizon” reform; and 1203 teachers from 101 schools which did not implement the reform. Results indicated that in the first year of reform implementation, only principals’ cognitive skills lead to PDM and affective trust among the teaching staff, the latter being positively related to teachers’ job satisfaction, which in turn is negatively related to teachers’ absenteeism during this year. Furthermore, affective trust and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between principals’ cognitive skills and teacher absenteeism in the first year of reform implementation. Regarding the differences between the two groups of schools, the model of schools with no reform implementation showed only a relationship between cognitive skills and PDM. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

The identity work of environmental education teachers in Israel

Despite growing interest in promoting environmental education (EE), as in other countries, its status within the formal education system in Israel is still ambiguous and its effectiveness questionable. Proceeding from the view of structure-agent interdependency, the present study focuses on teachers’ identity as key to understanding the situation in their professional field. Analysis is based on in-depth interviews with ten EE teachers in ten public elementary-schools in Israel, to investigate their occupational self-perception as part of the system in which they operate. Findings reveal an ambivalent professional identity and a weak sense of agency as EE teachers. Teachers’ impaired occupational self-image have implications for their potential role in advancing EE in particular and for the educational field in Israel in general.

Thinking and Scientific Language in the Primary Classes

According to psychological and cognitive development theories, the preferences of pupils in elementary school toward inductive versus deductive and general types of reasoning when asked to prove or review mathematical claims, changes along the school years. This study examines this hypothesis through a survey in which 267 pupils from the Arabic sector in three different elementary schools in Israel, in grades 4 to 6 participated. The survey, based on the math reasoning tasks by Healy and Hoyles (1998), is comprised of Algebra and Geometry reasoning tasks. Additionally, 12 of these pupils’ teachers were interviewed in order to explore their attitudes toward mathematical reasoning and math proving tasks. Findings show that: 1) There is a difference in students’ preferences towards types of reasoning, between grades 4 and 6; 2) Sixth graders will be less likely to accept tautologic and inductive reasoning than fourth graders; 3) Elementary school pupils tend to prefer empirical arguments (such as inductive and example-based) as their approach in contrast to the arguments that they believe will receive the highest scores from their teachers. However, findings do not support the hypothesis that there will be a difference in teachers’ preferences towards different types of thinking. The research findings and their practical implications are discussed.

Participation in Decision Making and Affective Trust Among the Teaching Staff: A 2-Year Cross-Lagged Structural Equation Modeling During Implementation Reform

The research investigated whether teachers’ participation in decision-making (PDM) contributes to the development of affective trust during school reform over time, or vice versa. A model including principals’ interpersonal skills was tested during implementation of the organizational reform. Teachers ( n = 1,482) from 113 Israeli elementary schools participated in the first measurement, and 1,390 teachers from 106 of these schools participated in the second measurement. A cross-lagged design for 2 years showed that PDM leads to affective trust over time. Furthermore, PDM mediated the relationship between principals’ interpersonal skills and affective trust over time.

Principals’ perceptions of school identity: logo, vision and practice

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of the concept “school identity” as reflected in principals’ perceptions of their school logo, vision and practice.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews were conducted with 24 principals from Israeli elementary, junior high and high schools. The content analysis of principals’ interviews, including open, axial and selective coding and confirmatory qualitative analysis was used to examine the principals’ perceptions regarding the school’s logo, vision and practice.FindingsThe principals’ perceptions of the logo, vision and practice comprised five main features: academic, traditional, national, organizational and social-ethical. Different types of relationships were found between these features: correspondence by appearance, correspondence by non-appearance and incongruence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study suggests a new theoretical model for generating the concept of school identity. The study demonstrates that incongruent findings may be viewed as complementary rather than conflicting when establishing a school’s identity.Practical implicationsThe findings can promote an understanding of the function of school logos and vision statements in school practice, and help develop and maintain school identity. All these may affect the surroundings that come in contact with the school principal, such as parental decision on school choice and governmental activities.Originality/valueTo date, no study has investigated the meaning of school identity based on the principals’ perceptions regarding the school logo, vision and practice. The findings can facilitate the development of an ecological approach, which can help in understanding the meaning of school identity and its effect on students, staff, parents, wider community and national policy.

Children's Friendship Training Program for Israeli elementary school age children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The present study examined whether the effectiveness of the Children's Friendship Training (CFT) in children with ADHD is maintained following treatment endpoint and whether it is effective in a different culture outside the USA. Parent reports of social skills, behavioral problems, conflict, and children's social knowledge were collected at baseline, pre-treatment (week-12), post-treatment (week-24) and follow-up (week-36) (treatment group: N = 25, waitlist: N = 20). Relative to waitlist, children's social knowledge, social skills and conflict resolution were improved at post-treatment and improvement was maintained at follow-up.

Arab Children’s Attitudes toward Companion Animalsin Israel

Many children develop empathy and positive attitudes toward animals, particularly domesticated pets. Some adopt a pet or companion animal. This article explores how these positive attitudes recreated, and the role of factors such as parents’ education, socioeconomic status (SES),gender, and age. It is hypothesizedthatpersonal experiences such as raising companion animals or creating emotional identification with animals through children’s stories contribute to development of positive attitudes toward animals. The study participants were 267 children, male and female, 7–9 years of age, randomly sampled from 25 Arabic language elementary schools in Israel. This is the first study conductedon this topic among this population. Participants responded toa questionnaireon the research topic and background variables. The results confirm the hypotheses thatthere is a statistical correlation between being guardians forcompanion animals or reading stories about animals, and expressing positive attitudes toward companion animals, whileparents’ education, SES, gender, and age have minor effects.

Cyberbullying Victimization in WhatsApp Classmate Groups among Israeli Elementary, Middle, and High School Students.

In recent years children and adolescents lead their social lives in the virtual world no less than in the real one. Social networking sites such as WhatsApp play a major role as popular social communication platforms. More than 97% of Israeli youth use WhatsApp and are members of WhatsApp classmate groups. The growing use of WhatsApp is accompanied by increased frequency of cyberbullying, that is, intended and repeated aggressive online behavior aimed to inflict harm. Cyberbullying victimization has received a fair amount of attention due to its association with serious psychosocial, affective, behavioral, and academic problems. Although much has been written about cyberbullying on Facebook, literature about WhatsApp and cyberbullying is scarce. Based on a large-scale survey that examined the prevalence and expressions of cyberbullying the current cross-sectional study provides a detailed description of cyberbullying victimization in WhatsApp classmate groups across grade level and gender among Israeli school-age children and adolescents. The study included 4,477 elementary, middle, and high school students in Israel who completed questionnaires regarding cyberbullying victimization in their WhatsApp classmate groups. According to the study findings, approximately 30% of all survey participants report personal victimization from cyberbullying in their WhatsApp classmate groups, and almost double that report victimized aggression at least once in the recent past. Demographic variables such as school grade level and gender appear to moderate cyberbullying. Increased cyberbullying was found in elementary school compared with middle and high school, and more female compared with male students were victims of cyberbullying in WhatsApp classmate groups. The article outlines several areas of concern in cyberbullying research and discusses issues that future research might address. Education policy guidelines and implications for intervention are also discussed.

The Role of Autonomy and Accountability in Implementing and Assimilating ICT in Elementary Schools in Israel’s Arab Sector

<p><em>This article examines the extent to which the autonomy and accountability of principals, ICT coordinators, and teachers affect the successful implementation and assimilation of ICT in Arab sector elementary schools in Israel. The findings show strong positive correlations between the level of autonomy and accountability of principals (rp=0.763, p<0.001), coordinators (rp=0.588, p<0.001), and teachers (rp=0.770, p<0.001) and successful implementation and assimilation of IT in schools. The conclusions emphasize the leading role of ICT coordinator as an agent of change, the necessity for collaboration between academy and school in order to create an environment for proper assimilating ICT into schools’ vision and reality, as well as the importance of personal empowerment in ICT leaders to foster a new form of ICT leadership.</em></p>

Teachers’ skill flexibility

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine a model linking school principals’ strategic, interpersonal skills and teachers’ participation in decision making (PDM) to predict teachers’ skill flexibility (SF) during the implementation of educational reform.Design/methodology/approachFrom 113 randomly selected elementary schools in Israel that had undergone a reform called “New Horizon,” 1,482 teachers participated in the study. Data were analyzed through the multilevel structural equation modeling.FindingsResults showed that only principals’ strategic skills lead to teachers’ PDM, which in turn predicts teachers’ SF. Furthermore, based on the upper echelon theory (Hambrick and Mason, 1984), principals’ strategic skills promoted teachers’ SF through teachers’ PDM.Research limitations/implicationsThis research enables expanding the theoretical upper echelon model, both in the context of leaders’ skills and in their relation to change outcomes.Practical implicationsUsing of strategic skills will help principals influence teachers to participate in decision making, adapt to the reform and promote their ability to use skills according to changing needs.Originality/valueThe results of this research emphasize the strategic role of school principals as the leaders of organizational change and promoters of its outcomes.

Elementary Students’ Views on the Gendering of Mathematics

<p style="text-align:justify">Gender differences in mathematics learning outcomes are still evident in many countries participating in large scale international testing, as well as in national testing in Israel, the context in which the study reported here was conducted. The participants were 281 students from three Israeli elementary schools and were in grades 4 and 6. The students completed a questionnaire with items based on a selection of variables included in explanatory models for gender differences in mathematics. It was found that many students held gendered beliefs related to mathematics learning, particularly when the questions asked related to themselves or to significant others in their lives (parents and teachers); the views of the majority of students were gender neutral. When presented with two photographs -a man, and a woman- and asked who was the one more likely to work with mathematics, it was clear that the students’ choices and explanations echoed perceptions of mathematics as a male domain.</p>

Cyberbullying in WhatsApp classmates’ groups: Evaluation of an intervention program implemented in Israeli elementary and middle schools

Social networking platforms, such as WhatsApp, constitute a major part of adolescents’ social lives. Alongside the positive aspects of such platforms, there is a risk of using them as a means for cyberbullying. Schools have become increasingly aware of this risk and are prioritizing fighting cyberbullying through intervention programs, yet few interventions have been studied for their effectiveness. This study reports the results of a wide-scale school-based intervention designed to reduce cyberbullying and improve usage norms in WhatsApp classmates’ groups. Data were collected from 52 classes in 12 public schools in Israel: n = 47 elementary school classes, 4th to 6th grades, and n = 5 middle school classes, 8th grade. A total of 1402 students answered questionnaires pre-intervention (51% females), while 90% of them ( n = 1268, 52% females) answered questionnaires 1 month post-intervention. Results indicated a significant decrease in WhatsApp cyberbullying and a significant improvement in classroom climate. In addition, improvement in WhatsApp usage norms was positively correlated with a decrease in WhatsApp cyberbullying.

From Principals' Inspirational Vision Content and Potential Absorptive Capacity to Realized Absorptive Capacity: Predicting Teacher Absenteeism

This paper builds upon the theoretical framework developed by Zahra and George (2002) to empirically explore, first,the moderator effect of principals' inspirational vision content as a social mechanism that reduces the gap betweenpotential absorptive capacity (PACAP; the ability to acquire and assimilate external knowledge) and realizedabsorptive capacity (RACAP; the ability to transform and exploit this external knowledge to school processes); andsecond, the relationship between RACAP and long-term school outcomes (teachers' absenteeism 1 year later). Basedon a sample of 600 teachers from 100 elementary schools in Israel, results showed that the relationship betweenPACAP and RACAP is not conditioned by principals' inspirational vision content. The latter and PACAP predictedRACAP separately. Further, RACAP was negatively correlated with teacher absenteeism. This study provides adeeper understanding of the ACAP model in the school context and opens new avenues to exploring the socialintegration mechanism between PACAP and RACAP. It also adds a new construct to predict teacher absenteeismover the long term.

Prediktori nastavničkog stresa mjerena Fimianovim NS-upitnikom

The inquiry made an effort to answer the question concerning possible predictors of teacher stress in high-schools. The examinees were high-school teachers teaching different subjects (Croatian language, history, math, phisics, biology and Chemistry - N = 114) while the instrument used was Finian's Teacher Stress Inventory. The results of regressive analysis of the data obtained by the inquiry show significant predictors of stress to be: satisfaction with the job of teaching, number of years spent in education (work experience), the time alloted to teaching and administrative responsibilities, the size of the classroom, the number of pupils taught daily and general psychic and bodily work load. In large parts the result of the inquini accord with those obtained by Smilansky's investigation of stress amongst a group of classroom teachersfrom a number of elementary schools in Israel.

The interactive whiteboard in primary school science and interaction

ABSTRACTThe findings of the research literature about the necessity and contribution of Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) are not unequivocal and are sometimes contradictory. The study aimed to examine the interactive attributes in lessons with an IWB and the students’ attitudes. Methodical structured observations of 26 science lessons were conducted in elementary schools in Israel. The results showed that the teachers frequently used the diverse IWB tools, but most of the learning took place in frontal, whole class learning. Most of the interaction was under the teacher’s control and the dialogic interaction was limited. The attitudes of 62 pupils showed that despite already studying with an IWB for five years, their enthusiasm did not wane. They even claimed, in contrast to the observation findings, that the IWB contributed to active learning and interaction in the class. The research findings raise fundamental questions regarding the place of the IWB in promoting interaction in the class and on the necessity to promote the teacher’s pedagogic concept in order to increase class interaction.

The Role of Bibliotherapy in Reduction of Violence in Arab Schools in Israel

For many societies violence has become a major problem to be immediately dealt with and overcome. Schools, for reasons ranging from their framework, structure, client population and lack of appropriate educational tools suffer from manifestations of this phenomenon no less than other societal institutions and much more than some. This state of affairs leaves teachers, in general, and Arab teachers in Israel in particular, utterly frustrated and in many cases extremely helpless and bewildered. The situation calls for fast intervention in order to find suitable educational solutions for the reality of Arab teachers and Arab schools that function as a minority with its own set of values, standards and distinguishing features within general Israeli society. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of group bibliotherapy on violence among Arab elementary school children in Israeli society. The study hypothesis is that group bibliotherapy diminishes violence among aggressive children. The study sample included 60 pupils from grades one to six in one Arab elementary school in Israel. The results show a decline in the level of violence among aggressive children that went through bibliotherapy, in comparison with aggressive children that did not receive bibliotherapy. Results suggest that school violence can be mitigated significantly by use of appropriate teacher training programs. Lack of such training and the experience it furnishes may encourage a violent and dangerous environment for the pupils. The program furnished teachers with a tool for successful handling of the violence.

‘Students get bogged down’: how religious Israeli elementary teachers view problems and solutions in Bible teaching

Bible teachers in contemporary society confront serious problems related to the nature of the biblical text and the socio-cultural context of their teaching. This study, based on semi-structured interviews, examines the problems that five expert religious Israeli elementary school teachers encounter in their teaching and the solutions they employ. Our findings show two major domains of pedagogic issues: unfamiliar biblical linguistics and problematic content. Teachers reported student difficulties in understanding biblical Hebrew. Problematic content includes irrelevant topics, emotionally laden material, and age inappropriate issues. Linguistic solutions relied on reading comprehension techniques and use of features specific to Bible reading such as diacritical marks. Regarding content issues, teachers were motivated by faith in the sanctity of the text to find effective solutions. These include selectivity, reinterpretation using homiletic tools, a holistic understanding and contextualising the narrative. Though teachers felt ill-prepared by their pre-service training in dealing with these challenges, they demonstrated resilience in their solution-oriented pedagogy. These findings suggest attention to mentoring and professional development, and to the creation of a community of practice to support teachers’ dealing with the ongoing challenges in their teaching.

The philosophies, contents and pedagogies of environmental education programs in 10 Israeli elementary schools

In this study, our aim was to understand how environmental education has been implemented in Israeli elementary schools. We selected ten schools that had implemented Education for Sustainability programs and analyzed their mission statements and curriculum documents. We observed each school’s activities and interviewed teachers. Our analysis shows ambiguity with respect to the rationales and the theoretical foundations of the programs. It also shows much didactic teaching of content, a strong focus on behavioral outcomes, especially with respect to reducing resource consumption and to increasing the levels of recycling, as well as some degree of working with the community. The unclear status of environmental education in Israel, in terms of its structure within the education system, prevents it from having sufficient resources for teacher education and curriculum development. It is suggested that this lack of clarity is the main cause of the ambiguity and for the use of the traditional pedagogies we found in our analysis.

Educational reform in elementary schools in Israel: Arab teachers' attitudes and satisfaction

This study came to evaluate two key issues related to teachers who work in the frame of a new curriculum reform at elementary schools in Israel, called New Horizons (NH). The first issue is teachers' attitudes towards NH and the second is teachers' satisfaction from their work at schools. A questionnaire that measures teachers' attitudes and satisfaction of the new reform was delivered to a sample that consisted of 1,401 teachers who work in NH and 138 teachers who do not work in NH. The research results indicate that there are significant differences in the extent of satisfaction among teachers who work in NH and teachers who do not. Moreover, there is a positive correlation between the attitudes of teachers who are in favour of NH and their satisfaction of teaching at school.

Morphological awareness and reading in second and fifth grade: evidence from Hebrew

Research suggests that morphological awareness facilitates word decoding, improves lexical knowledge, and helps reading comprehension (Carlisle, 2010; Nagy et al., 2014; Verhoeven & Perfetti, 2011). The present study examined the relationship among morphological awareness, word recognition and reading comprehension in 153 second- and fifth-grade Hebrew speakers at an elementary school in Israel. Students were given morphological awareness tests and tests for word recognition and reading comprehension. Three types of morphological awareness were analyzed: inflection, derivation and construct formation. Overall, students with low morphological awareness in derivation and construct formation showed relatively poor achievement in word recognition and comprehension. All three types were found to correlate with reading comprehension in readers with high morphological awareness. These readers also exhibited good reading skills. The results are discussed with regard to the special characteristics of Hebrew morphology and reading process, which aid morphological decomposition.