The implications of the transition from elementary to middle school are of major concern for educators and researchers worldwide. Previous studies have yielded ambiguous findings; some have indicated negative outcomes of school transition, whereas others have demonstrated null or even positive effects. The aim of the current research was to…

The "world culture" framework posits a convergence in the organisation of education across the world. On the other hand, scholars observing teaching practices inside classrooms find significant variation among nations and regions of the world. This study examined the global change patterns of classroom practices at the between- and…

Taking a student's perspective, this study aims to characterize students' descriptions of teaching higher and lower in mastery goal emphasis, in elementary, middle, traditional, and democratic schools. Data were collected by student surveys and interviews from fifth- through eighth-grade Israeli students. Nineteen interviews, describing 5 science…

Recent technological developments have added cyberspace as part of adolescents' social milieu. Bullying, which is prevalent in adolescents' social environment, also takes place in cyberspace, although it is believed to have a more potent and harmful effect. A study of cyberbullying and FtF bullying could elucidate critical implications for…

Research has found students' epistemic beliefs to predict their achievement goal orientations. Much of this research emerged from the dimensional approach of epistemic beliefs, which hypothesized a relationship between particular independent dimensions of epistemic beliefs with different achievement goals. Research in this approach has primarily…

The use of standardised tests as a central tool in education policy has in recent decades become a common feature of many national education systems. In 2002 the Israeli Ministry of Education introduced new mandatory state tests for primary and middle schools. The article describes the adoption of these low-stakes tests and assesses their impact…

The current study aimed to explore the concept of transition self-efficacy, which is defined as individuals' subjective evaluation of their ability to execute the actions required for a successful transition from elementary to middle school. The study followed a sample of 128 sixth-grade students for 2 consecutive years (before and after the…

Private tutoring (PT) is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In Israel too, about a third of elementary school students participate in PT. Based on sociological and school quality considerations, we examined school characteristics that are associated with PT intensity at school. The data encompassed a random state wide sample of 389 Israeli…

This study aimed to explore the role of school engagement and the mediation effect of acculturation in predicting 1.5 and second-generation migrant adolescents' mental health and risk behaviors. Participants included 448 seventh to tenth grade Israeli students (mean age 14.50, 53% boys): 128 non-Jewish 1.5 generation migrant adolescents (children…

Purpose: Despite growing research on school aggression, significant gaps remain in the authors' knowledge of team aggression, since most studies have mainly explored aggression on the part of students. The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding the phenomenon of workplace aggression in school teams. Specifically, the purpose of the…

Israel suffers from a growing problem of socio-economic gaps between those who live in the center of the country and residents of outlying areas. As a result, there is a low level of accessibility to higher education among the peripheral population. The goal of the Sidney Warren Science Education Center for Youth at Tel-Hai College is to…

School bullying is a worldwide worrisome phenomenon that occurs within a broad context in which pupils and teachers can either reinforce or undermine violent behavior through interaction. Based on a nationally representative sample of students in Israel, this study examined patterns in student perceptions of student and teacher responses to school…

Achievement goal theory distinguishes between mastery goals (the goals of developing competence) and performance goals (the goals of demonstrating competence) [Ames [1992] "Journal of Educational Psychology" 84: 261-271]. In this study, we employed this theory aiming to better understand why adolescents' motivation to learn science…

Today's students were born into a world of digital technology. We investigated the impact of computers and the Internet on the learning preferences of students whose schools do not use this technology in class, specifically, (a) the usability they attributed to the technology for tasks requiring the processing of information; and (b) their…

There is a growing consensus among educators and the general public that technology should play a more integral role in students' education. However, the question of whether the introduction of technology into the classroom has a positive impact on teaching and learning is still under intense debate within the educational community. This…