The growing number of students with Learning Disabilities (LD) who are granted test accommodations raises many theoretical questions with educational implications. The aim of the current study is to examine levels of positive affect as an indicator of wellbeing among students with LD who receive test accommodations and to identify the mediating…

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…

This research study investigates the ability of students to tackle the solving of unique mathematical problems in the domain of numerical series, verbal and formal, and its influence on the motivation of junior high students with learning disabilities in the Arab sector. Two instruments were used to collect the data: mathematical series were…

Drawing on early research on parental involvement and its effect on children's school functioning, it was hypothesized in this study that parents' educational involvement is positively related to two indicators of school functioning: academic self-competence and academic achievement. However, in light of research on the distinction between…

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…

This study is an evaluation one phase of the Biology Critical Thinking (BCT) project. Seven skills were selected as goals of the BCT project (for example, isolating variables) and learning activities for these skills were developed. The study compared two groups using the same textbook (n=678 Israeli seventh grade students). The following…

The regression-discontinuity design was used to study the cumulative effect of ability grouping in mathematics in Israeli junior high schools. Results from a final sample of 1,169 seventh graders show that placement in ability groups increases the gap between students at different grade levels. (SLD)

Writing quality of 2 seventh grade classes in Jerusalem of 22 students each was compared in 2 audience conditions: (1) to the teacher for grades, and (2) to a distant peer audience to share ideas. Papers written to communicate with peers were rated more highly than those written for grades. (SLD)

This study tested the hypothesis that effortful interaction with a computer tool that provides reading-related guided interaction on a meta-cognitive level results in the internalization of the guidance and later improved reading comprehension. Results with 25 seventh graders in Tel Aviv using a specially designed tool--the Reading…

How academic and ethnic considerations combine in the determination of social acceptance was assessed in a short-term longitudinal study of 721 Israeli seventh graders. Both academic standing and ethnicity influence interpersonal acceptance consistently across the school year, but academic considerations have a greater impact. (SLD)

One Israeli junior high school initiated an extensive reading program that promotes independent English reading and increases acquisition of English. This article explains how to get such a program started, develop guidelines, and handle problems. Student surveys indicated that similar numbers of students enjoyed reading English and reading…

Perceptions of 520 Israeli seventh graders of teachers' differential behavior toward high and low achievers were compared with those of 17 teachers themselves. In a second experiment, teachers received feedback, which decreased the gap between students' and teachers' perceptions, although contrasting perceptions of emotional support given to low…