Studied the relationship between classroom assessment and motivational goals in diverse class climates in two Israeli elementary schools those that mainly apply traditional assessment and two that mainly apply alternative assessment. Results for 261 sixth-grade students show distinct differences in student perceptions of assessment and perception…

The relationships among the teacher's pet phenomenon, students' perceptions of teachers' differential behavior, and students' morale were investigated in 80 Israeli upper elementary classrooms. The intensity of the teacher's pet phenomenon was related to perceived teachers' differential behavior, which, in turn, was negatively related to student…

Conducted communitywide experimental change program aimed at improving social climate of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classrooms in one school system in northern Israel. Thirty-three classrooms were randomly assigned to either small-group or whole-class work on topics in classroom life or to control group. Whole-class group showed improvement in…

A total of 556 Israeli fifth graders participated in a study of delay of gratification. Two hypothetical delay of gratification situations were presented. The first situation required a choice between an immediate and a more valuable but delayed reward. The second situation required the subjects to predict an intelligent child's choice in the same…

The tendency to delay gratification as affected by sex and group participation was explored in 6- and 7-year-old children. (BRT)

Research examined three independent variables: type of reinforcement given to examinee, sex of examinee, and sex of reinforcer. (Author/MB)

The role of maturational factors in reading acquisition was investigated by exposing children 5.2 to 7.0 years of age to identical learning experiences. Older children significantly outperformed younger ones, suggesting that reading instruction at a later maturational level may be more effective than that performed earlier. (MP)

A study examined the effects of open and traditional classes on the academic attainment of elementary school students of different socioeconomic backgrounds in Israel. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that students from upper socioeconomic classes benefited more from learning in an open classroom than students from lower…

A total of 84 Israeli middle- and upper-middle-class nursery school, second and fifth grade children were subjects for a study investigating parallel shifts in dimensional salience and the dominance of these dimensions as organizing principles in memory. (MS)

Discusses the use of puzzles and jokes to encourage student interest in an English-as-a-Second-Language class. The object of this project was to relate to a more human context, the playfulness that pushes aside arbitrary school time each spring when Purim comes. (CK)

Examined the effects of awareness of peers' risky behaviors on elementary students' experiences of school victimization. Surveys of Arab and Jewish students indicated that students' awareness of risky peer behaviors in school was one of the strongest predictors of their own personal victimization at school, controlling for gender, ethnicity, and…

A significant difference in phonological awareness (PA) skills was found between 35 students measured in grades 1 and 3 who had received PA training in kindergarten and 35 who had not. The PA tasks of initial phonological isolation and sound deletion were highly predictive of success in first-grade reading. (SLD)

Fifth and sixth graders completed a sex role orientation measure, viewed a film portraying a child playing gender-appropriate games with members of the same sex or gender-inappropriate games with members of the opposite sex, and made judgments about the child. Subjects' judgments were influenced by the child's gender-related behaviors but not by…

Notes change in central position held by old people in traditional Jewish-Oriental family and society following migration to Israel. Changing attitudes within family are reflected in discussions by disadvantaged soldiers of Oriental origin in classes for basic training in Israeli army and by answers of fifth-grade children to questions on their…

It is important to teach dictionary skills to elementary English-as-a-Second-Language students. An English learner's dictionary is a student's main source of information when lacking human help, and though English words may be forgotten, the dictionary skill is learned for life. This article discusses how to include dictionary use in an exam and…