Taking as a point of departure the vision of school algebra as a formalized meta-discourse of arithmetic, we have been following six pairs of 7th-grade students (12-13 years old) as they gradually modify their spontaneous meta-arithmetic toward the "official" algebraic form of talk. In this paper we take a look at the very beginning of…

While high IQ is likely to be an advantage in moral reasoning, it does not guarantee students' putting those morals into practice. A clearly defined sense of purpose grounded in values of social responsibility, exploration of values, and the search for ultimate truths, both personal and collective, is paramount. The Meaning in Life program in…

The research examined whether an educational intervention could enhance the ability of learning disabled (LD) adolescents to recognize non-verbal emotional messages and thus their social functioning. Most LD children have problems recognizing non-verbal cues, particularly emotional ones, and have social difficulties. The study examined the…

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…

Increasing media use among adolescents and its significant influence on health behavior warrants in-depth understanding of their response to media content. This study developed the concept and tested a model of Media Health Literacy (MHL), examined its association with personal/socio-demographic determinants and reported sources of health…

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…

The paper examined expert literature teachers' coping with a novel textbook, integrating literature with visual arts, which is a particular interdisciplinary case of text-image relations in textbooks. Examination was performed within the framework of teachers' responses to curricular changes and of theory regarding strategies of interdisciplinary…

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of three instructional methods on students' technological literacy (TL) and argumentation ability. Participants were 285 seventh grade Israeli boys and girls (12-13-year-old) who studied in 18 technology classes in four junior high schools. The three teaching methods were: (a) teaching…

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…

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of a one-to-one program on the implementation of learning skills, information literacy, and the usage of computerized tools among students. These skills are part of the demands placed upon schools to develop 21st century competencies. Seventh and ninth grade students participated in this study…

This is a mix methods follow-up study in which we reconfirm the findings from an earlier study [Vedder-Weiss & Fortus [2011] "Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(2)", 199-216]. The findings indicate that adolescents' declining motivation to learn science, which was found in many previous studies [Galton [2009] "Moving to…

The present study aimed to assess the impact of a primary prevention program on eating-related attitudes in 231 female 7th graders at baseline and following a six-session prevention program. Fifty-nine 7th grade control females received six unstructured lectures about adolescence. One hundred and three experimental students and 37 controls were…

The study described here is among the first of its kind to investigate systematically the effect of learning with integrated animations on transfer of knowledge and on motivation to learn science and technology. Four hundred eighteen 5th and 7th grade students across Israel participated in a study. Students in the experimental group participated…

This article presents an empirical study of a seventh-grade Talmud class in a religious boys' school in Israel. This case study touches upon and attempts to elucidate aspects of several broader areas. It is fundamentally an example of the transmission of culture, values, and culturally valued text in a schooling context, which exists within a…

There is a growing awareness that science education should center not just on knowledge acquisition but developing the foundation for lifelong learning. However, for intentional learning of science to occur in school, out of school, and after school, there needs to be a motivation to learn science. Prior research had shown that students'…