Social innovations (SIs) frequently bring previously unrelated actors, ideas, and practices together in new configurations with the goal of addressing social needs. However, the dizzying variety of definitions of SI and their dynamic, exploratory character raise dilemmas for evaluators tasked with their evaluations. This article is based on a…

Notwithstanding the introduction of education multilingual policies worldwide, testing and assessment procedures still rely almost exclusively on the monolingual construct. This paper describes a study, part of a larger project fostering a new multilingual education policy in Israeli schools, exploring bi/multilingual assessment. It included two…

This paper is meant to highlight the occurrence of Simpson's Paradox when using aggregated data obtained from two IEA studies in Israel, while ignoring the effect of a powerful intervening variable in the local context--the ethnicity factor. It will demonstrate faulty conclusions regarding either the absence of relationships between a contextual…

Based on a sample of 312 high school teachers who participated in the Israeli PISA assessment of student academic achievement in 2002, the current study examines the mediatory role of their perception of the subject matter (as "open/flexible'" or "closed/hierarchical") in the relation between their disciplinary expertise…

Virtual reality (VR) technology enables evaluation and practice of specific skills in a motivating, user-friendly and safe way. The implementation of virtual game environments within clinical settings has increased substantially in recent years. However, the psychometric properties and feasibility of many applications have not been fully…

This article reports findings obtained from a large-scale national study (299 schools; 2761 students) that examined academic achievements of immigrants in Israeli schools. It focused on two distinct groups of immigrant students--those from the former USSR and from Ethiopia, in two subject areas--mathematics and academic language (Hebrew), and in…

Tested methods designed to extract information about examinees' partial knowledge when taking multiple-choice tests. Applied seven testing methods to multiple-choice tests and analyzed results according to six criteria. Results with 2,989 Israeli college applicants show a tendency on the part of examinees to take advantage of the special methods.…

Students were asked to record their three most noteworthy (peak) learning experiences at the end of each week for four weeks. Peak learning experiences of students enrolled in a new agricultural program were compared to those offered a traditional. Results indicate the new program induced more peak learning experiences. (BJG)

A study of the Israeli "bagrut" (maturity examination) correlated number of absences from class with class grades ("magen") and with examination grades for 300 students. Although negative relationships were found in both cases, the subjectivity of internally based, subject-teacher assessment makes it a questionable part of the…

This article reports the development and application of two instruments for assessing science teachers' pedagogical knowledge in the context of teaching higher-order thinking: a Likert-type research instrument, and an instrument that analyzes classroom observations. The rationale for developing these instruments and their main categories is…

There have been few discoveries in geology more important than "deep time"--the understanding that the universe has existed for countless millennia, such that man's existence is confined to the last milliseconds of the metaphorical geological clock. The influence of deep time is felt in a variety of sciences including geology, cosmology,…

Group participation by Israeli youth is examined in light of the Theory of Status Characteristics and Expectation States. This theory maintains that social and/or group status influences expectations of competence and triggers self-fulfilling prophecies of performance. An experiment designed to prevent unwanted dominance of high status…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…