The use of stories in science education can make science more interesting and engaging, illustrate concepts, and provide opportunities for contextual and meaningful learning. Also, integrating a scientific story in which the sustainability goals are incorporated can lead to increasing students' motivation to learn as well as improve and facilitate…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the kinds of motivation driving Arab and Jewish students in Israel to choose teaching as a career. This study addressed several issues that have been largely overlooked in previous research such as the focus on Content Value motives (the motivation to teach specific subjects) as well as linking demographic…

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study about changes in computer science and software engineering students' perceptions of their soft skills during their progress through the Computer Science Soft Skills course. Background: Soft skills are often associated with a person's social, emotional and cognitive capabilities. Soft skills are increasingly…

Motives behind occupational choice of graduates in two tertiary training programs for Israeli ultraorthodox (Haredi) women, practical engineering (PE) and teaching (T), are explored. Five hundred and twelve participants (278 PEs and 234 Ts) answered a questionnaire referring to 13 potential work motives. The main findings are as follows: (a)…

This study examined changes in reading motivation and reading achievement among Hebrew-speaking first graders following an intervention program designed to increase intrinsic reading motivation. The program was delivered by the class teacher and focused on choosing relevant reading materials, providing choices for reading and encouraging social…

One aspect of the increasing position of sustainability in higher education is establishment of distinct interdisciplinary environment-oriented programs. The point-of-departure of this study is differentiation between teaching- and non-teaching-oriented students, in view of their different respective professional roles in society. The motives and…

The effectiveness of a joint interactive storybook reading program delivered by class teachers to develop literacy skills is examined in Hebrew-speaking preschool and kindergarten children. Post-intervention, both groups achieved significantly higher gains in language and print concept skills than age-matched comparison groups that did not have…

In recent decades, parental involvement in their children's education has been steadily increasing. Perhaps the ultimate form of parental involvement is the phenomenon called elective home education--EHE (also known as homeschooling). It is customary to divide EHE into two categories according to the degree of structure: "structured EHE"…

In this study we explored whether the use of teachers' demonstrations significantly improves students' understanding of redox reactions compared with control group counterparts who were not exposed to the demonstrations. The sample consisted of 131 Israeli 8th graders in middle schools (junior high school). Students' attitudes and achievements as…

Israeli students and their families can choose between state-funded secular, religious, orthodox, and other alternative schools (e.g., Waldorf, Montessori, democratic). Earlier studies showed that the motivation to engage with science differs greatly between Israeli students in secular schools and democratic schools, with these differences being…

The effects of teachers' group incentives on student achievement are examined by reviewing theoretical arguments and empirical studies published between 1990 and 2011. Studies from developing countries reported positive effects of group incentives on student test scores. However, experimental studies from developed countries reported insignificant…

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'…

The authors conducted 2 studies of 9th-grade Israeli adolescents (169 in Study 1, 156 in Study 2) to compare the parenting practices of conditional positive regard, conditional negative regard, and autonomy support using data from multiple reporters. Two socialization domains were studied: emotion control and academics. Results were consistent…

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…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine the efficiency of SMS based cell-phone vocabulary learning as compared to email vocabulary delivery and snail mail vocabulary delivery at the university level. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 241 first year university students studied English vocabulary in their mandatory English foundation…