Through a sense-making lens, this qualitative study explores high school principals' considerations while they perceive and enact additional resources within a national reform implementation. Principals' allocation of resources, especially as part of a national reform, is a complex matter for schools' effectiveness in an era of accountability.…

This qualitative study explores how 60 Israeli high school principals vary in their perceptions and enactments of shared sense-making processes while engaging in strategic activities to gain teachers' support during a national reform implementation. Data analysis has yielded three major themes: (a) a common language; (b) a collaborative learning…

In the face of the dynamic tension between internal goals and external reform demands, school principals' role has become increasingly more complex and their sense-making more crucial. Yet, research has paid little attention to the significant role principals perform as sense makers in local reform implementation processes. This study explores…

Two major education system reforms were introduced by Israel's government in collaboration with the teachers' unions. These reforms redefine principals' and teachers' roles, increasing teachers' work hours, and the scope of their work. School principals absent from the reform negotiations, are expected to apply the reform, although their work…

Principals' implementation of national reforms in the educational arena resembles a wild ride on a roller coaster as they face with contradicting demands, ongoing confusion and ambiguity. As critical change agents, principals interpret and translate reform demands into local practices through a process of sense-making. This current qualitative…

The study traced the assimilation of new administrative software in an Arab school, assisted by collaboration between the school and an Arab academic teacher-training college in Israel. The research used a mixed-method paradigm. A questionnaire consisting of 81 items was administered to 55 of the school's teachers in two stages to elicit their…

This paper describes a four-year program to advance electrical and electronics studies and their implementation in eight northern Israeli high schools. The program was begun with four schools participating, increasing to eight schools toward the end. This paper presents the teaching and learning processes of teachers and students during the…

The rationale behind the project is based on the belief that the study of a work of literature can effectively open a window of opportunity for pupils to study other countries' cultures and identities as well as contribute to pupils' own identity construction and to the understanding of the identity of others. Information and communication…

Despite the growing consensus regarding the value of inquiry based teaching and learning, the implementation of such practices continues to be a challenge. The goal of this paper is to present a model for the educational infrastructure that can support the implementation of the Biomind program, which is a new open inquiry program for Israeli…

Purpose: To study the implementation of a learning content management system (LCMS) at one department of a university in light of Rogers' diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and in comparison to known critical success factors (CSFs) in implementation of information systems. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach was used to examine…

Science and technology are connected to each other and are mutually inspiring. The science-technology curriculum for junior-high school in Israel suggests that teachers integrate these subjects. In addition, this curriculum calls for infusing thinking competencies into the learning subjects and for implementing alternatives in assessment methods…