Repetition is a salient strategy used by human and non-human cohorts for learning and controlling behavior. It this research project, a case study was conducted to explore deliberate voluntary repetition in younger cohorts during their spontaneous solitary play with single or multiple objects. Two main types of repetition -- blocked and random --…

Homeschooling is on the rise in many Western countries, reflecting families' growing preference for teaching their children at home, in a family environment. This increasing trend has a social derivative, as learning at home may develop alternative competencies. The objective of this research is to examine the effectiveness of homeschooling by…

Children develop their perceptions, expectations, and attitudes toward the occupational world much earlier than they enter it, also via television which serves as a central socialization agent in the preschool years. The current study thematically analyzes the values associated with the occupational world in children's series by integrating two…

The current study examined a unique uninational intervention program, conducted separately for Jewish and Arab adolescents, with the aim of cultivating emotional intelligence skills and empathy. 287 adolescents aged 16-17 (115 Jews and 172 Arabs) participated in the program and the study to assess its initial effects. All participants completed…

The present study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to examine whether homeschooled youth in the largely urbanized social context of Israel differ in their level of civic engagement and social self-efficacy from that of their peers educated at school. Participants completed quantitative questionnaires on civic engagement and social…

Three experiments showed that gratitude positively affected preschool children's prosocial behavior. In the studies, the experimenter induced gratitude by giving a token gift and then making a request for help or to share resources. Experiment 1 (N = 126, 4- to 6-year-olds) showed that gratitude increased helping behaviors toward the benefactor,…

In light of the backdrop of change processes within the education system in recent years, including the enlarging of school boundaries and parents' increasing involvement in school life, this study aspired to understand how parents perceive parent--teacher relations alongside their self-efficacy as influencing their help-seeking from teachers in…

Infants and toddlers spend a substantial amount of their time in out-of-home care, and are thus being tended to not only by their mothers but also by their caregivers. It is therefore of considerable importance to study the effects of caregiver-infant compared to mother-infant interactions. To address this issue, first, various variables of…

In recent years, there is growing evidence for the efficacy of medical clowning as a para-medical profession. In the present study, we explored the possibility of expanding the work of medical clowns into the special education system, hypothesising that medical clowns can contribute to the development of socio-emotional abilities of children with…

Integration of blended learning environments into the learning process of teacher training may lead to the realization of an educational vision of creating a collaborative learning environment, with the aim to develop social-emotional skills and establish a learning community. The research question of this study was: What are the factors that…

Research Findings: This study focused on kindergartens serving low SES families and examined the associations between teachers' perceptions of their teaching experiences in their classroom and observed global classroom quality. Forty teachers and their classrooms participated. Teachers' perceptions of their teaching experiences in the classroom…

Using video to record lessons conducted by pre-service teachers is easier today than it was in the past, opening the possibility opens for them to observe themselves and learn from their videotaped lessons. In this study, we examined how classroom video recording affected the reflective process, self-efficacy, and a sense of threat/challenge of…

We examined the development of sharing behavior of children (aged 6 to 12) within the unique, minority population of Christian Arab children in Israel (N = 319). Children had the opportunity to share candy with a needy or non-needy recipient. Parents' level of religiosity was assessed using the Duke University Religion Index questionnaire (DUREL).…

The recent refugee crisis has put many Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries under considerable pressure to accommodate and integrate large numbers of refugees. Refugee students are a particularly vulnerable group due to their forced displacement, but their needs are not always met by education systems, which can…

Policy documents from OECD and UNESCO have been stressing the need to prepare students for what has been termed a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. They emphasise social-emotional competencies as necessary for coping with such conditions. This qualitative research frames the COVID-19 outbreak as an extreme case of VUCA that…