Excellence gaps are differences in advanced education outcomes among student groups. This study replicates and extends an earlier study on the prevalence and magnitude of excellence gaps based on student sex and immigrant status using Grade 8 TIMSS data. Data were included for the 12 countries that have participated in each TIMSS administration…

Focusing on the intergenerational educational association alone obscures discussions of downward and upward mobility and immobility patterns, which entail different life experiences and their potential consequences. Utilizing data on Israelis aged 25-32 years old over three periods, the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, during which tertiary education…

Instructional leadership concerns the ongoing deep involvement of school principals in direct efforts to improve learning and achievement for all students. The goal of this study was to explore principals' perceptions regarding the knowledge required for instructional leadership. Study participants were 38 Israeli school principals, representing…

This study examines the role of age of arrival (AoA) in immigrant students' perceived multilingual proficiency. Additionally, the study investigates the demographic, linguistic and social-psychological variables distinguishing young-arriving immigrants from their middle and older-arriving peers. The sample included 274 eleventh grade Russian (L1)…

This research investigates Palestinian students residing in both urban and rural areas who are enrolled in an elite high school located in a mixed Arab-Jewish city in northern Israel. We investigate how these divergent backgrounds influence their experiences and perceptions of their elite identities and how elite identities within national…

This case study examined the characteristics of classroom discourse during physics lessons in two single-sex high school classes--a boys' vs. a girls' class. All lessons were taught by the same teacher and covered the same topics. For each class, six lessons were recorded, transcribed, and coded and the characteristics of the discussion were…

Shyness is a form of social isolation and withdrawal stemming from concerns about social judgment, particularly during new situations or tests. Shy students are afraid of interacting with others, leading to problems and frustration at school. Teachers play an important role in identifying and helping these students. The research objective was to…

This large-scale study (N=173,636) examines between-group differences in Israeli high school STEM enrolment and average grades between five groups of Israeli-born Jews. Four of them comprise second-generation immigrant students with high-skilled parents, from North America (NA), South America (SA), France, and the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The…

Academic dishonesty has been growing in both digital and analog settings. The present study aimed to generalize the ethical dissonance index (EDI), which was established in a sample of Israeli school students as the gap between the pervasiveness of academic dishonesty and its perceived legitimacy. Furthermore, the study examined how technology,…

This study explores the intersection of gender, sociocultural background, and argumentative socioscientific writing. It focuses on Jewish Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) men and women who were educated in gender-segregated schools separated from the public education (PE) system in Israel. We compared argumentative essays written by these two groups to…

The goal of the current study was to examine teaching students' positions and perceptions regarding the transition to an online format for practical teaching during COVID-19, and whether differences exist between Jewish and Arab students' positions. The study also examines teaching students' technological and pedagogical self-efficacies for…

Michael F. Shaughnessy is currently Professor of Educational Studies at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico. Bryan Barnes is a graduate student in Speech Language Pathology at Eastern New Mexico University and is pursuing a Master's degree in that field. In this article, Shaughnessy, and Barnes, offer up a reflective conversation…

Background and Context: Understanding the effects of learner characteristics and perceived learning environment on achievement in academic fields including Computer Science (CS) is of critical importance. Objective: This study aimed at testing a hypothesized model of achievement in CS in terms of the learner and the learning environment…

This paper presents an ethnographic study analyzing the influence of students' social backgrounds on students' entitlement and agency in relation to floor rights. Classroom interactions were video-recorded, and interviews were conducted in a socially diverse fifth-grade in Israel. Descriptive statistics and micro-analyses of participation patterns…

Violence is a major element in many of the present-day's digital games. Despite the extensive research on this subject, the effect of violent digital games on the aggression level among children has not been satisfactorily clarified. The study examines the combined effect of collaborative/competitive game strategy and the presence or absence of…