Motivation for learning, which explains the impulses and motives for an individual to act to achieve his or her goals, is of great importance for students, particularly students of pre-academic preparatory programs. The literature suggests a relationship between self-esteem and motivation, yet there is a lack of studies that consider self-esteem among students in pre-academic preparatory programs and its relationship to motivation for learning. The main question of this study is whether there are differences in the motivation for learning among students in preparatory programs and regular students. Thus, it examines the relationship between self-esteem and motivation for learning among pre-academic preparatory program students and among regular students in their first year of study. Data collection was based on a questionnaire. The sample included 175 students who were enrolled in courses at Sakhnin College. Of these students, 43% were in the pre-academic program and 57% were in their first year of study in other departments. The findings show a positive relationship between self-image and motivation for learning among the two populations. The findings have theoretical implications as well as practical implications. They indicate that pre-academic students are not “lost”; they have motivations similar to the regular students. The practical pedagogical implications suggest that pre-academic students should be exposed to academic subjects beyond the core subjects and should be treated as equal to other students at various levels of the academic system
Even though empowerment is an intervention approach that occupies an important place in social work, social workers' perceptions of intervention techniques that may empower their clients have not been examined. This paper reports the findings of a pilot study on the perceptions of social workers regarding the empowerment potential of various intervention techniques. Data were collected on convenience samples of social workers in Israel and the USA. The findings indicate that the social workers in the two countries broadly agree on the high empowerment potential of techniques aimed at helping clients to change their behaviors so as to make their conduct more functional and to augment their control over their lives but have differing perceptions regarding the empowerment potential of other approaches, including therapeutic approaches, aspects of service delivery, and means of providing support. Further study is recommended to better understand the relationship between social workers' perceptions of the empowerment potential of different approaches and techniques and their cultural backgrounds.
Many studies reveal that personal insights and growth can be followed through the study of narratives and metaphors in the field of education. Yet, there is a striking lack of studies in education that analyzes students' metaphors regarding teacher-training practicum as a continuous process, and there is a lack of such studies in various cultural contexts. This paper describes how Arab teacher-training students described their impressions of their practical experience through personal stories entirely based in metaphoric language. The study was carried out in a multiple case study format, in which the cases are the stories of the students. The stories were written in Arabic the mother tongue of the students. This paper contributed to the body of knowledge available about student teachers' practical experiences in two ways: first, by providing a detailed understanding of how students perceive their practicum; and second, since knowledge through metaphors can provide direction in structuring training courses for student teaching in accordance with student insights and by addressing their needs, such an understanding will be useful to teachers and instructors and can guide them in providing training that is relevant, rational, and supportive.
This case study explored the real-time experience of participants in the Arab Academic College for Education in Haifa, Israel, during the coronavirus pandemic. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with management, administrative staff, faculty and students. Participants' stories
reveal that feelings of stress and isolation gave way to new learning and self-discovery, a new relationship with time, and the creation of new knowledge on the personal and institutional levels. Strong, coordinated leadership, combined with legal and financial security, facilitated the transition
to online learning and allowed the college to emerge from the crisis successfully. Implications are drawn for dealing with future crises.
This article analyzes two cases of evaluation programs involving the Palestinian minority in Israel from the perspective of social justice and responsibility. The first focuses on the evaluation of a Pre‐Academic Preparatory Program (PAPP) of minority students in Sakhnin College. The second focuses on the evaluation of Equal Opportunities for Arab Minority Students at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. This article concludes that evaluation could be conceptualized as a promoter of social justice. The article suggests that the contribution of participatory–responsive evaluation is limited and maybe marginal. The article concludes that evaluation for social justice should be only a step in a longer process, which should feed into decision making afterward in order to change and improve policies and programs, as the case of PAPP suggests. Eventually, we conclude that evaluation played a role in promoting social justice in both systems.
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