Billie Eilam

• University of Haifa

Purpose The authors conducted a study at a history museum with the objective of examining changes in the knowledge of students aged 12 to 14 concerning the use of primary sources. Design/methodology/approach Students utilized self-led guides while exploring two museum spaces presenting different historical events. These guides encouraged students...

Few investigations of museums have examined the potential of varying displays as related to learning outcomes. This study focused on two museum spaces, presenting different historical events and featuring different objects’ characteristics and arrangements, as related to seventh- and eighth-graders’ learning and experiences during a self-guided vis...

Arab junior high school science teachers with minimal simulations background were closely examined for their inquiry performance using three consecutive simulations. The simulations modelled the same phenomenon - changes in a food chain population sizes, but composed of different elements (animal, plants) and different levels of complexity expresse...

Objective: Studies concerning young children's food-related knowledge have dealt mostly with specific types of knowledge or with researchers’ predetermined categories. This approach may neglect certain aspects of children's knowledge and may limit the understanding of its general structure. The present study aimed to examine and analyze a wide scop...

This article presents the major findings of a longitudinal study on the use of photograph-based assignments to improve higher-order thinking and language skills among second- and fifth-grade students using an intervention framework and a convergent mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) approach. The method promoted oriented study skills for s...

This study, using a mixed methods design, examined the use of a photograph‐based model to improve students’ language and writing skills. Classes were assigned to receive the photograph‐based intervention (experimental) or to receive the regular language‐based curriculum (control). Both second and fifth grade students in the experimental group signi...

Visual information sources are increasingly available online, yet little is known about how learners evaluate such information sources. Hence, the purpose of this study was to document learners' epistemic criteria and strategies for evaluating scientific visual representations (VRs). Junior high-school students evaluated four pairs of VRs that incl...

Spatial abilities—required in both academic and everyday information processing—are recommended as an important target for explicit instruction in the K-12 curriculum. However, most school curricula do not address this spatial issue, probably because spatial ability is a general rather than domain-specific skill and also due to debate regarding ind...

Transformation is a central meta-representational competency. It involves learners’ conversion of a source – comprising referent-related information presented in a particular representational form (e.g., video-recording, pie-graph) and specific modality (e.g., auditory, visual) – into a different representational form/modality for the same informat...

Classrooms are complex systems, with dynamic interactions of different kinds among their composing varied elements. Such complex interactions lead to the system's unpredictable emergent learning behaviors. To support teachers’ lesson planning and monitoring in the complex environment of classrooms, the present article examines the core metacognitiv...

The chapter discusses my response to the urgent need for a pedagogy that would effectively promote Israeli teachers' meta-representational and particularly Visual Representational competencies in order to prepare new generations of school students to fully and successfully navigate the diverse, rich multimodal information that they encounter in the...

We investigated young children's construal of pain in relation to (a) the self, (b) other humans, and (c) animals, plants, and objects, to elucidate children's cognitive understanding of this complex, abstract, subjective concept. We interviewed 17 Kindergarten students using a variety of non-painful stimuli and procedures to prompt discussion of p...

In today's world of information explosion, independent lifelong self-regulated learning (SRL) is becoming a necessity. However, opportunities in schools to experience such learning modes are relatively rare. This long-term explorative field study examined students’ SRL of science. Changes in students’ self-reported and enacted SRL in two ninth-grad...

This book has consisted of a series of chapters that describe and discuss the knowledge that has been accumulated regarding teachers’ meta-representational competence (MRC) and the pedagogies within which it is displayed. Relatively little literature on this theme has so far been published. This book ha identified the gaps in knowledge that must be...

Visual representations (VRs) are perceived as crucial to science learning and teaching. Despite teachers’ central role in mediating between information (including visual information) and learners, teachers’ knowledge in the domain of information representation has received only limited attention. We aimed to examine aspects of VR knowledge and comp...

The natural world is highly dynamic and complex. Scientists aspire to understand this complex world through observations, investigations and inferences. For this purpose, scientists isolate specific phenomena for studying and examine its features through its simplified models and visual representations (VRs). The constructed scientific knowledge is...

A comprehensive daily-report instrument supplying metacognitive prompts was used to promote a high-achieving group of 5 ninth graders' collaborative planning, execution, monitoring, and adjustment of a long-term, open-ended ecological inquiry about a live ecosystem (greenhouse). Prompts guided the group's discussion and documentation of each labora...

This book examines the diverse use of visual representations by teachers in the science classroom. It contains unique pedagogies related to the use of visualization, presents original curriculum materials as well as explores future possibilities. The book begins by looking at the significance of visual representations in the teaching of science. It...

To demonstrate the various constraints related to visual representations in biology learning and instruction, this chapter discusses the outcomes of four empirical studies carried out in Israel on the uses of static visualization in biology as well as data from classroom observations of Israeli elementary and junior high school biology students and...

The paper examined expert literature teachers’ coping with a novel textbook, integrating literature with visual arts, which is a particular interdisciplinary case of text-image relations in textbooks. Examination was performed within the framework of teachers’ responses to curricular changes and of theory regarding strategies of interdisciplinary i...

Considering well-documented difficulties in mastering ecology concepts and system thinking, the aim of the study was to examine 9th graders’ understanding of the complex, multilevel, systemic construct of feeding relations, nested within a larger system of a live model. Fifty students interacted with the model and manipulated a variable within it i...

This study draws on several theoretical domains: intertextuality, multimodality, and the pedagogy of multiliteracies. We introduced multimodal textbook materials to eleven experienced teachers and examined, through in-depth interviews, their approach to juxtapositions of literary texts and visual artwork. Our analysis revealed (a) three attitudes t...

The aim of this study was to assess Israeli Jewish and Arab teachers' perceptions of the desired characteristics of teachers of the gifted. The research sample comprised 217 teachers (134 Jews and 83 Arabs) representing three groups: (a) teachers entering a professional development program for teachers of gifted students; (b) teachers of gifted stu...

In our paper, we examine how classroom management is taught in teacher education in Israel. Three questions are addressed: (1) What is the structure of programs for classroom management (site, timing, duration, number of courses, mandatory/optional)? (2) How is classroom management conceived (technical/pedagogical, individual/systemic)? (3) Does th...

The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of the Israeli certification program for teachers of gifted children. Pre- and post-tests addressed Israeli teachers’ perceptions of unique teaching-learning situations in pullout centers, the desired characteristics of teachers of the gifted, as well as knowledge of gifted and instructional rel...

Curriculum use is conceptualized as the interaction of three stakeholders - teachers, learners, and society - with curriculum materials. The article analyzes each stakeholder's mode/s of curriculum use based on relevant literature. Intensity of engagement from low to high with curriculum is conceived on a continuum. After presenting the uses of eac...

The aim of the present study was to assess Israeli certification program for teachers of gifted taking its initial steps in 5 locations. Research sample comprised 40 stakeholders. Goodlad’s model of curriculum transformation constituted a framework for describing the various programs as they change from the Ministry to the teachers studying them. D...

How do external visual representations (e.g., graph, diagram) promote or constrain students’ ability to identify system components and their interrelations, to reinforce a systemic view through the application of the STS approach? University students (N = 150) received information cards describing cellphones’ communication system and its subsystem...

How do visual representations (VRs) in curriculum materials influence theoretical curriculum frameworks? Suggesting that VRs’ integration into curriculum materials affords a different lens for perceiving and understanding the curriculum domain, this study draws on a curricular perspective in relation to multi‐representations in texts rather than th...

This paper examines the relations between changes in the beliefs of an individual student and the distribution of beliefs in a classroom. The distribution of beliefs among students is termed here 'conceptual environment'. Based on social views of learning, we suggest that conceptual environment is an indicator of the conceptual tension in a group....

Seven students learning art in the 12th grade, experienced for the first time the processes involved in the interpretation of a dynamic performance art in a hypermedia-based learning environment, followed by learning a hypermedia-based curriculum unit concerning this complex skill, and concluding by transferring this acquired knowledge for interpre...

Voices of veteran junior high and high school biology teachers are seldom heard. Yet, the unique characteristics of this subject‐matter may shed some light on veteran teachers' lives in school and their possible contribution to educational systems anywhere. Eight teachers were interviewed, aiming to arrive at their self‐perceptions as veteran biolo...

This explorative field study examined the mediating role of self-regulated learning (SRL) in the relationship between the personality trait of conscientiousness, SRL, and science achievement in a sample of junior high school students. Over the course of an entire academic year, data on enacted SRL were collected each week for 52 eighth-grade studen...

Why is it so challenging to provide pre‐service teachers with adequate competence to cope with the complexity of the classroom context? Three key difficulties are frequently reported as reducing the effectiveness of teacher education programs: the construction of an integrated body of knowledge about teaching, the application of theories to practic...

Visual literacy is an increasingly critical skill in a globalizing, digital world. This book addresses the core issues concerning visual literacy in education, underscoring its importance for the instruction of students and educators. Professor Billie Eilam argues that the incorporation of visual skill development in teacher training programs will...

The present study extended multimedia learning principles beyond the lab to an ecologically valid setting (homework). Eighteen information cards were used to perform three homework tasks. The control group students learnt from single representation (SR) cards that presented all information as printed text. The multiple representation (MR) group stu...

The authors shed light on individuals' development of the ability to use thematic and containment relations to organize concepts hierarchically. The authors used a new paradigm calling for the organization of word concepts into a containment-relation-oriented (CRO) hierarchy to collect data from 120 individuals at varied educational levels (Grade 2...

Does learning with multimedia promote students' ability to identify variables and infer relations among various elements within given textual and visual information, thus deepening system thinking? This study examined 150 undergraduate students' ability to identify systems' components (i.e., variables), overt and covert relations, as well as constr...

Learning in a socially mediated context like a classroom places emphasis on the ability of learners to communicate their ideas to others, and for members of a class to achieve shared meaning or intersubjectivity (IS). We take a participatory view of IS, where both consensual agreement and disagreement are regarded as aspects of a common set of proc...

Ninth graders (N = 254) were investigated for knowledge organisation and flexibility and for classification ability, following three years of learning the newly implemented, unified “science and technology” syllabus in junior high schools. A classification-reclassification task (students- elicited criteria) was designed to directly reflect students...

This article presents a video and internet site based intervention designed to address the difficulties that the complex classroom environment poses for teachers, and then presents the study of its effectiveness as applied with 21 trainees in a university teacher education program. The intervention emphasized implicit cognitive processes as central...

This study investigates how 25 junior high school students employed their bodies of knowledge and responded to problem cues while individually performing a science experiment and reasoning about a drops phenomenon. Line-by-line content analysis conducted on students' written ad hoc explanations aimed to reveal students' concepts and their relations...

The present study aimed to examine Jewish, Arab (Christian and Muslims), and Druze teacher trainees' orientations toward teaching-learning processes in relation to their cultural background. The parameter used for characterizing culture comprised the continuum of individualism-collectivism. As a generalization, Jews were located at the individualis...

This study sought to identify ninth grade students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors, enacted while engaged in a specially designed, long-term, group science inquiry task in an authentic classroom setting. To self-regulate planning and time management, students used yearly and daily planning reports. A high and medium achieving groups’ disco...

The Israeli educational milieu contains two different cultures with separate educational systems: the Arab culture, distinguished by its traditional and collectivist orientation despite undergoing a process of modernization, and the Jewish Western-democratic, individualistic culture. This study describes a unique multiculturalistic phenomenon where...

The Israeli educational milieu contains two different cultures with separate educational systems: the Arab culture, distinguished by its traditional and collectivist orientation despite undergoing a process of modernization, and the Jewish Western-democratic, individualistic culture. This study describes a unique multiculturalistic phenomenon where...

The present paper focuses on ninth graders' difficulties in learning ecology. Three dimensions, in addition to the macrolevel dimension, were identified as basic obstacles that might hinder students' meaningful learning of ecology: the microlevel dimension, relating to the molecular and micro processes of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems; t...

The present study explored in detail students' cognitive behaviours observed in the process of learning, as performed in the classroom context while acquiring a thinking skill ('choosing wisely'). The participants comprised 10 ninth graders. They were engaged in a year long, independent, open-ended inquiry project in science, performed in a group s...

The study aimed at facilitating the homework performance of seventh graders with learning difficulties entering an integrated junior high school, by first identifying areas of difficulty and then designing and implementing an intervention. In Study 1, data concerning students' (N = 19) difficulties were obtained via nonparticipant classroom observa...

The study describes a mode of reflective-practice field observation, in order to enhance teacher candidates’ understanding the concept of “discipline” in teacher education. Teacher candidates (N=32) used an open-ended structured questionnaire to guide their school observations and data collection. The rationale for exposing the candidates to the co...

Classroom conversations have emerged as an important aspect of educational research. Through them, teachers pursue their personal instructional goals. Classroom discourse may also promote the unification of the cognitive and social development of students. This paper reports an analysis of classroom discourse in an Israeli junior‐high school during...

This study describes an intervention designed to promote integration between Ethiopian and Israeli students (N = 93) in Grades 2 to 5 and adaptation of these immigrants to school norms of behavior and to discipline. The metaphor of cultural mosaic was used for describing the goal state. To achieve a comprehensive school reform, the curriculum was e...

A sociometric tool for teachers was developed to study intergroup relationships in a junior high school in Israel in a study of academic and social integration of four distinct groups of students in a heterogeneous classroom. The format and application of the tool are reported in two school situations. (SLD)

Multi-level analyses in a socially mediated middle school mathematics classroom reveal how intersubjectivity serves to structure and sustain the discourse while students collective solve a three-dimensional reasoning task. Speech events frequently exhibited co-occurrence of both positive and negative forms of intersubjectivity. This shows that inte...