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Higher education institutions have been accused of losing their moral orientation and failing to provide students with a meaningful educative experience. This paper exposes the roots of this problem within contradictions between two historical commitments of higher education: “serving science” and “know thyself”. The paper then develops a conceptual model of teaching practice as such. The model demonstrates the predominance of “serving science”, which leads to the compromising of ethics and meaning. It is then developed to show how “self” can be explicitly reclaimed by integrating the two epistemologies-ethics in teaching practice. Contemporary pedagogical examples are presented to demonstrate this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines changes in teachers' envisioning of potential classroom argumentation situations through experiencing a cycle of: (1) analyzing various tasks' affordances for argumentation, (2) collaboratively analyzing examples of (other) teachers' analyses of those tasks' potential for argumentation, (3) refining initial analyses, and (4) reflection. Analysis of teachers' initial and refined responses revealed changes in the variety of dimensions of argumentation envisioned (e.g., mathematical, social, cognitive) and in the number of teachers categorized in each dimension. The paper provides evidence of the potential of collaborative analysis of authentic teacher responses for teachers' learning of key aspects of argumentation practice. • In the study, the teachers increased their noticing of mathematical tasks potential for argumentation. • The study provides evidence that collaborative analysis of authentic teacher responses supports the teachers' learning. • The study suggests approaches for teacher professional learning for developing expertise in argumentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher caring has been suggested as critical to teachers' work, contributing to student learning and well-being. However, only limited research has examined the factors contributing to teacher caring or its effects on teachers. In the present study, we surveyed 341 teachers in elementary schools, exploring correlates of their caring. Structural equation modeling analysis showed that teachers' sense of meaning and self-efficacy contribute to teacher caring, which, in turn, contributes to increased job satisfaction and decreased burnout. • The paper introduces and empirically examines a model of teacher caring. • The model links teachers' internal resources with teacher caring, which is linked to teacher well-being. • Teachers' sense of meaning at work and teachers' self-efficacy contributed to teacher caring. • Teacher caring was associated with teachers' job satisfaction and decreased burnout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on new teachers’ satisfaction with their first year of teaching from the perspective of socialization. The relationship between satisfaction with socialization and teacher background, school environment, placement, and induction variables was examined. Data were collected from 243 Israeli beginning teachers by means of questionnaire. Results indicated that satisfaction during the induction year was moderately high. Hierarchical regression analysis showed five significant predictor variables: ecological support from mentor, help from the principal, assistance from other colleagues, workload, and having already completed teaching training. Support from mentors and school colleagues had the greatest impact on new teachers’ assimilation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The present paper deals with Jewish and Palestinian teachers who work in an integrated school in Israel, and shows the challenges and possibilities from examining these teachers' powerful historical narratives in the context of in-service training sessions. It is shown how these teachers essentially remain firmly rooted in the hegemonic historical narratives of their own community, even when their attitudes are challenged and clearer alternatives are considered to the reigning narratives. The findings highlight predominantly the failures in terms of the potential of educational efforts to help overcome situations of intractable conflict even within contexts specifically devised for this purpose; yet, also some openings become apparent in the process of negotiating competing narratives and inventing new dialogic possibilities. The implications of this work suggest that schools and their historical tradition are difficult places to reach change or produce it—even in integrated schools in which partial structural change takes place—and teacher training may not always be the answer for the need to bring changes. However, it is also indicated that an ongoing agonistics of raising critical issues regarding one's identifications with hegemonic narratives does offer openings to take responsibility for both the challenges and the dialogic possibilities that are created in the process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper presents a case study of a secondary school in Israel and its efforts at attending to students’ needs without resorting to tracking and ability grouping. It explores an organisational process the school has established, called “Opening triads”, which involves periodical regrouping of three classrooms of students of the same age and same subject matter into three new groups. The findings suggest that ability grouping is difficult to eliminate, but there are alternatives that may reduce its social and emotional harmful effect. Ability grouping can be avoided altogether through other, more equalitarian forms of regrouping students. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Little attention has been paid to teacher attitudes toward high-achieving culturally diverse student groups. This in-depth study focuses on the experience of Israeli teachers who tell the story of a decade and a half of educational work with their highly motivated, academically successful immigrant students from the Former Soviet Union. The paper explores the differential effect of subject matter and seniority on teachers’ experience. It analyzes communication patterns between teachers and their high-achieving transnationalist immigrant students according to these parameters. Implications for the educational treatment of academic excellence among immigrant students in a globalized context are considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]