The Reseach Deals with Multi-Culturalism and Pluralism at the Youth At-Risk Section In
State of Israel
Ministry of Education
The Youth and Society Administration
Advancement of Youth At-Risk Section
From Exclusion to Inclusion
Editor: Dr. Ilan Shemesh
Thoughts, Ideas and Initiatives of Disadvantaged
Youth Promotion Workers in Israel
No. 15
ISSN 0792 6332
May 2008
CONTENTS
The Successful Teacher for Dropout Youth
Dr. Iris Karasin
Substance use and related delinquency among former Russian youth in Israel
Dr. Arnon Edelstein
“It’s a deal”—Business Initiatives for Youth at Risk
Haya Amzalag-Bahr, Sari Nuriel, Anat Madeson
The power of extra-treatmental factors on educational-treatmental outcomes
Dr. Yosee Soroka
Risk and protection factors for suicidal behavior among Ethiopian youth in Israel. (A Pilot research)
Dr. Arnon Edelstein, Ph.D and Sarah Cohen M.S.W
E-learning at the "Hila" program
Vered Amit
"See definition: I am an Israeli" – educational skills program for Youth Advancement Sections in the North District
Dr. Yaffa Szekely
"Creative Development" at the Youth Advancement Srvice
Tamir cohen and Efrat karavani
Universal community empowerment of Tel Aviv Ironi Career's students
Miki Rozenberg, Dorit Hindi, David Navon
Ichpat for the Advancement of Children and Youth' Municipality of Tel Aviv Yafo
Learning-strategies workshop at "Hila" center
Vered Amit
Training a youth leadership group through sports – "Teems and Dreams"
Noach Grinboim
Employment and Adolescent girls at risk programs in N.Y.C. - Ashalim Professional Committee Final Report and Recommendations
Dr. Ilan Shemesh and Einat Aroch
The Influence of Achievement Motivation and Level of Aspiration on
Learning Processes
Nabil Tannus (Ph.d)
Abstracts
The Successful Teacher for Dropout Youth
Dr. Iris Karasin (Ph.d)
The topic of the research study is the figure of the successful teacher for dropout youth. A review of the literature that engages in the realm of education for the dropout youth shows that the primary effort in this realm has been directed to the examination of the effectiveness of the education programs. However, appropriate attention has not been paid to the research of the profile of the teacher who teaches these youth. In addition, the research response to the identification of the teacher’s resources for the dropout youth and to the examination of the impact of the resources on his work effectiveness and satisfaction is lacking. In the present research study, a first attempt of its type is made to propose a model that delineates the figure of the successful teacher for dropout youth and to examine the model.
Teachers from education centers found in the Youth Promotion Units of the Jewish sector who teach in the Hila program (a program for the completion of education for the dropout youth) participated in the research.
The present research study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, a qualitative exploratory research was held. This research was conducted using an open in-depth interview in which one teacher, defined as a successful teacher, participated. In the second stage of the qualitative research, a semi-structured in-depth questionnaire was constructed, on the basis of the findings of the exploratory study, and it was distributed to another six teachers who were defined as successful. In both stages of the qualitative research the professional and personal life stories of the teachers were delineated.
Analysis of the stories showed dominant topics and identified in the teachers’ stories three levels to which the systems approach refers: the level of inputs, the conversion process, and the level of outputs. On the basis of the systems approach and according to the findings of the qualitative research, it was assumed that there are positive relations between the level of inputs, the conversion process, and the level of outputs in the teacher for dropout youth. The proposed model was thus constructed, including:
- Level of inputs – This was identified as the teacher’s resources, including the independent variables of emotional intelligence, beliefs, and background variables.
- The conversion process – This notes the mediating variable: the structuring of the teacher’s roles.
- The level of the outputs – This includes the dependent variables: effectiveness and satisfaction.
In the third stage of the research, a quantitative research was conducted with the goal of examining the model and the relationship between its variables. For the purpose of the quantitative research and on the basis of the concepts identified in the qualitative research, the perceptions question was constructed. The questionnaire includes 62 statements that constitute the items of the questionnaire and address the research variables. The questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 64 teachers of dropout youth who were asked to express their agreement or lack of agreement with the statements.
In relation to the theoretical material and the variables cited beforehand, the following research hypotheses were formulated. The first three research hypotheses argued that relations would be found between the inputs – the teacher’s resources (emotional intelligence, beliefs, and professional background) and the structuring of his roles as a teacher of dropout youth. The fourth research hypothesis argued that relations would be found between the structuring of the teacher’s roles and the outputs (effectiveness and satisfaction). Three additional hypotheses assumed that relations would be found between inputs and outputs. The last research hypothesis asserted that the variable of the structuring of the teacher’s roles is used as a variable that mediates the relations between the teacher’s inputs and the outputs.
The analysis of the quantitative research yields the following findings:
- Significant relationships were found between the inputs – the teacher’s resources (emotional intelligence, beliefs, and professional background) and the structuring of the teacher’s roles. As the level of emotional intelligence and the humanistic belief rise and as the teacher’s professional background level is higher, the level of the structuring of his roles, as expressed in the creation of a sense of belonging and scholastic involvement for dropout youth, also rises.
- Significant relationships were found between the structuring of the teacher’s roles and his outputs (effectiveness and satisfaction). Thus, as the level of the structuring of the teacher’s roles rises, the teaching effectiveness and the teacher’s satisfaction increase.
- Significant relationships were found between the inputs and the outputs. It can be seen that the emotional intelligence, beliefs, and variable of professional background were found to be related to the effectiveness. Thus, as the level of emotional intelligence, the humanistic belief, and the teacher’s professional background rise, the effectiveness that is expressed in the student’s achievements and perseverance also rises.
- The examination of the degree to which the variable of the teacher’s roles mediates the relationships between the teacher’s inputs and outputs found that the structuring of the role mediates completely the relationship between emotional intelligence and beliefs of the teacher and his effectiveness. The relationship between the teacher’s degree of intelligence and his beliefs and his degree of effectiveness depends on the structuring of the role. In contrast, the dimension of the professional background was found to be related directly to the effectiveness. Hence, as the level of the professional background of the teacher is higher, the degree of effectiveness of his roles is directly higher. In contrast, it was found that the structuring of the role completely mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and satisfaction and partly mediates the relationship between beliefs and satisfaction and the relationship between the biographic background and the satisfaction.
The uniqueness of the research lies in the possibility to build a profile that predicts the contribution of the resources of the teacher of the dropout youth to his effectiveness and satisfaction. The research found that the teacher with emotional intelligence, humanistic belief, and a high level of professional background will be effective and will cause the dropout youth to persevere and achieve scholastic achievements. In addition, it was found that the teacher with emotional intelligence and humanistic belief who has experienced a warm attitude in his childhood and has experienced formative crises would feel a sense of satisfaction with his work. The research findings, which noted that the resources of the teacher for dropout youth contribute to the dropout youth, his scholastic achievements and perseverance, strengthen the teacher’s role in the achievement of some of the goals that the Hila program sets. The research findings also strengthen the basic fundamental assumption of the Hila program that the appropriate teacher can promote any student regardless of the relationship to the student’s characteristics and his educational gaps.
It appears that if we identify the resources of the teachers before they are absorbed in the intellective programs of dropout youth we can predict the success of their students and their perseverance in the program. Hence, the research findings may be important in regards to the absorption of appropriate teachers for work with the dropout youth. In addition, the findings of the present research study also contribute to the construction of an inservice training program for the teachers who are accepted into the program and to the construction of a training program for teachers in a track that engages in the completion of education for dropout youth.
Substance use and related delinquency among former Russian youth in Israel
Dr. Arnon Edelstein (Ph.d)
More than 82,000 youth aged 12-18 migrated to Israel since 1990 or were born in Israel to immigrant's parents. The aims of this research were to find out the prevalence of substance use and related delinquency among this population.
A representative sample of 750 youth: half of them girls and half boys, two-thirds students and one-third school dropouts, were done in eight large cities as well as small towns in Israel.
The results shows that the sample youth, use all kinds of substance use more that Israelis born. Although Alcohol drinking can be referring as a cultural norm, getting drunk was seen by parents as deviance behavior.
There are common risk factors for substance use and related delinquency: youth who drop out or living in boarding schools, they live in one-parented family and lack parental supervision, having a marginal identity (not Israeli nor Russian), their family income did not increase compared to their income in Russia. These youth feel rejected by born Israelis youth and wish to segregate themselves socially. Those who were delinquent use all kinds of illicit drugs.
While some of the characteristics above are also common to youth in Israel and over the world, hence the migration to Israel and the unique culture components has a special influence on these youth and their families.
Although there is a hard core of youth in substance use and delinquency, we ought to keep in mind that most of the youth in the sample are normative, have Israeli friends and succeed in school.
“It’s a deal”—Business Initiatives for Youth at Risk
Haya Amzalag-Bahr, Sari Nuriel, Anat Madeson
The article discusses the effectiveness of the “It’s a deal” model, a form of intervention that offers employment for youth at risk. The aim of “It’s a deal” is to allow teens at risk and in distress to integrate into the normative society by engaging in practical learning and experiencing personal and group responsibility. The model has been applied for some ten years in 32 business initiatives in various locations in Israel. The effectiveness of the model is tested using a cross sectional design, in which – the attitudes and self-reported behavior of participants in the initiatives and their alumni where compared with those of a control group that included subjects from Miftanim and units for advancement of youth at risk
The findings show that the “before” attitudes the youth who participated in “It’s a deal” and in the caregiving programs of the control group were medium-to-high or higher. Even so, participating in the various programs, the attitudes of the youth toward many indicators became stronger or improved in the desired direction—away from marginality and risk. In some of the indicators, an even stronger effect was found when examining the approaches and behavior of the alumni.
Comparing the data on the “It’s a deal” participants in accordance with how many months they participated, it was found that most of the changes in their behavior and attitudes took place after only six months of participating in the program.
“It’s a deal” was found to be much more effective in regard to the outlook and attitudes in half of all the variables examined, including self efficacy, coping with stressful situations, motivation towards change, orientation towards the future, attitude to authority, social networking, education, perception of the program’s contribution, and satisfaction from the program. No unequivocal bias in favor of “It’s a deal” or the control group was found in five variables: confidence and self-esteem, sense of belonging and social activism, violence and criminal manifestations, and attitudes toward work and military service. No difference in variables related to actual behavior—work, economic situation,—as reported by the respondents were found. In no variable did the control group exceed the study group, and neither group has shown improvement in two variables- cognitive skills and time consumption preferences.
The analysis stresses several conspicuous characteristics of the “It’s a deal” model that may explain these findings: real and meaningful work for youth, making the business initiative as dependent on its participants as possible, a caregiving relationship that focuses on youth activity in business initiatives and speaks with participants in “functional” (as opposed to “therapeutic”) language, the broad scope and variety of inputs that the young people receive in the initiative, the formation of a meaningful peer group within the initiative, the pro-empowerment beliefs of the “It’s a deal” staff, the manager of the business as a significant figure and role model, and “behind the scenes” partnerships and inputs.
The article surveys several issues that have to be clarified in order to consolidate the initiatives and increase their effectiveness: the nature and requirements of the multi-sectoral partnership that surrounds the initiative, the importance of the economic success of the initiative, the importance of the economic transparency of the initiative to its participants, the characteristics of the staff and their development and maintenance needs, the role and place of young people in the initiative; and the needs and conditions for the development of a network of initiatives.
The power of extra-treatmental factors on educational-treatmental outcomes
Dr. Yosee Soroka
One of the compound questions with regard to the treatmental interventions is the identification of the interconnection of treatment models, or type of the treatmental interventions, and the results of the interventions. Studies try to identify the effect of the different factors in the treatmental interventions on the personal change process. The representable article here brings several exploratory sources that deal with the identification of the factors on the success by the treatmental different approaches. These studies raise some of extra-treatmental factors that influence the results of the treatmental interventions at times more then the planned direct involvement of professional helpers. These factors are tested by stories of success, of boys and girls, reported on them by their instructors that accompanied them personally. The responses on the questions that were raised, and the conclusions, can strengthen the fieldwork and the field workers who look for functional solutions in order to improve their abilities of solving the difficulties of the youngsters they deal with.
"Risk and protection factors for suicidal behavior among Ethiopian youth in Israel". (A Pilot research)
Dr. Arnon Edelstein, Ph.D and Sarah Cohen M.S.W
Suicidal behavior of Ethiopian youth did not gain an empirical scientist analysis, despite the fact that the ratio of suicides among Ethiopian youth is much higher than their ratio of suicidal youths in the general population. Sixty Ethiopian youth were examined through questionnaire (Alpha=.80).
The result shows that the main risk factors for suicidal behavior among Ethiopian youth are similar to those mentions in the theoretical and the empirical literature on this subject. But in addition, there are unique risk factors among Ethiopian youth that are related to social as well as cultural characteristics among these youth, as a result of their different culture.
Among these risk factors we can mention: school drop out and disconnection, family problems, depression, social exclusion, gender, substance abuse, and being at age 16-18.