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Thesis Chapters by Akiva Berger
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2019
In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers' perceptions of teacher-student relationsh... more In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers' perceptions of teacher-student relationship in distance education. Participants were teaching in both distance-and traditional classrooms, and we took a within-subject approach in order to highlight the differences in relationship between the two settings, with each participant being interviewed twice, using the Teacher Relationship Interview (TRI) protocol. TRI is focused on the teacher's relationship with a single student chosen by the interviewed teacher. Findings suggest differences in the ways our participants perceived their students and communicated with them. Specifically, participants chose to be interviewed about distant students who were academically successful and about traditional classroom students who were generally struggling. Additionally, when referring to relationship with the distant students, it was mostly about issues directly related to the material taught, while regarding the traditional classroom student, there was a more comprehensive look at the relationship. Interestingly, there was emphasis on communication means and practices only when referring to the distant student. Finally, according to the participants, text-based communication-on which they were mostly relying-may impact teacher-student relationship in different ways.
http://www.eurodl.org/index.php?p=current&sp=brief&article=808
The relationship and interaction between teachers and students in the classroom are key not only ... more The relationship and interaction between teachers and students in the classroom are key not only for learning, but for students’ social and emotional development, and teachers’ professional development as well. Thanks to recent technological advances, various forms of online teaching and distance learning have grown common, these modes of learning are characterized by the fact that teacher and students are not in the same physical space (and often not in the same time frame either). Therefore, there may be differences between the two modes of learning regarding the development of the relationship between teacher and student.
This study examines relationships between teachers and students in online learning, the research focuses on teachers’ perceptions of their relationship with their students in computer based distance learning, compared to their relationships within the framework of the traditional classroom. The study also will compare the perceptions of these relationships with an assessment of their interactions with their students.
This paper explores teacher-student relationship in online classes. Two methods where employed in our research, an interview, and interaction assessment. A structured interview was conducted amongst four Israeli teachers who teach both from distance (classes from the US) and face-to-face (in Israel). The teachers chose one student from each type of class and were asked about their relationships with these students. We also ran observations of the classes given by the same group of teachers, and assessed the quality of their interactions based the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), which has been used in dozens of studies in recent years. The finding from the online classes observations where contrasted with findings from face-to-face classes.
The study’s findings show interesting differences regarding teachers’ perception of their relationships with their students; As part of the relationship description in the online classroom, teachers focused on the very fact that students contacted them in a certain way or frequency. Teachers chose to talk about Motivated online students, and on the other hand chose to talk mainly about students with low motivation in the traditional classrooms. Teachers emphasized that the dialogue style was “light”, “rhythmic” and informal with online students, but did not stress the matter of dialogue format at all when talking about students in a traditional classroom. When talking about distance learning, teachers used the words “caring” to describe educational matters, when talking about the face-to-face learning they used the word “caring” to describe student’s personal affairs. The relationship with distance learning student is an intellectual relationship, and the relationship with the student in a traditional classroom in built on some sort of challenge the student faces.
Regarding internet learning, teachers felt that the focus of technological means that support learning (eg. Moodel) is focused solely on the student’s educational needs, causing their emotional needs become peripheral.
Papers by Akiva Berger
Religions
Over the past two decades, religious websites have gained immense popularity and have become dyna... more Over the past two decades, religious websites have gained immense popularity and have become dynamic platforms for sparking discourse, practice, and modes of leadership. The internet has allowed religious leaders to reach more believers than ever before and compete for online followership. How do religious leaders negotiate their authority through online information outlets? This study explores religious “Ask the Rabbi” websites specializing in religious Jewish knowledge. The corpus is composed of 50,799 Q&A public messages between rabbis and laypeople, asked and posted from 2005 to 2019. The findings point to a shift in the authority of religious Q&A websites from the initial authority endowed to the websites through the institutionally well-known rabbis who participated on the platform. Over time, however, these websites became public spheres of learning where little-known rabbis could establish their popularity. Textual analysis revealed that the writing style evolved from short ...
Learning, Media and Technology
Over the past two decades, the internet has become a central platform affording lay-learners acce... more Over the past two decades, the internet has become a central platform affording lay-learners access to a multiplicity of experts. While these outlets empower lay-learners, they create competition amongst clerical and knowledge authorities. This article addresses the question: how is religious authority understood and negotiated by learners, and in turn, how do they evaluate authoritative sources. Twenty-six in-depth thinkaloud interviews were conducted with Religious-Zionists in Israel on their internet sourcing practices. Findings uncovered four strategies employed when sourcing information online: (1) Generating a reliable source network based on the learners' social and primordial affiliations. (2) Complexity based sourcing practices stemming from learners' uncertainty in their ability to autonomously attain a satisfying answer. (3) Fitting an appropriate source to queries based on their availability and prestige. (4) Negotiating learner's autonomy in a particular field of knowledge based on the social or epistemic norms that govern it.
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2019
In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers’ perceptions of teacher-student relationsh... more In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers’ perceptions of teacher-student relationship in distance education. Participants were teaching in both distanceand traditional classrooms, and we took a within-subject approach in order to highlight the differences in relationship between the two settings, with each participant being interviewed twice, using the Teacher Relationship Interview (TRI) protocol. TRI is focused on the teacher’s relationship with a single student chosen by the interviewed teacher. Findings suggest differences in the ways our participants perceived their students and communicated with them. Specifically, participants chose to be interviewed about distant students who were academically successful and about traditional classroom students who were generally struggling. Additionally, when referring to relationship with the distant students, it was mostly about issues directly related to the material taught, while regarding the traditional classroom student...
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2019
In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers' perceptions of teacher-student relationsh... more In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers' perceptions of teacher-student relationship in distance education. Participants were teaching in both distance-and traditional classrooms, and we took a within-subject approach in order to highlight the differences in relationship between the two settings, with each participant being interviewed twice, using the Teacher Relationship Interview (TRI) protocol. TRI is focused on the teacher's relationship with a single student chosen by the interviewed teacher. Findings suggest differences in the ways our participants perceived their students and communicated with them. Specifically, participants chose to be interviewed about distant students who were academically successful and about traditional classroom students who were generally struggling. Additionally, when referring to relationship with the distant students, it was mostly about issues directly related to the material taught, while regarding the traditional classroom student, there was a more comprehensive look at the relationship. Interestingly, there was emphasis on communication means and practices only when referring to the distant student. Finally, according to the participants, text-based communication-on which they were mostly relying-may impact teacher-student relationship in different ways.
http://www.eurodl.org/index.php?p=current&sp=brief&article=808
The relationship and interaction between teachers and students in the classroom are key not only ... more The relationship and interaction between teachers and students in the classroom are key not only for learning, but for students’ social and emotional development, and teachers’ professional development as well. Thanks to recent technological advances, various forms of online teaching and distance learning have grown common, these modes of learning are characterized by the fact that teacher and students are not in the same physical space (and often not in the same time frame either). Therefore, there may be differences between the two modes of learning regarding the development of the relationship between teacher and student.
This study examines relationships between teachers and students in online learning, the research focuses on teachers’ perceptions of their relationship with their students in computer based distance learning, compared to their relationships within the framework of the traditional classroom. The study also will compare the perceptions of these relationships with an assessment of their interactions with their students.
This paper explores teacher-student relationship in online classes. Two methods where employed in our research, an interview, and interaction assessment. A structured interview was conducted amongst four Israeli teachers who teach both from distance (classes from the US) and face-to-face (in Israel). The teachers chose one student from each type of class and were asked about their relationships with these students. We also ran observations of the classes given by the same group of teachers, and assessed the quality of their interactions based the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), which has been used in dozens of studies in recent years. The finding from the online classes observations where contrasted with findings from face-to-face classes.
The study’s findings show interesting differences regarding teachers’ perception of their relationships with their students; As part of the relationship description in the online classroom, teachers focused on the very fact that students contacted them in a certain way or frequency. Teachers chose to talk about Motivated online students, and on the other hand chose to talk mainly about students with low motivation in the traditional classrooms. Teachers emphasized that the dialogue style was “light”, “rhythmic” and informal with online students, but did not stress the matter of dialogue format at all when talking about students in a traditional classroom. When talking about distance learning, teachers used the words “caring” to describe educational matters, when talking about the face-to-face learning they used the word “caring” to describe student’s personal affairs. The relationship with distance learning student is an intellectual relationship, and the relationship with the student in a traditional classroom in built on some sort of challenge the student faces.
Regarding internet learning, teachers felt that the focus of technological means that support learning (eg. Moodel) is focused solely on the student’s educational needs, causing their emotional needs become peripheral.
Religions
Over the past two decades, religious websites have gained immense popularity and have become dyna... more Over the past two decades, religious websites have gained immense popularity and have become dynamic platforms for sparking discourse, practice, and modes of leadership. The internet has allowed religious leaders to reach more believers than ever before and compete for online followership. How do religious leaders negotiate their authority through online information outlets? This study explores religious “Ask the Rabbi” websites specializing in religious Jewish knowledge. The corpus is composed of 50,799 Q&A public messages between rabbis and laypeople, asked and posted from 2005 to 2019. The findings point to a shift in the authority of religious Q&A websites from the initial authority endowed to the websites through the institutionally well-known rabbis who participated on the platform. Over time, however, these websites became public spheres of learning where little-known rabbis could establish their popularity. Textual analysis revealed that the writing style evolved from short ...
Learning, Media and Technology
Over the past two decades, the internet has become a central platform affording lay-learners acce... more Over the past two decades, the internet has become a central platform affording lay-learners access to a multiplicity of experts. While these outlets empower lay-learners, they create competition amongst clerical and knowledge authorities. This article addresses the question: how is religious authority understood and negotiated by learners, and in turn, how do they evaluate authoritative sources. Twenty-six in-depth thinkaloud interviews were conducted with Religious-Zionists in Israel on their internet sourcing practices. Findings uncovered four strategies employed when sourcing information online: (1) Generating a reliable source network based on the learners' social and primordial affiliations. (2) Complexity based sourcing practices stemming from learners' uncertainty in their ability to autonomously attain a satisfying answer. (3) Fitting an appropriate source to queries based on their availability and prestige. (4) Negotiating learner's autonomy in a particular field of knowledge based on the social or epistemic norms that govern it.
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 2019
In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers’ perceptions of teacher-student relationsh... more In this qualitative study (N = 4), we explore teachers’ perceptions of teacher-student relationship in distance education. Participants were teaching in both distanceand traditional classrooms, and we took a within-subject approach in order to highlight the differences in relationship between the two settings, with each participant being interviewed twice, using the Teacher Relationship Interview (TRI) protocol. TRI is focused on the teacher’s relationship with a single student chosen by the interviewed teacher. Findings suggest differences in the ways our participants perceived their students and communicated with them. Specifically, participants chose to be interviewed about distant students who were academically successful and about traditional classroom students who were generally struggling. Additionally, when referring to relationship with the distant students, it was mostly about issues directly related to the material taught, while regarding the traditional classroom student...