Margalit Ziv - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Margalit Ziv

Applied Psycholinguistics, Jul 1, 2008

Arabic Literacy acquisition was studied among Israeli Palestinian low socioeconomic status kinder... more Arabic Literacy acquisition was studied among Israeli Palestinian low socioeconomic status kindergartners within the framework of an intervention study, implemented by teachers. On pretest, letter naming, alphabetic awareness, and phonological awareness were very low. Whereas the comparison group hardly progressed throughout the year, the intervention group progressed substantially on all three skills. The diglossic nature of the Arabic letter name system was manifested in children's transition from a mixture of two systems to preference for standard over colloquial names following the intervention. As in other alphabets, visual similarity and adjacency increased letter confusability. The unique features of Arabic literacy are discussed. Arabic is a Semitic language, ranked as the fifth most widely used language in the world. It is an official language in more than 20 states in the Middle East and North Africa, with an estimated population of 185 million native speakers (Holes, 2004). Because of immigration, Arabic-speaking communities are also currently found in Europe and North America. In Israel, Arabic is the mother tongue of 20% of the population, and is an official language along with Hebrew (Statistical Central Bureau, 2005).

Educating the Young Child

Education Sciences

This study explored young children’s (2–8 years old) daily activities during the first lockdown w... more This study explored young children’s (2–8 years old) daily activities during the first lockdown with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (spring/2020, T1) and a year later (spring/2021, T2) from a cross-cultural perspective. It describes parent–child literacy and digital activities in Bulgaria, Israel, and Spain. Participating parents (747 in T1 and 432 in T2) answered online questionnaires about the frequency of parent–child literacy activities (alphabetic, book reading, and play) and digital activities (joint activities, selecting content, scaffolding) and the child’s screen time. The findings indicated moderate parent–child literacy and digital activities during the time points. A series of ANCOVAs revealed differences between time periods and cultures beyond the demographic measures (child’s age, parent’s education and age, and family size). During the first lockdown, parent–child joint digital activities and the child’s screen time were higher than a year later. A year later,...

$Research paper thumbnail of The role of desire in children\u27s theory of mind$

Children\u27s theory of mind consists of two core mental states: belief and desire. The majority ... more Children\u27s theory of mind consists of two core mental states: belief and desire. The majority of research has focused on belief, specifically false belief, demonstrating an age-related improvement between 3 and 5 years, However, studying children\u27s understanding of desire, as well as the relation between desire and belief, is important for forming an adequate picture of theory of mind development and determining the relation between children\u27s theory of mind and their actual social understanding. A series of studies investigated two aspects of the role of desire in children\u27s theory of mind. The studies tested the claim that young children fail false belief because they base their belief judgments on desire inferences (Bartsch & Wellman, 1995; Fodor, 1992). Children of 3-, 4-, and 5-years were presented with standard false belief and representational change tasks, and were asked about the agent\u27s desire and belief. The discrepancy between desire and belief responses i...

Infant and Child Development

Theories of mind and teaching, 2005

Developmental Psychology, 2003

Cognitive Development, 2004

Some special issues of Cognitive Development review an area that is ripe for summary. The present... more Some special issues of Cognitive Development review an area that is ripe for summary. The present special issue has a different focus. Its aim is to open an important area that has not received much attention-the ontogenesis of teaching. Teaching is recognized as a universal human activity and has received much attention since the times of Ancient Greece. It has always been a central topic of inquiry in the domains of education and psychology, reflecting the recognition of the centrality of adult teaching in educating children and in enhancing their cognitive development. Most definitions of teaching stem from observations of adult teaching, distinguishing it from other related activities, such as training, indoctrinating, preaching and also deceiving, and emphasizing the conditions and activities that advance successful teaching and/or learning. The emphasis in educational research on how teaching should be carried out created some confusion between teaching and didactics, or instruction. Acknowledging the conceptual and philosophical relation between teaching and learning has led to important distinctions between the two, and has highlighted the intentional aspect of teaching (MacMillan & Nelson, 1968). Whereas the essence of teaching is the intention to induce learning in others, teaching does not entail learning. In other words, teaching is a goal-oriented activity, and the goal may or may not be attained. For example, while a math teacher teaches a whole class how to solve math problems, some of the pupils learn how to do it and others do not. A cognitive developmental approach proposes to shift the interest in both teaching and learning from adult-centered to child-centered. While this approach has already been applied to learning, the study of teaching has been less affected by it. Thus, the focus of the current special issue is children's teaching in an attempt to better our grasp, not of how children are affected by adults' teaching, but rather of how they understand and construct the concept and process of teaching, and how this developing understanding is manifested in their own everyday teaching.

Child Development, 2008

Two studies examined the role of intention in preschoolers' understanding of teaching. Three-to 5... more Two studies examined the role of intention in preschoolers' understanding of teaching. Three-to 5-year-olds judged stories in which there was an intention to teach or not (teaching vs. imitation) for 4 different learning outcomes (successful, partial, failed, and unknown). They also judged 2 stories with embedded instructional intent (e.g., guided discovery learning) and several standard theory of mind tasks. There was an age-related change in the understanding of teaching. Five-year-olds distinguished teaching from imitation and recognized guided discovery learning. Understanding of imitation and false belief was related. The findings indicate that theory of mind is relevant to other means of knowledge acquisition besides perceptual access and that understanding intention could help young children to recognize instruction and identify its different forms.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-gpi-10.1177_13684302211005837 for Promoting positive intergroup a... more Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-gpi-10.1177_13684302211005837 for Promoting positive intergroup attitudes using persona dolls: A vicarious contact intervention program in Israeli kindergartens by Meytal Nasie, Margalit Ziv and Gil Diesendruck in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

Cognitive Development, 2002

Teaching is an important aspect in people's lives and cultures. We explore it from a cognitive-de... more Teaching is an important aspect in people's lives and cultures. We explore it from a cognitive-developmental perspective. Teaching may be a natural cognition that, despite its complexity, is learned at an early age without any apparent instruction. We propose that theory of mind may be an important cognitive prerequisite for teaching. We briefly describe a study that tested relations between children's developing theory of mind and actual teaching. Children at the ages of 3-and 5-years were presented new theory of mind tasks about teaching and then were observed teaching peers a game they had just learned. We found corresponding age-related differences in children's understanding of teaching as manifested in their performance on the teaching-theory of mind tasks and in their teaching strategies. It is suggested that theory and research on theory of mind might need to be expanded to include on-line, interactive situations such as teaching.

Arabic: An intervention study among Israeli Palestinian kindergartners. Applied Psycholinguistics... more Arabic: An intervention study among Israeli Palestinian kindergartners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 413-436. Arabic literacy- 2-Arabic Literacy acquisition was studied among Israeli Palestinian low SES kindergartners within the framework of an intervention study, implemented by teachers. On pretest, letter naming, alphabetic awareness and phonological awareness were very low. Whereas the comparison group hardly progressed throughout the year, the intervention group progressed substantially on all three skills. The diglossic nature of the Arabic letter name system was manifested in children's transition from a mixture of two systems to preference for Standard over Colloquial names following the intervention. As in other alphabets, visual similarity and adjacency increased letter confusability. The unique features of Arabic literacy are discussed.

Children with hearing loss often have difficulties in the socio-emotional domain that can be attr... more Children with hearing loss often have difficulties in the socio-emotional domain that can be attributed to a significant delay in the development of theory of mind (ToM). The current article describes a workshop aimed at enhancing deaf parents ' awareness of the importance of ToM development and enriching parent-child conversations with developmentally appropriate mental state contents. Eight deaf mothers from mid- low SES background participated in six sessions and were guided to enrich their mental discourse while naturally interacting with their deaf children. The mothers ' use of mental terms was assessed at the beginning and end of the program. Following their participation in the workshop, mothers used more mental terms when interacting with their children, explained more elaborately mental motives underlying people's behavior and described their children's personality by referring more frequently to their social likes and dislikes. We conclude that parenta...

Emotion understanding and theory of mind (ToM) are two major aspects of social cognition in which... more Emotion understanding and theory of mind (ToM) are two major aspects of social cognition in which deaf children dem-onstrate developmental delays. The current study investi-gated these social cognition aspects in two subgroups of deaf children—those with cochlear implants who communicate orally (speakers) and those who communicate primarily using sign language (signers)—in comparison to hearing children. Participants were 53 Israeli kindergartners—20 speakers, 10 signers, and 23 hearing children. Tests included four emotion identification and understanding tasks and one false belief task (ToM). Results revealed similarities among all children’s emotion labeling and affective perspective taking abilities, similarities between speakers and hearing children in false beliefs and in understanding emotions in typical contexts, and lower performance of signers on the latter three tasks. Adapting educational experiences to the unique characteris-tics and needs of speakers and signers is rec...