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This study was carried out in 2013 and aims to define the professional self-efficacy of preschool teachers (PTSE); define preschool teachers' perception of preschool excellence (PTPPE); and investigate the relationship between the two.

Scales for PTPSE and PTPPE were developed especially for this study. Preschool teachers (N = 202) participated during the 2013 school year. Structural equation modelling was performed to test the fit between the research model and the obtained data.

PTPSE scale (a = 0.91) comprised three subscales: pedagogy (a = 0.84), organisation (a = 0.85) and staff (a = 0.72). The PTPPE scale (a = 0.92) is also composed of three subscales: organisation and pedagogy (a = 0.88), staff (a = 0.84) and parents (a = 0.83). The goodness of fit measures were RMSEA = 0.045, CFI = 0.97, NFI = 0.89, df = 173, χ² = 242.94, p = 0.000, showing GFI = 1.4 (<3) as a good fit.

As the sample was relatively small, the results need to be replicated with larger samples. Therefore, the conclusions of this study are only partially applicable. Another limitation is that both the PTPSES and PTPPE were tested only in Israel and not in other environments.

Understanding self-efficacy of preschool teachers, preschool excellence and the relations between them could assist policymakers with decisions concerning continuing professional development (in service training) of preschool teachers.

Little is known about perceived self-efficacy of preschool teachers, their perception of preschool excellence or the relations between the two.

The first purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between principal self-efficacy and work experience. The second purpose of this paper is to re-study the structure of a multidimensional and hierarchical Principal Self-Efficacy Scale (PSES).

PSES was measured using the Brama-Friedman scale (PSES) (Brama and Friedman, 2007). During the 2010 school year, 123 principals participated. Exploration of PSES was based on Facet Theory (Guttman, 1959).

The findings show that the highest levels of the PSES were found with principals that were at their first year of leading the school. The levels of PSES drop significantly during the second year and up to the fifth year of work experience. The levels of PSES start to rise after the fifth year, and stabilize after ten years. Furthermore, the findings show that PSES is comprised of organizational leadership, educational, and pedagogical leadership and external and communal relations.

The sample was relatively small and mostly from the center school district of Israel. The second limitation was that the sample included only Jewish principals. Since 20 percent of the population in Israel is Arabs, further studies should include all minorities in order to enlighten the issue.

Understanding the relations between PSES levels and work experience could assist policy makers with decisions concerning continuing professional development (in-service training) of principals.

Little is known about the relations between perceived self-efficacy of principals and their work experience.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the research on tourist walkability and Walk Score® by posing the question “does tourist accommodation benefit from being located in walkable places?”.

Using Tel Aviv municipality as a case study, the prices and number of reviews of 81 hotels and 97 Airbnb listings were associated with their corresponding Walk Score® measures.

The relationship between Walk Score and prices and number of reviews was not linear or strong. However, the most expensive accommodation and more popular hotels were below the median Walk Score of Tel Aviv.

The findings may reflect the specific conditions associated with Tel Aviv, such as city compactness, topography and planning regulations.

The study suggests that accommodation is beneficial if it is located on the margins of very walkable areas. This raises regulatory and promotion issues for accommodation, and challenges for transport and tourism planners.

The study adds to the limited knowledge regarding tourism-related walkability, and is the first examination of links between walkability (measured by Walk Score index) and tourist accommodation (hotels and Airbnb).

In 2012, the Israeli Ministry of Education and its Testing and Evaluation Department introduced a new tool to evaluate the quality of kindergarten teachers’ work. This paper aims to identify how kindergarten teachers perceive the new multiple domains performance tool.

The study applied a qualitative paradigm of data collection and analysis. Data collection consisted of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 36 kindergarten teachers.

Findings indicated that most kindergarten teachers perceive their work plan and the kindergarten climate as the most important evaluation domains, while perceiving involving parents as the least important and even an unnecessary domain. One-third of them indicated that an innovation domain should be added. Also, the kindergarten teachers perceived the use of the KT-MDPT as both positive and negative.

There is a clear dearth in scholarly literature dealing with the evaluation of the quality of kindergarten teachers’ work. This study is the first to reveal Israeli kindergarten teachers' attitudes regarding this new tool for work quality evaluation.

Numerous studies have focused on the effect of motivation on performance in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the somewhat overlooked role of positive and negative emotions as potential mediators of this critical association.

The longitudinal study employed multilevel modeling for assessing the effects of motivation, emotions and work satisfaction on job performance. In total, 116 respondents provided 1,044 responses at nine consecutive measurement points.

Findings indicated that positive emotions and job satisfaction mediate the positive association between autonomous motivation and performance. Concurrently, negative emotions and decreased job satisfaction mediated the negative associations between controlled motivation and job performance.

The results address only the within-subject and between-subject analysis of temporal variations in emotions and behavior. Future studies can include higher levels of analysis, such as group, team and organizational contexts.

This research contributes to self-determination theory by highlighting the role of emotions in understanding how motivation shapes workplace performance.

Query expansion and query limitation are two known techniques for assisting users to define efficient queries. The purpose of this article is to examine the effectiveness of the two methods.

The research entailed an objective and subjective evaluation of the effectiveness of automatic and interactive query expansion and of two query limit options. The evaluation included both lab simulations and large‐scale user studies. The objective aspects were evaluated in lab simulations with experts judging user performance. The subjective analysis was carried out by having the participants evaluate the quality of, and express their satisfaction with, the retrieval process and its results, thus employing perceived‐value analysis.

The main findings reveal a difference between the perceived and real values of these techniques. While users expressed their satisfaction with interactive query expansion and its performance, the real‐value analysis of their performance did not show any significant difference between the retrieval modes.

The article evaluates the objective and subjective effectiveness of automatic and interactive query expansion and two query limit options.

This paper examines personal and situational factors that may contribute to biases in hiring decisions at the workplace, focusing on willingness to hire male gay or male Jewish ultra-Orthodox Jewish job candidates.

942 Jewish participants in Israel responded to an anonymous online questionnaire regarding a scenario addressing the possible employments of two male applicants: a homosexual and an ultra-Orthodox Jew. A variety of statistical tools, including regression analysis were performed to test hypotheses.

Findings show that social dominance orientation, conservatism, gender and religiosity as well as frequency of contact with the “unlike other” impacted on hiring intention of the participants. These relationships varied in strength and direction with regard to the two applicant types in question.

The explication of the phenomenon in question has both important theoretical and practical importance in a world where – concurrently – there exists increasing contact among individuals from different backgrounds and (perhaps not coincidently) increased signs of wariness of and discrimination toward those unlike ourselves. In light of economic costs related to discrimination – not to mention the personal costs to those discriminated against – organizations must better understand the dynamics of the phenomenon in question.

This is one of the first empirical examinations of the relative impact of personal and situational factors on hiring bias. In addition, it is the first study of its kind in Israel focusing on the mechanisms behind hiring bias toward gay males and ultra-orthodox males.

This paper aims to address the role of product involvement in the brand preference formation of men and women. Product involvement can be defined as a consumer’s motivation for product purchase that affects their information processing strategies when forming a brand preference (e.g. more automatic at low levels vs more deliberative at high levels). Given that gender differences are found to be context-dependent, it was expected that, when forming a single brand preference, men would emphasize instrumental aspects (functional and socially conspicuous utilities) and women the experiential utility of the brand only with high-involvement-level products.

A descriptive survey (n = 459) using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used following an online experiment where involvement level was manipulated (n = 255) to validate the results.

Stereotypical gender differences appeared at high, but not low-involvement levels. Theoretically, these findings question the evolutionary basis of gender differences, as differences were not consistent at both levels.

The findings raise questions about the efficacy of segmenting by gender when aiming to increase brand preference of low-involvement products, whereas stereotypical targeting seem to be effective for increasing preference for high-involvement ones.

For the first time, the role of product involvement and gender was examined in brand preference formation. This can theoretically clarify whether gender differences are consistent or dependent on the level of involvement. This information can help in designing efficient marketing strategies for products with different involvement levels.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the literature on the treatment of primary pupils and inspecting the role of environmental psychology, e-learning, learning style and school design on the behavior of students in elementary schools.

A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the components of the model. Experts with significant experiences in the field of students’ behavior revised the surveys. Data were collected from 400 teachers of the elementary schools in Iran. The SMART-PLS 3.2 and SPSS 22 software package were used in the field of questionnaires’ statistical analysis.

Findings confirmed the suggested model’s validity for elementary students’ behavior assessment. The consequences of this research illustrated the effect of environmental psychology on the behavior of elementary students. In addition, the authors were concluded that intention to e-learning has a significant role in developing the action and behavior of the elementary students. Moreover, the learning style has an affirmative and considerable impact on the behavior of elementary students. Finally, school design has an affirmative and significant effect on the manner of the elementary students.

The consequences of this research have provided some traces about the basic perspectives, which have to be in the center of attention of administrators. For instance, school design and learning style sound to be a decisive mechanism for improving action and learning behavior. In addition, educational leaders may use the findings to evaluate their school facilities and define where developments will have the most significant impact or planners may use the results to assist architects in the design and construction of new educational services.

This study builds a valuable contribution by focusing on pupil environmental psychology, e-learning, learning style and school design in elementary schools by enlightening the connection between them and students’ manner.