University of Haifa

February 19, 2010  Haaretz - Education supplement

A new and exclusive academic program has been established at the University of Haifa that provides studies in peace and conflict management. The M.A. degree provides its students with an understanding of conflicts within and among societies and nations. It is an interdisciplinary program based on theoretical and practical frameworks in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, communications, history, law philosophy and education.

February 19, 2010  Haaretz Education Supplement

Rather than establishing a satellite campus, the University of Maryland has decided to open a faculty-led spring semester study-abraod program at the University of Haifa. “The students are accompanied by a professor from the University of Maryland,” explains Caroline Arends Fuks, Director of Marketing at the International School of the University of Haifa. “The professor teaches a full course and for the rest of the credits they pick from the list of courses that we have to offer.” All the program’s courses are approved for University of Maryland credit.

“What is a clown doing here?” one of the commanders of the Israeli relief team in Haiti asked Dudi Barashi, a graduate of the Medical Clowning program at the University of Haifa, on one of those first horrific days when he was assisting the victims of the earthquake. Even this stern commander smiled when he turned to clown-clad Barashi. “You see! If you are smiling now, when we are surrounded by this tragedy, then I suppose I am doing my work,” Barashi replied.

Today, the University of Haifa is exposing for the first time the unique work that the medical clowns carried out with the rescue team in Haiti. Continue Reading »

In the process of a unique research project, researchers have become co-designers of instructional improvement policies with district leaders. “We have learned much over the past 25 years about how students learn particular mathematical concepts, and about how to support mathematics teachers’ development of effective instructional practices. However, nearly all of this research has been small scale and has involved researchers working directly with teachers and students,” Prof. Paul Cobb explained at a University of Haifa seminar hosted by the University’s Department of Mathematics Education. Continue Reading »

February 21, 2010  Express.co.uk

Now scientists at Israel’s University of Haifa-Oranim have noticed that bees prefer to visit plants that naturally produce microscopic amounts of nicotine and caffeine in their nectar. Professor Ido Izhaki, who led the study, said: “This could be an evolutionary development intended, as in humans, to make the bee addicted.”

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February 19, 2010  Financial Times

Israeli leaders, too, have been highly appreciative. Originally appointed in 2002 by Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister and author of the “knife” order, Mr Dagan has had his tenure prolonged – most recently by Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli leader, last June. “He is seen as very successful, and some even claim that he is the best director the Mossad has ever had,” says Uri Bar-Joseph, a professor of international relations at Haifa University and expert on intelligence matters.

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February 19, 2010  Business Week

Learning a foreign language is easier if it’s taught in the accent of the listener, a new study finds.

In most cases, second languages are taught to adults in the “original” accent of the new language. But researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel found that this method isn’t necessarily the best or quickest way to teach someone a new language. The study included 60 people, aged 18 to 26. There were 20 native Hebrew speakers, 20 former Soviet Union residents who learned Hebrew after moving to Israel, and 20 Israeli Arabic speakers who started learning Hebrew at age 7 to 8.

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February 18, 2010  Haaretz

Last March, a comprehensive study of crime statistics in Israel from 1980 to 2007 was concluded by Prof. Arye Rattner, from the University of Haifa’s Center for the Study of Crime, Law and Society, and by Prof. Gideon Fishman, a sociologist and criminologist who is currently president of Western Galilee College. They found that the influx of new immigrants from the FSU has not increased violent crime in Israel in a way that is disproportionate to their ratio of the population. However, a different trend emerges from an examination of crimes committed by juveniles aged 12 to 18: Here, these immigrants are over-represented in terms of their proportion in the population.

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February 18, 2010  Jewish Exponent

Jewish survivors of World War II who were exposed to the travails of the Holocaust are at a higher risk for cancer, according to a study recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study was conducted by Lital Keinan-Boker of the School of Public Health at the University of Haifa in Israel, who gives credit to Micha Barchana, chief of the Israel National Cancer Registry, for coming up with the concept.

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February 19, 2010  Haaretz

English teachers who are native speakers of that language may wish to consider faking an Israeli accent to help out their pupils, according to the results of a surprising new study by linguists from the University of Haifa. That’s because the research Raphiq Ibrahim and Mark Leikin showed that perception of second language speech is easier when spoken in the accent of the listener and not in its original accent. The study, recently published in the prestigious Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, questions the insistence by many teachers and schools which teach English as a second language, on exposing their students to the languages in their ‘original’ accents.

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