Prof. Michal Shany - The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities

Email: michal.shany@edu.haifa.ac.il

CV: See attachment

Link to private website: https://sites.google.com/edu.haifa.ac.il/michal-shany/home

About: I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Special Education and Adaptive Instruction at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, The University of Toronto, Canada. I joined the Department of Learning Disabilities at the University of Haifa in 1998 and was one of the establishing members of the Edmond J. Safra Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities. I am a specialist track lecturer and have been an Associate Professor since 2012. During my time at Haifa, I have: established (in 1998) the Department of Learning Disabilities clinical program, which I have led continually since; established (in 2003) Kehila, the Faculty of Education Clinic for Diagnosis of Children and Adolescents, which I also continue to lead; served as the Academic Director of Yahel, the University of Haifa Clinics for Diagnosis and Research in Learning Disabilities since 2008.

Status: Senior Lecturer (Specialist), Deptartment of Learning Disabilities, Dept. of Advanced and Continuing Studies

Education:

D., Department of Instruction and Special Education, University of Toronto/Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Toronto, Canada
A in Special Education (cum laude), Bar-Ilan University, Israel
A in Special Education, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Research interest:

Profiles of Hebrew-speaking individuals with reading disabilities. My research indicates the existence of subgroups of individuals with reading disabilities, based on a disassociation between the rate and the accuracy of reading and a corresponding differentiation of language and cognitive mechanisms.
Emotional characteristics of readers with difficulties and their parents and teachers, with a particular emphasis on the negative contribution of rumination about RD to academic achievement and on changes in such relationships throughout periods of intervention.
Development of assessment tools. I have been working extensively on the development of assessment tools for both Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking populations.

Teacher training: I led the nation-wide implementation of the “Haifa-Safra Model,” which was developed to train teachers in the process of identifying and providing interventions for students with learning difficulties.

Current Projects:

The Edmond J. Safra-Haifa Model: Empowerment and training for learning disabilities in the Israeli education system.

Doctoral students: Kama Galili, Shira Blicher

The Edmond J. Safra-Haifa Model is an implementation program aimed at increasing knowledge about and awareness of learning disabilities in general, and at training teams in schools to identify and remediate students with reading and writing difficulties. It includes an evidence-based intervention model, which was studied in 100 schools during the years 2009-2012, as well as workshops to provide teachers with theoretical knowledge about learning disabilities, reading and writing assessment tools, and intervention programs. Participants are given guidance in identifying and profiling students with reading difficulties, and in applying the Reading Acceleration Program (RAP), which was designed to improve reading and writing processes. Reading acceleration contributes to the synchronization of brain systems and has been shown to be a central factor in the improvement of reading quality. Manipulations aimed at accelerating reading improve both the accuracy and speed of reading, as well as reading comprehension among adults and children. The acceleration manipulation concept was integrated into a computer-based training program in which the speed of presentation of stimuli (words, sentences, a short paragraph) gradually increased. Since 2012, the Edmond J. Safra-Haifa Model has been integrated into the Israeli education system through teacher seminars at teacher training centers nationwide. Overall, 409 teachers from 202 schools participated in the seminars between 2012 and 2015. Feedback questionnaires from teachers, school principals, and students alike have revealed high satisfaction.

Assessment tools

Our lab is developing an assessment battery of reading comprehension for second- to fifth-graders. The tool is based on the integration of models of reading skills and comprehension (Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Conlon, Zimmer-Gembeck, Creed & Tucker, 2006; Kintsch, 2012; Perfetti & Adlof, 2012; RAND, 2002; Sweet, 2005), and current research on the profiles of strong and weak comprehenders and subtypes of RD. Together with PhD student Shira Blicher, we have developed narrative and expository texts and questions on three levels: linguistic knowledge, simple comprehension, and complex comprehension.

Instruction of M.A Students:

Rotem Einat, Note-taking processes among students in higher education (Supervised with Dr. Orly Lipka)

Mor Tiano, Global/local processing and among subtypes of dyslexia- Grad 4 children (Supervised with Dr. Liat Goldfarb)

Moran Sharvit, The transition from pointed to unpointed orthography among subtypes of reading disability.

Shir-Lee Poran Cheplik, Explicit and implicit expectations of kindergarten children concerning school transition: How are they related to academic and emotional school readiness? (Supervised with Dr. Orly Rubinstein)

Or Wiess , Processing speed impairment in second grade children with selective deficit in reading rate: is it a domain- general or a domain- specific factor? (Supervised with Prof. David Share)

Instruction of PhD Students:

Kama Galili, Reciprocal changes in teacher-child relationships during reading intervention program: A longitudinal study (Supervised with Prof. Tami Katzir).

Nurit Leibovitch, Attitudes of ultra-Orthodox parents to their children with reading difficulties (Supervised with Rivka Izikovitch)

Zofit Vatebo, The contribution of visual processing skills to reading development in the Hebrew orthography: A longitudinal study from preschool to the end of 1^st grade (Supervised with Shelly Shaul)

Bluma Segal, Mothers and their children’s perceptions of their reading engagement: Effects on reading achievement, (Supervised with Tami Katzir)

Shira Blicher, The effect of academic emotions before, during and after reading on reading comprehension among good and poor comprehenders, (Supervised with Tami Katzir)

Degree and Name of the Institution (year)

Publications:

Geva, E., Wooly, W.L., & Shany, M. (1993). The concurrent development of spelling and decoding in two different orthographies. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25(4), 383-405.

Geva, E., Shany, M., & Wooly, W.L. (1994). The concurrent development of spelling and decoding in two different orthographies. Helkat Lashon, 15(16), 29-55. (In Hebrew)

Shany, M., & Biemiller A. (1995). Assisted reading practice: Effects on performance for poor readers in grades 3 and 4. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(3), 382-395. (IF 2010- 1.833)

Geva, E., Woolley, W.L., & Shany, M. (1997). The development of reading efficiency in first and second language. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(1), 119-144. (IF 2010- 1.973)

Shany, M., Zieger, T, & Ravid, D. (2001). The development and validation of assessment tools for basic reading and writing processes: Findings on the functioning of normal readers in different grades and applications for evaluation processes in readers with difficulties. Script: Literacy Research, Theory, and Practice, 2, 167-203. Israeli Association for Literacy in collaboration with Yesod Publishing. (In Hebrew)

Ben-Dror., I. & Shany, M. (2002). Assessing developmental dyslexia in the Hebrew language: Theoretical and practical aspects and a case study. Perspectiva, 23, 69-80. Orton Dyslexia Israel. (In Hebrew)

Shany, M., & Biemiller, A. (2009). Individual differences in reading comprehension gains from assisted reading practice: Pre-existing conditions, vocabulary acquisition, and amounts of practice. Reading and Writing, 23, 1071-1083. (IF 2010- 1.297)

Shany, M., & Geva, E. & Melech, L. (2010). Emergent literacy in children of immigrants coming from a primarily oral culture. Written Language and Literacy, 13, 24-60.

Shany, M., Wiener, J., & Feingold, L. (2011). Knowledge of and preoccupation with reading disability: A delicate balance. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44, 80-93.

Shany, M., & Share, D. L. (2011). Subtypes of reading disability in a shallow orthography: A double dissociation between accuracy-disabled and rate-disabled readers of Hebrew. Annals of Dyslexia, 61, (1), 64-84.

Shany. M., Bar-On, A., & Katzir, T. (2011). Reading different orthographic structures in the shallow-pointed Hebrew script: A cross-grade study in elementary school. Reading and Writing, 1-22.

Shany, M., & Breznitz, Z. (2011). Rate- and accuracy-disabled subtype profiles among adult dyslexics in the Hebrew orthography: Behavioral and ERP measures. Special Issue of Developmental Neuropsychology, 36 (7), 1–25.

Shany, M., Weiner, J. & Assido, M. (2012). Friendship predictors of global self-worth and domain specific self-concepts in university students with LD. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46(5), 444–452.

Prior, A., Goldina, A., Katzir, T., Shany, M., & Geve, E. (2014). Lexical inference in L2: Predictive roles of vocabulary knowledge and reading skill beyond reading comprehension. Reading and Writing an Interdisciplinary Journal, 27(8), 1467-1484.

Jabbour, M., Ibrahim, R., & Shany, M. (2015). The contribution of phonological awareness and naming speed to reading vowelized and unvowelized texts in Arabic. Journal of Advances in Linguistics, 5(2), 704-713.

Ibrahim, R., Mutlak-Dahud, M., & Shany, M. (2015). How does diglossia in Arabic affect the development of morphological knowledge throughout elementary schools? Journal of Advances in Linguistics, 5(3), 735-750.

Kasperski, R., Shany, M., & Katzir, T. (2016). The role of RAN and reading rate in predicting reading self-concept. Reading and Writing, 29(1), 117-136.

Blicher, S., Feingold, L., & Shany, M. (2016). The role of trait anxiety and preoccupation with reading disabilities of children and their mothers in predicting reading comprehension. Journal of Learning Disabilities. [Epub ahead of print].

Asadi I., Khateb, A. & Shany, M. (in press). How Simple is Reading in Arabic? A cross-sectional investigation of reading comprehension from first to sixth grade. Journal of Research in Reading.

Chapters in Books

Biemiller, A., Shany, M., Inglis, A., & Meichenbaum, D. (1998). Factors influencing children’s acquisition and demonstration of self-regulation on academic tasks. In Schunk, D.H. & Zimmerman, B.J. (Eds.) Self-Regulated Learning. The Guilford Press, N.Y. (pp. 203-224).

Arnon, R., Shany, M., & Zieger, T. (1998). Metaphors of teaching – Implications for the counselors’ work. In Lazovsky, R. & Feldman, S. (Eds.) Space and Territory in Educational Counseling. Reches Publishers (pp. 261-286). (In Hebrew)

Shany, M. & Zieger, T. (2002). Development and initial validation of assessment tools for basic reading and writing processes: Developmental patterns and demonstration of applications for the process of evaluating students with reading and writing difficulties. In Fresco, B. & Kfir, D. (Eds.) Continuing Dialogue: Training for Teaching and Educational Endeavor. Tel Aviv: “MOFET” Institute Publishers (pp. 349-380). (In Hebrew)

Arnon, R., Shany, M., & Zieger, T. (2002). Teachers’ thoughts on their profession. In Fresco, B. & Kfir, D. (Eds.) Continuing Dialogue: Training for Teaching and Educational Endeavor. “MOFET” Institute Publishers (pp 54-77). (In Hebrew)

Shany, M. & Ben-Dror, I. (2011). Performance characteristics of poor Hebrew readers: Comparison between children with rate deficits with and without accuracy deficits. In Aram, D. & Korat, O. (Eds.) Literacy and Language: Interrelationships, Bilingualism and Difficulties. Tel Aviv: Magnes Publishers (pp. 409-428). (In Hebrew)

Shany, M. & Geva, E. (2012). Cognitive, language, and literacy development in socio-culturally vulnerable school children – The case of Ethiopian Israeli children. In Leikin, M., Tobin, Y. & Schwartz, M. (Eds.) Israel as a Natural Laboratory of Multilingualism. Springer New York (pp. 77-118).

http://books.google.co.il/books?id=02qz2mjgdJQC&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=In+Leikin.+M

Share, D. L., Shany, M., & Lipka, O. (in press). Dyslexia in Hebrew. In Verhoeven, L. T. W., Perfetti, C. A. & Pugh, K. (Eds.) Developmental Dyslexia across languages and writing systems.

Katzir, T., Markovich, V., Tesler, E., & Shany. M. (in press). Self-regulation and reading comprehension: Self-perceptions, self-evaluations and effective strategies for intervention. In Meltzer, L. (Ed.) Executive Function in Education: From Theory to Practice, 2nd Edition. Guilford Press.