About Her research and Contribution to Educational Research

"The late Dr. Dina Feitelson started out in the academia, when she joined the Hebrew University and had already had several years of teaching experience. Her dissertation (1952) was devoted to a critical analysis of teaching methods in classrooms of faltering children in what were then entitled schools for retarded children.
At the same time, Dina became an independent researcher, when Szold institution appointed her research project coordinator – one of the most important research conducted in the field of education in Israel at the time. The aim of the project was to determine the factors of failure of first grade students. This study revealed Dina's experience in teaching, and her ability to analyze the prevailing teaching practices of the time in a penetrating and uncompromising manner. For this research, carried out before Dina received her Ph.D., Dina has won the Israel Prize for research in education.
In her study, "Failure Factors in the First Grade", Dina adopted unequivocally an etiology that focuses on the cultural differences factor, without underestimating the importance of the difficulties which originate in economic ability. Dina and her colleagues had no doubt that in order to promote immigrant students they should be allowed to acquire tools for familiarity with Western culture and science. Dina saw clearly that the condition for the success of cultural intervention is an intimate acquaintance with the culture of the world. Indeed, it was the next task which earned her the title of Doctor, and which, in many ways, is no less pioneering than the first research project, which has gained such wide publicity.
In Dina's first studies, out of sensitivity to anthropological and developmental aspects, the intensity of the distance between the culture of the immigrant population and the receiving culture is revealed, and the deep chasm between the child's life with his family and the child's life at school, representing the receiving culture, is sharpened. Dealing with this gap will become a primary educational mission, both for Dina and others, in teaching and research.
These pedagogical solutions proposed by Dina obliged a reform in teaching reading. The method that was accepted till then was teaching whole words and that was considered a modern and progressive method. Dina attacked the method in teaching of subjects in which it was considered to be modern and progressive, because in her opinion, this method could not be used for teaching reading or math in the systematic and structured manner that these subjects require.
Dina's important contribution to the teaching of reading relates to what is known today as literacy. Dina perceived reading as part of a wide circle of literacy. Her rigorous practice, over many years, perfecting methods of reading stemmed from the feeling that the failing students' difficulty  in reading stemmed from the lack of reading literacy culture around them. Her proposals for reform in the teaching of reading stem from the recognition that the methods used then in education are not appropriate for students who did not grow up in a literate environment.
Dina's energy was directed to investigating the three stages of reading acquisition. As the years passed, she devoted more of her time to the cultivation of the third stage, the stage of free reading, reading out of pleasure. A research she conducted with her students uncovered basic facts about the prevalence of books in different populations of Israelis. The message which arises from a series of studies Dina initiated and carried out with her students and colleagues is that most of the values of the language used in books can also be, to a certain degree, taught in a compensating manner to the areas of kindergarten and school. Dina opposed the teaching of reading in kindergartens, and found empirical support for this opposition. However, she believed with all her heart that the systematic linguistic activity which can be done in kindergarten may compensate for a literary lack and worked in this direction for years in another one of her projects – the junior section.
The class library project, stemming from the initiative of Dina, is perhaps the most important thing being done today in Israel for the development of literacy. The life and soul of Dina are bundled in the pages of the little book opened to the eyes of infants. "

(From: Shimron, J. (1992), "from the causes the failure to facts and whims – things in memory of Dina Feitelson". Studies in Education, 57-58: 7-14

Rationale of the Jury for Awarding the Prize

"The jury committee for Israel Prizes for educational research has unanimously decided to recommend the Minister of Education and Culture to grant the Israel Prize for Education for the year 1953 to the work of Ms. Dina Feitelson – Shor: "failure factors in children of the first grade". These are the reasons for the committee's decision:
The above study was conducted in a sophisticated scientific method, while maintaining accuracy and caution in looking and deliberate observations; having said that, her work should be regarded as a fruit of understanding and directly observing the child and the unique conditions of education and teaching in our country. In her research, the problem of the failure of children starting their learning is discussed. This problem concerns the fate of thousands of students in our schools.
The conclusions of the study may be used to boost a vigorous examination of the customary and acceptable in this area in of our educational system.
The jury notes that the appreciation expressed in awarding the prize will also apply to Szold institution for the child and youth, for it was with its assistance and guidance that the study was conducted and published in its pedagogical journal".

(Source: Ministry of Education, Israel Prize Division)