Prof. Malka Margalit

Prof. Malka Margalit is a senior psychologist (instructor) in educational psychology and rehabilitative psychology, and Prof. Emeritus of Tel Aviv University. She is currently Dean of the School of Behavioral Sciences at the Peres Academic Center. In 2017, Margalit was announced as the Israel Prize in Education Research. Prof. Margalit was appointed full professor in 1994 and published her research in 5 books, more than 135 articles in international scientific journals and professional book chapters.

She previously held many positions at Tel Aviv University, such as the Head of the Tel Aviv University School of Education, Head of the Department of Education, and a member of the University’s Central Committees as the Appointments Committee and Board of Governors, as well as educational psychological services such as the Schneerson Institute in Tel Aviv and the educational psychological service in Bnei Brak.

Prof. Margalit holds public positions in her field of expertise. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Early Intervention Research, a board member of the Landau Award at the Lottery, and was previously Vice President of the International Academy of Research in Learning Disabilities, a member of a committee planning the National Disability Commander in the Central Bureau of Statistics, a member of the Education Committee, Chair of the Psychologists’ Council, representing the Psychologists in the Health Council, Head of the Educational Division of the Psychological Association, Head of the International Committee for Disability and Rehabilitation of the International Psychological Association, Vice President of the International Association of Special Education, and chairing the Shalem Research Committee.

She is often invited as an international expert in the psychology and rehabilitation of populations with special needs to participate in program evaluation in various organizations such as the European Community, and the Canadian Academy of Research and in Hong Kong. She is the editor of Special Issues for the Scientific Journal of Learning Disabilities and a member of a number of international scientific journals. She chaired a public committee ‘to examine the situation of students with learning disabilities’ (Margalit Committee).
She also chaired the public committee examining the implementation of the Compulsory Education Law (Margalit Committee 2).

In her research, Prof. Margalit examines the experience of loneliness and the contribution of hope theory to adapting young people with and without disabilities and special needs and their families. She uses her research into resilience models and examines the contribution of predictive and mediating variables in development, effective coping and adaptation in addition to risk factors, and addressing individual and systemic characteristics (family and educational systems). She recently engaged in developing targeted intervention approaches to promote hope and effort by perceiving difficulties as challenges and identifying future goals. She is also engaged in research on accommodations for students with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders, as well as research integrating children with special needs.