Study on the Mental Skills Required for Excellence Track Students
During our activities over the past decade, we noticed that, alongside cognitive skills, students in excellence tracks also need mental abilities. For some, the excellence class is the first instance in their lives where they are studying with better-performing peers, confronting learning difficulties, and sometimes even facing the need to overcome failure. They are expected to demonstrate continuous curiosity and motivation, and reinforce the challenging learning process with grit, perseverance, and resilience.
To enhance these mental skills, the foundation approved a portfolio of grants for mathematics and physics teachers of the five units tracks in high school. These programs aimed to influence the teaching practice of teachers, by employing methods of positive psychology, growth mindset and calibrated motivation. The intended result was to help teachers shift from the traditional selective approach of early tagging of student abilities to a clinical approach that gives a chance even to struggling students. The measurable outcome of this activity was a reduced dropout rate from the five-unit tracks.
At present, we see these emotional dimensions become a bigger concern because of the pandemic and the war. As we plan to elevate the bar of excellence with highly advanced content related to machine learning and artificial intelligence, we fear that these hurdles will change patterns and even increase learning gaps. This concern relates to all students in excellence tracks, particularly those who are more vulnerable in the social periphery, the Arab sector, and female students.
To address these emerging gaps, we approached the Sagol Center for Brain and Mind at Reichman University. The Center is an expert in translating cutting-edge brain research into psychological and educational tools. Its education branch operates training programs for schools of diverse communities across the country, providing principals, teachers, and counselors with advice and techniques to strengthen the emotional competencies, motivation, and resilience of teachers and students.
Sagol is proposing to conduct a thorough study to identify the specific mental skills that are required by Israeli students in excellence tracks. The study will seek to answer the following questions:
Initially, Sagol will prepare a literature review to identify emotional skills common among high-achieving students. They will do this while scanning for excellence programs worldwide and learn from their best practices. The second stage of the study will include interviews with 15 Israeli school principals and 15 teachers of excellence classes from all sectors of society. These interviews will help identify effective implementation strategies and differences between various groups.
The output of the study will be a report detailing insights and recommendations for teaching these skills to excellence track students in Israel in high and middle school. This report will be discussed at the foundation’s Advisory Council meeting in November 2024 and will form a basis for a joint discussion between the foundation and the Center about next possible steps.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 579