Grant Amount
NIS 1,700,000
Clinical training for new math teachers in the south of Israel
Clinical Teacher Residency Training Program for 50 Mathematics Teachers of 5-unit Level to Serve in Schools in the Southern District of Israel
Clinical Teacher Residency Training Program for 50 Mathematics Teachers of 5-unit Level to Serve in Schools in the Southern District of Israel
In Israel’s Southern District, the number of students studying five-unit mathematics is comparatively low. In 2012, only 967 high school students from the south took the five-unit mathematics matriculation exam, comprising 13% of students matriculating in the district, as opposed to 24% in the Central District and 25% in the Tel Aviv District. This is caused by a relatively low socio-economic background and the wide dispersal of many small schools that are unable to justify opening classes for small numbers of students. In addition, senior officials in local government in the south report that due to a shortage of teachers, in exceptional cases they are forced to recruit teachers from the center of the country and pay their travel expenses to the south.
Achva Academic College proposes to address these issues by creating a Clinical Teacher Residency Program for 50 new five-unit mathematics teachers who will work in schools in the south and stimulate an increase in the number of students who choose, persevere, and are successful in this course. The college will recruit outstanding candidates with academic degrees in mathematics-based subjects via a competitive selection process. Their training will follow the teacher-residency model in which students participate in practical teaching experiences in schools. They will be closely supervised by master teachers, observe classes, be observed themselves, and receive feedback. The academic knowledge required of them will be intertwined with the practical experience and will be derived from it.
Until now, the foundation has supported the establishment of five such programs at Levinsky, Beit Berl, Oranim, and the Kibbutzim Colleges, and at Tel Aviv University, all of which are located in the north and central regions of the country. The program proposed here is intended to improve conditions in the southern school district and to become part of this cluster network of programs. However, in contrast to similar programs the foundation supports, this one proposes additional emphases and elements (which we do not recommend for support from the foundation grant), as follows:
The students will take part in social activities in the schools in order to train them to be home-room educators.
The Achva Academic College, which serves southern Israel, has some 3,500 students and employs 450 lecturers in a variety of 20 fields. The college has academic and practical experience in training teachers and career changers. The program will be run by the mathematics department of the college’s School of Education, headed by Dr. Marita Barabash, and will be managed by Dr. Tali Wallach; both are mathematics-teaching scholars who received their doctorates from the Weizmann Institute.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 148