The Technion will expand its coaching program for new teachers and will train experienced teachers from their schools to train serve as instructional coaches
Over the past few years, as many veteran mathematics and science teachers have retired, a number of teacher training programs have been established to build the next generation of teachers. One of these programs, “Mabatim”, is a two-year academic program for Technion graduates, which offers an additional degree in Science Teaching free of charge. Initiated and funded by the Technion, today the program enrolls 300 students in two cohorts, half of which specialize in teaching mathematics, physics or chemistry; and half in biology, computer sciences and engineering. All have a broad background in science or engineering and many of them come with relevant and up-to-date experience in industry.Although the program does not formally demand nor expect its graduates to enter the teaching profession, so far, after three years, the program has 114 graduates, 50% of whom are teaching. Nevertheless, many of them report experiencing great difficulty as new teachers, and say that their campus-based training program did not prepare them adequately to cope with the trials and challenges of teaching, including content knowledge, adaptive learning, classroom management, as well as the school environment and its organizational culture.
To deal with these difficulties, which are shared by all novice teachers, the Ministry of Education provides instructional coaching for every new teacher for the first two years. The coaching is performed by an experienced teacher from the same school as the new teacher, who has undergone a 60-hour course. The two teachers do not necessarily teach the same subject, there is no clear framework for the coaching and its scope, and no organized supervision.
Two years ago, the Technion created an instructional coaching program for Mabatim’s chemistry graduates. With support from the foundation and the Ministry of Education, 25 new teachers received coaching by experienced chemistry teachers, over a period of two years. The experienced teachers participated in a professional development course at the Technion developed specifically for chemistry teachers, funded by the Ministry of Education, and in addition to the coaching, the new and experienced teachers took part in lesson observations and feedback, one-on-one meetings, and worked together to form joint products. The coaching and activities were closely monitored by the program directors. Although there is no hard evidence yet, participants have reported their satisfaction with the program, and 40 instructional coaches have registered for the professional development course for next year.
On this basis, the Technion now proposes to expand the coaching program to 80 new teachers of chemistry, physics and mathematics for one or two years, over three cohorts, according to the teachers’ need. Approximately 80 experienced teachers, preferably from the schools of the new teachers, will train to serve as instructional coaches. They will take part in a professional development course of 60-hours, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, on instructional coaching according to subject matter (as opposed to generic).
The training will include skills such as how to observe lessons, how to coach and counsel, and how to provide feedback; and content-based pedagogy, exploring difficulties and dilemmas in content questions and experiments, construction of teaching sequences, setting tests, adapting complex subjects to suit students with different abilities, and classroom management. It aims to prevent new teachers dropping out of the system and will monitor this data over time.