Tamar College will work with teachers from the Bedouin community to help support their students success
The Bedouin comprise about 3.5 % of the population of the State of Israel, of which 220,000 Bedouin live in the south of the country. Their academic achievement at high school level is weak – in 2014, the percentage of students eligible for matriculation among the Negev Bedouin was 30.3 %, compared with 47.9 % in the Arab community and 70.9 % in the Jewish community. Of those eligible, just a handful sat the 5-unit examinations for physics, mathematics and English. According to a report by the Szold Institute, only approximately 1% of Bedouin eligible for matriculation hold an Advanced-level Scientific Matriculation, although this number has increased from 0.4 % in 2001 to 1.4 % in 2013.
In order to increase excellence in Bedouin high schools, this year, the non-profit organization “Tamar College” was established by businessman and social entrepreneur Ibrahim Nsasra. Having noted the low achievement and high drop-out rates of those students who do choose to study 5-unit matriculation exams, the organization has decided to focus on physics, mathematics and English, and to provide supplementary teaching for students of the 5-unit tracks. Three months ago, they established the “Center for the Advancement of Scientific Excellence”, which offers such courses for 80 tenth grade students from 4 Bedouin schools in the area. The students are provided with 6 extra teaching hours per week by excellent teachers, to help support their learning of 5-unit physics, mathematics and English.
At the initiative of Aviad Freedman, Chairman of the Israel Association of Community Centers, who warmly recommended working with them, Tamar College are proposing a professional development course for 15 teachers of 5-unit mathematics and physics. These teachers are from the four schools which send their students to receive the supplementary teaching, and are responsible for preparing them for matriculation. Over the course of the school year, teachers will participate in bi-weekly meetings (60 hours in total) with mathematics and physics teaching experts, addressing topics such as the use of learning with visual representations, how to use formative assessment tools to gather data on the students’ learning, how to determine student understanding, misconceptions and gaps in their knowledge, and adapt their teaching as needed.
Teachers will also undertake lesson observation and feedback and listen to expert lectures by speakers from Ben Gurion University, the Weizmann Institute and the Technion. The program will be led by Prof. Ismael Abu-Saad, who is a well-respected senior research fellow in Educational Policy at Ben-Gurion University.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 184