Grant amount
NIS 200,000
Video-Guide to Physics Teaching for New Teachers
350 hours of physics tutoring and instruction will be edited, catalogued into short clips, covering all topics of the curriculum, and uploaded to an online database
350 hours of physics tutoring and instruction will be edited, catalogued into short clips, covering all topics of the curriculum, and uploaded to an online database
Twenty-five years ago, Haim Harari, then President of the Weizmann Institute, prepared a report for Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Foundation) on the future of science education in Israel. This report set the basis for a public committee, appointed by the Ministry of Education, which recommended on a substantial reform. With significant supplementary budget, the Harari reform (`Tomorrow 98’) concentrated on preparing cutting edge curricular material for K-12 education by the universities; combining and integrating between the sciences (physics, chemistry and biology) in middle school; and creating teachers’ centers for professional development across the country.
One recommendation of the preliminary report was to establish city-based centers of expertise in which the teaching of 5-units in physics and chemistry will take place. The Hemda science-teaching center, created at the time by Yad Hanadiv with leadership from Haim Harari, was a prototype realization of this idea. In Tel Aviv, most high schools do not offer in-campus teaching of physics and chemistry; rather send their students to a state-of-the-art facility to study with teachers of very strong scientific background. As a result, 1,400 high school students are currently enrolled in Hemda, which is considered a pioneer innovation.
A few years ago, the Weizmann Institute decided to help create additional such centers, starting with its own local surrounding. The Schwartz-Reisman Science Education Center, was founded in 2013 within the Weizmann Institute campus to serve as a teaching center for physics for the cities of Rehovot and Nes Ziona. Ronen Mir, who headed the Haifa science museum was appointed director, and Eli Shalev was nominated as chief of pedagogy. Shalev is a renowned physics teacher, a finalist of the 2014 Trump Master Teacher Award and a frequent member of the foundation’s Grants Committee. Shalev is also the lead instructional coach at the `teacher-researcher’ induction program at the Hebrew University.
A few months ago, Shalev turned to the foundation with a request for assistance. He said that in training the teachers for the new center, he videotaped 350 hours of tutoring and instruction. The footage includes pedagogic support on content knowledge issues, experimenting with a variety of instructional styles, diagnostics of student thinking and customization of teaching techniques. Shalev proposes to upload the material to an online database. The movies will be edited and catalogued into short clips, covering all topics of the curriculum. They will be searchable and tagged for easy use, and accompanied by a forum where teachers can ask questions and receive responses.
It is hoped that new, and even experienced teachers across the country will find the material useful and that training programs will chose to use it in their workshops and courses.
* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 224