Grant amount
NIS 135,000
Workshops On How to Use Student Profiles and Personalized Learning Plans in Mathematics Teaching
Three Workshops by Canadian Teachers on How to Use Student Profiles and Personalized Learning Plans in Mathematics Teaching
Three Workshops by Canadian Teachers on How to Use Student Profiles and Personalized Learning Plans in Mathematics Teaching
Middle school students come from a variety of elementary school backgrounds. Sometimes, there are significant gaps in their abilities, which are unknown to the middle school teacher. Therefore, the first months of 7th grade are dedicated to bringing all students to a common starting point. This stage can be frustrating for advanced students and for teachers as well. There are almost no diagnostic tools available, and as a result, gaps tend to persist. Consequently, ability groupings are launched very early on, and students are sometimes misassigned to a level that does not match their potential, because the diagnosis of their abilities is inaccurate.
Other countries struggle with similar challenges. Although schools are not always organized according to the same elementary, middle, and high school structure, all countries have transitions. Ontario, Canada, for instance, resembles Israel in many ways but is one of the world’s top performing education systems both in excellence and in equity measures. In Ontario, elementary school ends in 8th grade, and high school begins in 9th grade. To overcome the challenge posed by this transition, they create an individualized profile for every student, which serves as the basis for a personalized learning plan.
The individualized student profile is a dataset, which provides teachers with the information required to adapt to the needs of each student. The profile includes information about their knowledge and skills, capabilities and difficulties, interests and motivation, learning and thinking patterns, and more. Based on this profile, the teacher then creates a personalized learning plan, in dialogue with the student and the parents. As the school year proceeds, the teacher communicates the progress to the student and parents.
In order for Israeli teachers to learn from the Canadian practice, we approached the Fund for Innovative Education. This organization recently received a grant to help middle school mathematics teachers develop and pilot test with personalized learning plans. We now asked them to invite a Canadian delegation of three middle school mathematics teachers to Israel. We asked Lindy Amato, of the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP) in Ontario, to lead the delegation. TLLP is a renowned program that promotes teacher pedagogic initiatives.
They are proposing a four-day visit, during which the delegation will give three workshops on personalized learning; two for 70 mathematics department heads and middle school teachers, and one for Ministry of Education professionals, educational organizations and local authorities. The workshops will provide practical tools to create an individualized student profile and promote personalized teaching as a tool for improving students’ achievements and for fostering excellence.
Following the visit, a report will be prepared that will summarize the workshops and the practices of personalized learning discussed during the meetings. The report will be published online and distributed among the professional community.