2024-12-16 10:54:00
“A teacher’s work week is structured in a wrong way from the ground up,” says Michal Madmon (41), a mathematics teacher for 20 years, and for the last ten years a teacher instructor in settlement education. Mademon also manages a group Facebook dealing with education. “A teacher teaches too much without having enough time to process the lessons she has taught and take new lessons or sit with her colleagues and do peer learning.”
A teacher’s work week in Israel is a combination of face-to-face study hours, ie hours spent teaching in the classroom, individual hours teaching a smaller group, and hours spent preparing lessons, tests reviews. and any work related to the teaching role.
In ‘Ofek Hadad’, the salary agreement for primary and secondary school teachers, there are 32 initial hours and five individual and rest hours. In ‘Oz LaTamura’ there are 24 initial hours, six individual hours and ten hours of waiting. “It takes a lot of energy to build the individual,” says Mademon, “and the hours of waiting are not enough for that. If someone has the image of Mora coming home and putting the pen down, they are wrong .”
According to her, the structure of the working week prevents the development of the teacher. “If a teacher doesn’t have time to process and take the lessons properly, she will choose a lesson she took 30 years ago, regardless of whether she studied an innovative program in further education.”
learning and not teaching
The results of the TIMMS test were published last week in which Israel fell 32 points from the previous test, and was placed in the lowest ranking since 2007, and a week later the PIACC survey was published in which Israel came 26th in mathematics. literacy out of 31 countries, caused a public uproar. The test was conducted among eighth grade students and the survey was conducted among graduates but in overlapping years: the test in May 2023 and the survey in 2022-2023. The question arises what is the explanation for these results.
Minister Kish today (Monday) ordered the director general of the ministry Meir Shimoni to form an inspection team after the results of the test which will be headed by the director general of the ministry, Vice President of the pedagogical administration, the auditor of the ministry. ministry and the chief scientist The Ministry of Education announced: “The goal of the team is to promote a comprehensive investigation and urgent lessons learned, including the formulation of operational recommendations for the implementation of mathematics and engineering (STEM) subjects heads in the education system. in the short term.”
The explanation given by the Minister of Education Yoav Kish for the results of the test in information for reporters is the closed conservative policy of the State of Israel during the period of the Crown. Given the timing of the test after the lockout period, Kish’s explanation could be reasonable. But other explanations come from the field.
Professor Tali Nahaliali (54), head of the program for a master’s degree in mathematics education in the digital age at the Levinsky-Wingate Academic Center, has been involved in teacher training for more than 20 years. “‘They don’t have time to think in class’ – that’s what teachers who went through training that gave them tools to develop mathematical thinking in their students,” she says. “This sentence brings everything up in my eyes. If the students don’t think about school, when will they?”
Nahalieli emphasizes that the blame lies with the system and not with the teachers. “The emphasis in the education system is on teaching and not on learning, and teachers simply introduce without choice. This is true in all subjects, but in mathematics it is particularly noticeable. The reason is that mathematics as the only factor that determines whether I am smart and can work in high technology. The pressure from parents, students, the school and the teachers will make the students sleep and pass. high score but huge show for the students how to solve the problem and don’t give them a proper learning process: give the students time to try Solve the problem, fail and try again, even find a solution in a different way than the teacher.”
According to Nahliali, the students must be challenged. “Last Friday, I met a graduate of ours who teaches in a school for at-risk youth. He told me that his students are having difficulty with the curriculum of the three study units because they increased the number of verbal problems in the program. I. He told him that I think this is an opportunity for his students to learn reading comprehension and that it is our job to teach them.”
Nahliali also comments about the point in time when the TIMMS test was administered – the eighth grade, which is close to elementary school or in some of the elementary schools. “I think the concept of the ‘inclusive teacher’ in primary schools is in our hands.” Nahalieli refers to the policy of training teachers in primary schools to teach many areas of thinking in schools. “There is a great program to study mathematics in primary schools, but it doesn’t matter, because the teachers can’t teach all the areas of knowledge well.”
Another systematic problem is the training that teachers have to do in order to increase their salary. “In my opinion, there should be a need for professional training courses, depending on the profession that the teacher teaches, and not just training courses related to education, which are the majority of training courses provided.”
Nahalieli agrees with Kish regarding the effect of distance learning on achievement, “mainly on widening the gaps between strong and weak students. Distance learning allowed strong students to learn at their own pace and progress in the subject, in compared to weaker students who couldn’t really learn in this way, so the gaps widened as well”.
Mademon criticizes the closure policy, but disagrees that it was the only factor in the test results. “The fun of it is that you can manage a failed closure policy and blame it in hindsight,” she says sarcastically. “I really remember Yifat Shasha-Biton calling above all to flex the policy. In general, the closed policy taught our students not to look for more complicated solutions than that.”
Madmon and Nahliali support Israel’s participation in international tests. “Of course there is a cultural bias that needs to be taken into account,” says Nahalieli, “but this is an opportunity to look at the strengths on the one hand, and on the other hand what we lack. We want to be part of western world in terms of employment and education, and note that we are not reaching a position of comparison with countries around the world in third place”.
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