Access to Opportunity
Nurturing Clinical Teaching Expertise
Inspiring Systemic Improvement
Connecting Partners
Catalyzing a Social Movement
Creating a Shared Language
When all the above conditions are met, the circles of excellence will expand, allowing Israel to close the gap with the top-scoring nations and position itself at a better, more competitive starting point to engage the challenges and opportunities of the second quarter of the twenty-first century. Israeli society will benefit from the impact of improved teaching, which will nurture generations of excellent, ambitious young people, endowed with the tools that will make it possible for them to work to resolve the great problems and challenges we will face.
Vision
Opportunity
Solution
Access to Opportunity
Nurturing Clinical Teaching Expertise
Inspiring Systemic Improvement
Connecting Partners
Catalyzing a Social Movement
Creating a Shared Language
When all the above conditions are met, the circles of excellence will expand, allowing Israel to close the gap with the top-scoring nations and position itself at a better, more competitive starting point to engage the challenges and opportunities of the second quarter of the twenty-first century. Israeli society will benefit from the impact of improved teaching, which will nurture generations of excellent, ambitious young people, endowed with the tools that will make it possible for them to work to resolve the great problems and challenges we will face.
Vision
Human talent is Israel’s most important resource. At first, the talent lay in the pioneers who made the wilderness bloom, and later in the fighters who bravely and tenaciously defended the land, the scientists who made vital breakthroughs in their fields, and the entrepreneurs who created the start-up nation. But nothing lasts forever and today, Israel’s relative advantage is at risk.As a nation built on science and technology, Israel cannot make do with poor educational achievements, specifically a low rate of excellence. This is simply not an acceptable reality, nor is it an inevitable one. Therefore, to position itself at a better, more competitive starting point to engage the challenges and opportunities of the second quarter of the twenty-first century, Israel must close the gap in educational achievements.The Trump Foundation has a vision: to help Israel jumpstart a national process to encourage and nurture excellence in math and the sciences. These are the fields from which scientific breakthroughs emerge; these are the fields that allow innovative technological developments; and these are the fields that will grow many of the solutions to the twenty-first century challenges in medicine, agriculture, security, and environmental protection.We have learned that the potential for excellence is found everywhere in Israel; it crosses all populations segments and communities. We know that, in high schools, there are many girls and boys who want to and are capable of studying math and the sciences at a level of excellence, who would succeed if only we would have the insight to place the challenge before them and provide them with quality teaching.
Opportunity
In the previous generation, the Israeli formula for success was eligibility for a high school matriculation certificate and an undergraduate degree. Today, the market is flooded with those qualifications, and the formula has changed: from eligibility to excellence. The desirable university departments open the doors to highly remunerated employment and give preference to high school graduates with a “high-quality matriculation certificate,” i.e., one that includes five units in math, English, and a science.Excellence is another level of understanding, thinking, and application at which students make smart, creative use of the knowledge and skills they have learned to face a new, complex situation. This ability requires the acquisition of a great deal of knowledge, analytical skills and in-depth learning, as well as personal characteristics of curiosity, initiative, and communicativeness, and a value system of personal and social responsibility.The objective of expanding the circle of excellence is within reach. Many boys and girls are prepared for the challenge, and they include all types of students: Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, those in the country’s center and those in the periphery—if only we would provide them with excellent teaching.If we can manage to do that, there is a sound chance that Israel can stop the decline in the study of math and the sciences and initiate a process of significant growth.
Solution
Many studies have shown that the quality of teaching is the most influential factor in students’ learning. This is why high-performing education systems invest primarily in teachers and in their teaching, and this is why the teaching profession has shifted from a production line, blue-collar trade, to a clinical knowledge-based specialization; from teaching focused on the material, to teaching focused on the student.Excellent teaching occurs when teachers have attained great expertise focused on the learning of individual students. It incorporates in-depth knowledge of the discipline, a clinical approach to teaching, and practical skills. This type of teaching diagnoses the student’s capabilities and difficulties, sets ambitious goals together with the student, adapts itself to the student’s way of thinking and rate of learning, monitors the student’s progress, and provides constructive, supportive feedback.This teaching plays a special role in mathematics and the sciences. These disciplines are abstract and are considered difficult to learn and teach. They require the construction of knowledge and skills in tandem. Learning in these disciplines requires students to understand, go in-depth, and apply their learning at a high level, and necessitates drilling, practice, perseverance, and overcoming difficulties.Therefore, the teacher’s ability to encourage many students to persevere and succeed is a very special kind of task. It is an expertise based on personal excellence and can only be effective if applied thoroughly and systematically, while supported with openness, cooperation, and trust by a community of similar professionals continually striving for improvement in teaching and learning.