Grant amount
200,000 NIS
Instructional Coaching for Thirty New Chemistry Teachers
The program will help new teachers find employment, and will provide them with instructional coaching and support throughout their first two years of teaching
The program will help new teachers find employment, and will provide them with instructional coaching and support throughout their first two years of teaching
In recent years, there is an increasing shortage of chemistry teachers, particularly in the Jewish sector, and as a result there is a decline in the number of high schools which offer chemistry studies. Recent research has revealed that the average age of chemistry teachers in Israel is 51 and therefore the shortage is expected to worsen towards 2018. New teachers report that they are struggling with classroom management and adapting their teaching materials to suit the needs of different students. They claim that teacher training left them largely unprepared, and that they lack support and guidance in their early days of teaching. In most cases, the new teacher is the only chemistry teacher in the school, and is therefore unable to consult with fellow teachers. Consequently, the number of dropouts in their first five years of teaching is high.In response to these trends, the Technion initiated a program several years ago, which allows their alumni now working in industry to acquire a teaching certificate free of charge, over four concentrated semesters. Over the past three years, forty graduates of this program have acquired the chemistry teaching qualification, and some have decided to change their careers and will soon become chemistry teachers. In preparation for their graduation and entry into the classroom, the Department of Science and Technology Teaching at the Technion, in collaboration with the Chief Inspector for Chemistry at the Education Ministry, is proposing an instructional coaching program for three cohorts of new teachers.
The program will help new teachers find employment, and will provide them with instructional coaching throughout their first two years of teaching. The new chemistry teachers will be coached on questions of content–building, sequences of instruction, student learning assessments, adapting the teaching to suit students with different abilities, and confronting dilemmas in performing experiments and laboratories. The program will pair each new teacher with an experienced chemistry teacher who will provide ongoing consultation throughout the year. Classroom observations will be facilitated by an expert teacher from the Technion 2-3 times a year, including the use of video to receive remote feedback. The new teachers will also participate in regional workshops to share knowledge with more experienced teachers, as well as in an annual professional development course provided by the Ministry of Education.
If successful, the project leaders aim to expand it to include new chemistry teachers who are graduates of other higher education institutions, such as teachers who are now trained at the Weizmann Institute and Bar-Ilan University.