Since the 1990s, Israel relied on a generation of excellent mathematics and science teachers, a large proportion of whom immigrated from the Former Soviet Union. However, with time, they have naturally retired. As a result, a shortage of teachers has grown during the past decade, which was among the significant factors contributing to the decline […]
Middle school students need a solid foundation of mathematical knowledge in order to advance to higher order problems. For example, the PISA test that diagnoses the applied aspects of mathematics, relies on a common global denominator of both knowledge and technique that is shared between 15-year-old students from across the world. However, in Israel, parts […]
Over the last couple of months, a select group of six mathematics master teachers has been convening for a joint learning process. By initiative and with support from the foundation, and academic guidance by the Levinsky College of Education, the group met for three workshops. In these workshops, they jointly analyzed PISA assignments and academic […]
A year ago, the foundation launched its new roadmap for middle schools, aiming to help Israel reach the top 15 excelling countries in mathematics performance. The roadmap requires the development of new learning materials and pedagogic tools, assisting teachers to adapt their practice, opening more excellence classes in middle schools and engaging policy makers and […]
The foundation’s roadmap for middle schools sets the goal for Israel reaching the top 15 excelling countries in mathematics, as measured by the PISA research. One significant milestone in advancing towards this goal is to expand the circle of excellence in middle schools. Specifically, we aim to help raise the rate of students in excellence […]
Israel’s vibrant high-tech sector constitutes a unique opportunity for education in Israel. Not only that dreaming about a future career in high-tech is a motivational driver for students, veteran engineers comprise an exceptional pool of talent for new teachers. When PISA is concerned, the issues that high-tech professionals meet on a daily basis hold a […]
The results of the 2018 PISA assessment revealed that only 8.8 % of Israel’s 15 year old students meet the test’s standards of excellence. Although a much larger rate of students learn in the highest ability group of mathematics in middle school in Israel, the curriculum and teaching are typically geared towards procedural fluency and […]
The PISA mathematics framework emphasizes the way students apply their mathematical knowledge in real life contexts. It requires conceptual thinking skills that allow knowledge transfer from familiar to unfamiliar circumstances, inducing meaningful conclusions from raw data, and the ability to solve a complex problem by using a mathematical model. Teaching these notions is not the […]
The city of Beit Shemesh, located in the outskirts of Jerusalem, has approximately 130,000 residents and is home to a very diverse population. A growing ultra-orthodox Jewish community comprises 65% of the residents and half of the population is under 18 years old. The education system in the city includes 43 middle and high schools, […]
The results of the 2018 PISA international research of education systems were released in December 2019. These troubling results for Israel led to a public outcry in the media. Israel declined in its average mathematics score, the gaps are wide and excellence levels decreased from 9.2% in 2015 to 8.8% in 2018. These results are […]
The city of Netanya has a population of about 250,000 residents, of which 75,000 are new-immigrants. The city’s 19 middle and high schools include state, state-religious, ultra-orthodox and special education schools. The social mosaic in the city leads to differences in the socio-economic status and academic performance between neighborhoods and schools. In the city today […]
When schools closed at a moment’s notice three weeks ago, teachers and students were expected to immediately make a transition from the physical classroom to online learning. Not without difficulties, many teachers rose to the occasion and are now using available platforms and tools. The Ministry of Education, school networks, education organizations and municipalities are […]
There is a handful of middle school mathematics teachers in Israel and abroad that already developed learning assignments using the context of the Corona pandemic. They created growth scenarios by devising formulas that take into consideration multiple variables, calculated effective social distancing measures according to known characteristics of the virus, and used algorithms to mine […]
Mathematics teachers who are now teaching online, report that they notice a growing gap between the synchronous lessons and the homework assignments. In the plenary classroom lesson, the microphones of the students are typically muted, while the teacher lectures by talking and demonstrating on a shared screen. From time to time, the teacher allows for […]
In an internet-based questionnaire we conducted last week among 147 mathematics teachers, the majority raised their need to join professional learning communities of teachers who are now also teaching online. They said they are overwhelmed with marketing proposals to use a variety of online learning material and technological platforms of diverse quality. They indicated that […]
The program will be based on the international Kangaroo initiative in mathematics, which offers competitions in mathematics for students around the world. The proposed program includes 30 mathematical riddles aligned with the 3-6 levels of PISA. The riddles will be presented over two weeks as a competition that will be introduced in two rounds and […]
The program includes the preparation of two daily online events over four weeks, comprised of mathematical riddles, aligned with the PISA mathematics framework. Topics will include proportions and statistics, relying on a refresher course that is currently in development by the Center. In each live event, riddles will be presented, on gradual levels of difficulty. […]
The program aims to attract middle school students to participate in competitions based on the PISA mathematics content. Students will be divided into groups of five according to their grade level. In the group, they will electronically meet with a teacher who will engage them in a very complex mathematical problem. The group that will […]
The program will present a daily mathematics riddle in the morning show of Channel 12 TV, the most popular channel in Israel. The very difficult riddles, based on real-life challenges, will be prepared by Oded Margalit, the Vice President for Research and Development of IBM in Israel, in collaboration with additional scientists, such as Dan […]
In the past 15 years, the five-unit matriculation exam in mathematics gradually incorporated more in-depth questions that require deep understanding. These questions demand high-level mathematical thinking skills and are therefore considered very difficult. The Ministry of Education orchestrated this shift, in order to adapt to a change in perception of what mathematics studies in high […]
The Trump Master Teacher Award was established in 2012 in order to recognize excellent teaching of mathematics and the sciences in Israel’s high schools. In alignment with the foundation’s strategy, the prize committee concentrated on identifying the best teachers of the five-unit tracks, particularly those who practice student-centered clinical teaching and lead professional learning communities […]
The results of the 2018 PISA assessment, published in December 2019, caused a big public concern. It revealed that Israel is still lagging behind, as excellence-levels are low and gaps are wide. Other countries, such as Poland, Norway and Estonia, that elevated the level of teaching and learning in middle school, have moved up significantly. […]
Kfar Kana is a small Arab city in the northern district of Israel located in the Lower Galilee with a population of 22,400, and 2,527 students attending middle and high schools. There are two middle schools in Kfar Kana, in which 25% (116) of the students graduate excellence classes in 9th grade. However, only 10% […]
Mathematical Reasoning, which is the capacity to formulate, employ and interpret mathematics to solve problems in real-world contexts, is the core of the PISA framework. Central among these contexts are issues that are facing humanity today, such as global warming, the growth of population, the scarcity of food, water and energy, and many more. The […]
The PISA assessment is taken by 15-year-old students in 79 countries, and is based on their common denominator of mathematical content knowledge. For Israel, it means that the PISA mathematical content is equivalent to what is mostly taught in 8th or 9th grades. The reason for this, is that the goal of PISA is not […]
A recently commissioned study found out that there are almost no learning materials available to middle school teachers that support high order and applied thinking skills in line with the PISA excellence levels. The mathematics curriculum in middle school is focused on procedural fluency and has almost no room for these advanced skills. Teachers therefore […]
Once every two years the Trump Foundation convenes its International Advisory Council, a voluntary body chaired by Lee Shulman and comprised of education researchers, education policymakers and teachers from Israel. The goal of the council is to provide the foundation with insights concerning the advancement of our philanthropic roadmap and to offer feedback, critique and […]
The PISA 2021 mathematics framework focuses on how students formulate and apply mathematics knowledge and thinking to solve problems in real-world contexts. The higher levels (5-6) of PISA require students to confront complex situations by identifying and selecting the most effective mathematical models, using advanced computational thinking, running simulations and evaluating their solutions in comparative […]
In a survey of middle school students commissioned by the foundation in March 2018, the students said that computer science is the third most important subject for their future, after English and mathematics. However, today only a minority of students, those who study in excellence classes, learn basic coding, algorithms and computational thinking in middle […]
Israel’s middle school students are still falling behind their peers in OECD countries in the PISA mathematics tests on their average score, the high ratio of struggling students and the low rate of excelling students. The increase in the number of high school students graduating the five-unit tracks, has not yet trickled down to middle […]