Mathematics and science teaching in high schools is in unique need of a student-centered approach which can address the needs of individual students
Research has established that student-centered teaching, i.e. teaching that caters to the individual needs and capabilities of each student in the classroom, is highly effective but very difficult to practice, particularly in big and heterogeneous classes. Despite being proved significant, there is little professional development and teacher-training and almost no guidance, school support or data-driven tools for teachers who are interested in creating customized teaching plans for each student or monitoring individual student progress in the classroom.In order to help teachers implement student-focused teaching, Professor (emeritus) Menucha Birenbaum of the School of Education at Tel Aviv University, has developed a methodology whereby teachers diagnose and monitor the progress of their students’ learning as part of their everyday practice. They work as a team in order to use the data effectively; they analyze student data together, conduct ongoing observations in each other’s classrooms; plan shared goals and assessments for teaching and learning; and design future instruction accordingly. This methodology is considered successful; however it has been implemented mostly in elementary schools.
Mathematics and science teaching in high schools is in unique need of a student-centered approach which can address the needs of individual students. In junior high school, all science disciplines are taught as an integrated subject, classes are typically big and diverse and as a result, teachers tend to ‘teach the material’, rather than attend to the needs of each student. This tendency contributes to the low number of students choosing to major in a scientific subject area in upper secondary, and to the high dropout rate from the advanced learning tracks. Mathematics is streamed by ability from junior high school, however, following the initial assessment, there are very limited opportunities for umproving students to be identified and encouraged to move up to a more advanced class.
In an effort to introduce a teaching approach in high school science and mathematics, which is based on ongoing review of student learning progress and focused to address individual needs in the classroom, ‘World ORT Kadima Mada’ (WOKM), turned to Professor Birenbaum to adapt and pilot-test her methodology to suit the concrete needs, specific content and unique challenges of high school mathematics and science studies. WOKM is a non-profit organization, which focuses on science and technology education, and operates in Israel independently of the ORT-Israel school network since 2007. They recently partnered with the Ministry of Education on a sixty million shekel joint venture to provide projectors, computers and tablets to one-hundred schools across the country.
WOKM plans to adapt the Birenbaum methodology to science and mathematics and to introduce it on an experimental basis in twenty out of the one hundred schools in which their technological equipment will be installed. In each of the twenty schools, the teachers of mathematics and the sciences will be organized in subject area teams. They will be taught how to design and implement ongoing assessments in their classrooms; they will test methods in practice and share their insights with their colleagues. Their classroom teaching will be videotaped to allow them to reflect on their practice, individually, with a mentor, and in a team.
An independent evaluation study will document and analyze the project, in order to explore how and to what extent it fulfills its goals. Particular emphasis will be attributed to investigating whether teaching has indeed improved, attention to individual needs of students is increased, learning performance is advanced, and more students are selecting mathematics and science majors. All the materials and tools developed during the project, as well as the findings of the evaluation study, will be fully shared via the ‘Time to Know’ platform, continuously and freely with the professional community, in order to encourage and assist other schools to use them and implement the program.