The "educational picture" of the Ministry of Education
With the publication of the "Educational Picture" for the upper division by the Ministry of Education for the year 2017, the public is looking at the indicators by which the Ministry examines the success of the educational process in the schools.
The outlines of the picture guarantee a deep mapping of the various areas related to this process, through statistical analysis.
The general impression is that there is an improvement in most of the indicators, as the education ministers surely expect to see. One of the data in the report will even cause satisfaction and pleasure, since 74% of the students are good at school and more than half of them like being there (64%).
If we get closer to the picture…
However, if we get closer to the picture, we will notice that it consists of details that clearly indicate a different and worrying impression in relation to the following three issues:
A. The future of Israeli society, as reflected in the indices relating to the promotion of tolerance towards the other and the different:
The outline indicates an average of 77%, but what verbs does it consist of and what does it mean?
The indicators refer to the integration of all the school's students in the school's activities, to the respectful attitude of the teachers and students "to those who are different" and to the encouragement of students to show tolerance to others and those who are different.
It should be remembered that the education system in Israel by definition is built on the basis of sectoral separation. Measuring tolerance in schools that are already sectarian may create a false impression that a tolerant and inclusive generation is growing up here.
who is the other To what extent are the students exposed to the different tribes in Israeli society? To what extent are activities of multiculturalism and for common existence conducted? These have not been tested. Also in relation to encouraging social and civic involvement of the students, although the Ministry of Education requires personal commitment as a condition for receiving a matriculation certificate, only 63% of the students reported that the school encourages them to take part in this type of framework.
Although 68% report that schools encourage them to show leadership, only 49% of students experience school encouragement to take an active part in civic life. And how many of the students actually do this? What are the results of school encouragement? How many students out of the 53% who reported that the school encourages them to join youth movements, are actually members of these movements?
B. The degree of relevance of the schools to students and Israeli society:
The educational picture actually reflects a traditional paradigm, according to which there is "material" that is conveyed by the teacher and its understanding is tested by the student: in the statements concerning strategies for self-learning, 75% of the students turn to a request for assistance from a student or teacher when they do not understand "material", 60% try to organize the the new "material" in a way that will help them learn and 41% of the students try to expand their knowledge about subjects studied at school. Aren't locating relevant sources of information and formulating questions as a basis for building knowledge more essential questions to examine?
Feedback that promotes learning is a necessary condition, for example, for cultivating high-order thinking strategies - to deepen, question, wonder and penetrate the depth of thinking processes and encourage them. Also in this context, the emphasis in the educational picture is on the teachers who mediate "material" and examine how a student was able to understand or express it in the test: 53% of the students report that the teachers make sure that the students have understood the "material" before moving on, 63% of the students who have difficulty understanding the "material" receive an explanation What can they do and 59% of the teachers write next to the answers in the test what is correct and what needs to be improved.
A sense of competence, curiosity and interest are the cornerstones of active learning. The relevance of learning is reflected in the fact that 44% of the students report that their studies also help them outside of school, 46% feel curiosity and interest and 72% feel capable of succeeding in difficult tasks. What did the drafters of these sayings mean? Isn't it more correct to ask the students and the system in what way the school provides the students with tools to explore, discover creativity in learning and act, for example, in conditions of uncertainty and frequent changes in all life systems? To what extent is there a real dialogue between teachers and students in the areas of the students' curiosity and the interest they show in order for them to be expressed in the subjects being studied? To what extent are the subjects taught in a multidisciplinary approach or to what extent is the "material" for matriculation dictating the questions and answers?
third. The evaluations of the Ministry of Education to train and support teachers and teaching in the complex and changing reality before our eyes:
Education and teaching are done by teachers. There has been a lot of talk about teacher training in Israel and their status, and only in the last few days have we become aware of abbreviated training in light of the current crisis. The picture emerging in this matter is also very worrying.
The indicators about the quality pedagogy in the school as expressed in teaching, learning and evaluation, again reflect an archaic concept of teaching: there is a reference to the fact that in fact only in half of the cases there is diversity in the teaching methods (54%), there is a certain alternative assessment for tests, there is a certain encouragement of the students to learn active (60%), an effort is made to link the "material" to other subjects (59%) and only 45% of the students work on assignments independently.
Self-work and alternatives in assessment, are these the quality practices known to the Ministry of Education? Where is the element of choice, connection and relevance to real life, the integration of different means of learning from near and far, a combination of experience and learning from research arising from curiosity and interest and not as a means of assessment only, joint responsibility of the learner and the instructor for the educational process, the pedagogical flexibility in matters of learned content, the teaching environment and the teaching method?
We were not surprised by these indicators since they depend a lot on the sense of value and the quality professional development of the teachers and their training to lead quality practices in the 21st century.
Although 76% of the teachers testify to cooperative work at the school and 72% are satisfied with the work in general, only 39% of them report on the development of the educational staff at the school. Most of the collaborative work as described is carried out in team meetings, in the joint planning of evaluation tools and in the sharing of plans. but!!!! - The principals help only about 40% of the teachers to plan professional development and offered them improvement goals and only 38% of the teachers reported observations and evaluation designed to improve their teaching.
The education system and school administrators invest effort and resources to provide teachers and students with a pleasant environment and they invest the most of their resources, but in fact they do not find the time to support the teachers and to improve the quality teaching-learning processes suitable for the 21st century. Why were the teachers not asked about the extent of their involvement in planning the curriculum? In the degree of flight that is possible for them, did you cry? To what extent does the school and general system outline clear goals for teacher development in the context of pedagogical changes and their assimilation into teaching?
danger present
Precisely in view of the Corona crisis, the red lights in the areas we touched on indicate a present danger. They point to a system that is capable of creating a pleasant but mainly superficial environment, in which there is no long-range thinking. The transition to remote teaching-learning was imposed on the education system and the transition openly demonstrated all the ills: the concept of "meaningful learning" turned out to be empty of content and "quality teaching" has no clear conceptual or practical compass. The Ministry of Education published zip codes that downloaded "material", makes sure to equip the teachers with "tools" through online training, all of this in the absence of a pedagogical concept and practice for distance learning.
The teachers are alone in the campaign
The teachers are left alone in the campaign when they lack the tools to carry out a real social-pedagogical process, with the sword of anachronistic graduation and the popular statistical indicators hovering over their heads.
This is the time to create a value and pedagogical compass that places basic skills such as: cooperation, communication, innovation and creativity and critical thinking at the center. According to this compass, the moves will be planned for the long term and not as a "band-aid" for the Corona era. And the sooner the better!