PD-HMD: Professional Development for Heads of Mathematics Departments

(Funded by the Trump Foundation and the Ministry of Education)

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are known as a particularly effective organizational form for the professional development of teachers. There is a broad vision that school mathematics departments should function as PLCs led by the heads of the departments (in Hebrew, rakazim). The PD-HMD project is designed in order to help this vision materialize. To this end, the PD-HMD develops and supports municipality-level PLCs for present and future heads of middle-school mathematics departments.

In these communities, the participants enrich their mathematical and pedagogical knowledge and develop leadership skills. Both the content and the process of learning in these PLCs aims to provide a model for the school heads of mathematics departments to draw on in leading their local communities. The project offers 60-hour and 30-hour PD programs. Each PLC is led by a WIS researcher and a representative of the local community. Evidence of dissemination of innovative teaching practices in participating schools serves as the main success criterion in the project.