Leading team:
- Prof. Anat Yarden – Head of The Department of Science Teaching
- Dr. Moria Arieli – Community Leader Moderator
- Dina Bartov – Community Leader Moderator
- Dr. Cippora Hofman – Coordinator of Biological Communities
- Dr. Ohad Levkovich – Director of National Center of Biology and Environmental Sciences.
Secretariat and Administration:
Shani MotsaBrief
Biology teacher communities are a place for sharing and innovative and creative thinking about difficulties and challenges in teaching biology.
The teachers’ communities in biology began operating in 2018. Today, nine regional communities operate throughout the country from Shfaram in the north to Eilat in the south. In addition, three nationwide biological communities operate in web exploration, a media-intensive teaching and mooc- teaching with films
Goals of the Communities in Biology
- Improve biology teaching while focusing on diagnosing difficulties of students mainly in understanding the molecular aspects and providing a tailored response to deal with these difficulties.
- Develop tools for personalized teaching for students in the heterogeneous classroom in various subjects depending on the level of students.
- Develop tools to deepen objective critical scientific thinking on experiments with an emphasis on the meaning of the principles of research
- Implementing in teaching a combination of highly digital tools adapted for distance learning.
- Provide a stable and supportive framework for community teachers to be a safe place for sharing and innovative and creative thinking on distance learning.
- Strengthen the relationship between the co-teachers of the community and bring hearts closer between different religious and secular sectors, Jews, Arab Bedouin and Druze.
Further reading:
- Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Stoll, L., Thomas, S., Wallace, M., Greenwood, A., … & Smith, M. (2005). Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities (Vol. 637). Research report.
- Buysse, V., Sparkman, K. L., & Wesley, P. W. (2003). Communities of practice: Connecting what we know with what we do. Exceptional children, 69(3), 263-277.
- Mattos, M. W., DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. W. (2016). Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Solution Tree Australia Pty Limited.