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Hashkafa R&D
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Academic Partners
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Community

Teachers

Leaders

Mobilizing knowledge

Districts
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Headquarters-Ministry of Education

Teachers lead learning communities


'Hashkafa'

The Hashkafa [1] Program seeks to cultivate a new professional development culture centered on Professional Learning Communities that are facilitated by leading teachers.

Hashkafa is a comprehensive nationwide program aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning through a change in the professional development culture.

[1] The word "haskhafa" has several interrelated meanings in Hebrew, which reflect the working principles and goals of the Program: transparency—teachers make their teaching transparent; perspective–teachers refine and develop their approaches and conceptions; and observation–teachers observe and reflect on their pedagogy.

Hashkafa’s main goals:

* To establish an effective system of professional development led by teachers.

* To improve teaching practice.

* To improve student learning and achievement.

Currently, approximately 15,000 teachers, from across the education system, participate in Professional Learning Communities in  their schools. Together, these learning communities form a teachers’ professional learning network that is led by teachers, for teachers.

Sharing and communicating knowledge, experience, insights, and resources in a multiplicity of ways opens up novel possibilities for creating productive learning communities and pedagogical discourse. These learning communities enable teachers to engage and collaborate with peers, as well as facilitate connecting theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge. They thereby promote the development of shared insights about how to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

The Professional Learning Communities meet on-site in the schools and focus either on specific disciplines or on a common pedagogical issue. Together, led and facilitated by a teacher-peer, the community members share their professional experience and thinking, engage in inquiry, and develop teaching practices that are related to the school and classroom spaces.

At the heart of the program is the aspiration that, over time, a middle-leadership level will develop at each school that will foster a culture of reflective and collaborative inquiry in pedagogical analysis and planning.

Program Achievements:

In its seven years of operation, the program has attained significant achievements, including:

* Setting-up stable and sustained frameworks of in-school learning in approximately 1,000 schools.

* Cultivating approximately 1,800 leading teachers with facilitation capabilities and practice-based inquiry skills, who serve as in-school coaches and lead peer-learning processes.

*  Development and implementation of effective professional-learning practices, including classroom representations, discussion protocols, Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW), and more.

* Development of various models for implementing Hashkafa’s professional development program, in collaboration with the Education Ministry, school districts, and schools.

Contact Us


If you are interested in learning more about this program or discussing ideas for collaboration, please contact us at: hashkafa@macam.ac.il

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