Professional Learning Communities (PLC) of high school biology teachers
Leading team:
- Prof. Anat Yarden - Head of the Department of Science Teaching
- Dr. Cipy Hofman - Coordinator of the biology teachers PLC
- Dr. Ohad Levkovich - Director of National Center of Biology teachers
- Dr. Moria Ariely- Moderator of the leading teachers’ community
- Rivka Misgav - Moderator of the leading teachers’ community
Secretariat and Administration:
Lior SadeBrief
Biology teacher communities are a place for sharing an innovative and creative thinking about difficulties and challenges in teaching biology.
The biology teachers' communities began operating during 2018. Today, nine regional communities operate throughout the country from the Central District to Beer Sheba in the south. In addition, two nationwide biology teachers’ communities operate online, a media-intensive teaching community and a nation-wide community.
The goals of the Biology Teachers’ Communities:
- Strengthen the relationships between the teachers of the community and bringing together teachers from different religious and secular sectors, Jews, Arabs and Bedouins.
- Provide a stable, supportive and empowering framework for community teachers, and create a safe place for sharing an innovative and creative thinking with an emphasis on the wisdom of the crowd,
- Improve biology teaching while focusing on diagnosing comprehension difficulties of students and providing a tailored response to deal with these difficulties.
- Develop tools for personalized teaching and learning according to the cognitive levels of students in heterogeneous classrooms in various subjects.
- Develop tools to deepen critical thinking on scientific experiments with an emphasis on the meaning of scientific research principles.
- Implementing a combination of digital tools adapted for distance learning into biology teaching.
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.