Educational Vision

ASSIST: Advancing Smartly Skills In Science & Technology

Dr. Yaron Doppelt

yaron@israschool.org.il 

National Superintendent of System Engineering Education

Ministry of Education, Technology Education Administration

The education system's purpose is to advance pupils to better academic achievements. However, it is rare to find a teacher claiming that the ideal outcome of learning is 100% of success in the classroom tests. In this presentation we expand a previous study on assessment of project-based learning and design-based learning implemented by teachers. The first study initiated an assessment scale to evaluate Israeli pupils’ documentation of their graduation projects according to De Bono’s Creative Thinking approach. The second study involved 25 American teachers implementing a design-based learning with 5000 students. Three groups of eighth grade teachers were contrasted: teachers who continued to use the established curriculum (N=5), teachers who implemented the reform curriculum without participating in the professional development (PD) sessions (N=5), and teachers who implemented the reform curriculum while participating in the PD sessions (N=13). Results show that design based learning has the potential in assisting educators to teach science concepts and may be promising in reducing traditional achievement gaps. In addition, modes of design thinking were analyzed during the professional development, as well as during observations of pupils’ learning in their classrooms from 10 different middle and high schools. The third study observes implementation of a modified assessment scale which was implemented with 200 Israeli teachers with 100 schools during the last 8 years. Design-based learning was found to be effective in engaging pupils in the learning and assessment processes. The reliability of external different evaluator according to our scale was surprisingly high. We believe that due to continuous professional development with teacher leaders wide and deep comprehension was achieved. Our vision is to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders. Where they learn that technology is more than just assembling engineering systems, where they are engaged in a mentor-based programm which is the sport of the mind that inspire them to learn about gracious professionalism and teamwork. System design learning process is the hardest fun ever for pupils who want to be engaged in the 4th industrial revolution with the skills of the 3rd millennium. In the Bible it was written: “All human were born to AMAL, and children of RESHEF will fly upward". AMAL is the Hebrew abbreviation of:  Creating, Thinking, Learning and RESHEF is the Hebrew abbreviation of: Wishes, Dreams, Actions. So let me conclude our vision for education: To have teachers create learning environments in which they mentor pupils in an active learning process while pupils can develop their creative thinking that foster their ability to fly upward via their actions to fulfil their wishes and dreams. The boundaries of teachers are the creation of such learning environment that widen pupils’ boundaries by their creative imagination which materialized by various optimal solutions to choose for their current project.