Chemistry Teachers’ Communities
The network of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for chemistry teachers was established to support in-service high school chemistry teachers. Dr. Shirly Avargil’s chemistry education research group, in association with the unit for support of novice teachers at the Faculty for Education in Science and Technology, coordinate activities for chemistry teachers who work in northern Israel.
This PLC network was formed according to the “Fan Model” (Levy et al., 2020), shown in the figure below. The network includes a “Leading Teacher Community” (LTC) that groups senior teachers as the basis of the network. LTC members lead “Chemistry Teacher Communities” (CTC) that include chemistry teachers who meet close to their homes.
Northern Israel’s PLC network centered at the Technion includes five communities: a Leading Teacher Community (LTC), and four Chemistry Teacher Communities (CTC) that meet in Haifa, Nazareth, Maghar, and a regional community for teachers in rural areas.
These communities have continuously met face-to-face or via Zoom since 2018.
Members of the network represent various factions of Israeli society: both Hebrew and Arabic speakers, secular and religious, native Israelis and newcomers to the country.
During community meetings members examine high-quality, innovative, and challenging chemistry teaching topics, while empowering and strengthening their professional identity. They discuss issues related to content knowledge, and common difficulties encountered in teaching and studying chemistry. While sharing reflections and opinions, they collaborate to suggest ways to address challenges they face in class. By sharing teaching practices, and personal experiences with students, members enrich and expand their knowledge, expand, improve, and refresh their class practices.
Special time is dedicated to refreshing, socializing, and informal conversations. The personal and professional relationships formed among teachers form a network of support for all members, especially novice teachers and teachers who are the only ones teaching chemistry in their school. The importance of the teachers’ support in the PLCs was very important during the lockdown periods imposed during the COVID-19 crisis, as the activities continued by Zoom.
Source: Levy, S., Bagno, E., Berger, H., & Eylon, B. S. (2020). Motivators, Contributors, and Inhibitors to Physics Teacher-Leaders’ Professional Development in a Program of Professional Learning Communities. In Y. Ben-David Kolikant, D. Martinovic, & M. Milner-Bolotin (Eds.), STEM Teachers and Teaching in the Digital Era: Professional Expectations and Advancement in the 21st Century Schools (pp. 159–184). Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
