Stops on the ZLSB trip through Israel's educational landscape

Educational stakeholders from the ZLSB at TU Dresden and LaSuB Dresden traveled to Israel in June 2023. Stops on the trip included the teacher training Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv, the ORT Braude College of Engineering with a focus on vocational education in Karmiel, and the Tabeetha School in Jaffa, where a student teacher from TU Dresden was currently completing a three-month internship.

If you look at the homepage of our long-standing partner institution, the Kibbutzim College of Education (KCE), you will find words of guidance from the Rector, Prof. Dr. Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt. She emphasizes that the college reflects the "unique world view as an academic institution".
The KCE was founded back in 1939 as an initiative of the kibbutz movement. The aim was and is to design and develop a training facility for school and pre-school teachers that encompasses the ensemble of school, community and nature. Around 6000 students are now being trained at the KCE. This means that every fourth teacher in Israel is a graduate of the KCE.

The relationship between the KCE and the ZLSB has existed for several years. Cooperation is maintained in teaching and research as well as in the area of student and staff mobility (project: IMPRESS). In May 2023, the International Networking Days took place, at which partners of the KCE were guests. This year, the focus of the visit to the KCE was on exploring its media didactic possibilities. The ZLSB stakeholders were introduced to an interactive room for projecting a three-dimensional illusionary world (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). The group experimented with tasks for finding different places and landscapes on earth in the virtual world for geography or science lessons and created small pieces of music in the style of Bach for music lessons. On the other hand, the participants from the ZLSB - guided by Reuben Bareili (Maker Education Evangelist and Head of Design & Makerspace at Pedagogical Innovation Center in KCE) - determined the route of Lego vehicles between start and finish in the makerspace under computer control. Mr. Bareili gave a very practical explanation of the techniques of "critical thinking" as a form of 21st century skills for successful students.

© Peggy Germer

In addition to technology, the areas of people and nature completed the basic scientific areas on the tour through the KCE. The group of educational stakeholders from Dresden experienced the connection between people and nature, e.g. in the sense of a pedagogy of mindfulness, for example in the context of a special workshop on contemplative pedagogy with Dr. Neta Bar Yosef (KCE). In a yurt available for courses on the KCE campus, she used mindfulness exercises and thoughts on a poem by Zelda to explain how literature and self-awareness can be combined for one's own self. This could be a conscious way of counteracting the stress of everyday life - especially for student teachers.

© Peggy Germer

A campus tour of the Pedagogical Innovation Center made it clear that Kibbuzim College focuses both on slowing down through mindfulness for each individual, but also on consciously dealing with digital transformation.

© Peggy Germer

The Tabeetha Jaffa School was the second stop on the visit to Israel. The school is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year. Around 330 pupils from more than 40 different nationalities learn together here from elementary school to high school, regardless of religion, culture or language. The language of instruction is English and the school concept is based on the English education system.
The ZLSB of TU Dresden provides support and guidance for student teachers during their internship. At the Tabeetha Jaffa School, the ZLSB stakeholders met with Sanya Erbacher, a student from the 6th semester of the English/WTH/S teaching degree program at TU Dresden, who was currently teaching and interning there for a few months. She enthusiastically reported on how her stay in Israel had shaped her and that she would like to try out different didactic and methodological approaches of the Israeli (foreign) school in Germany.

Kate Freedman (Head of Primary) gave the ZLSB group a very practical insight into the teaching-learning rooms and individual classes and answered many questions from the German participants. The visit to Jaffa School ended with an impressive tour of the building's history, including information about a special box of cookies that Thomas Cook always sent here at Christmas and about famous personalities such as Bryan Adams, who spent part of his school years here due to his father's military diplomatic service.

To reach the last stop of the educational trip through Israel, the ZLSB stakeholders traveled by train (Waggonbau Görlitz, by the way) across the country to the north to the town of Karmiel. The Braude College of Engineering, which has been in existence since 1995, is located here in picturesque surroundings. It is primarily dedicated to education in engineering and other technological fields and is characterized by teaching-oriented study programmes with various universities abroad.

© Peggy Germer

Together with the long-standing partners, the group from Germany discussed research approaches in the field of digital education and the initiation of possible internship mobilities for the vocational teaching profession. Dr. Miri Shacham (Senior Lecturer, Teaching Department and Center for Teaching and Learning), Dr. Yael Furman-Shaharabani (Senior Lecturer, Head of Practicum, Department of Teaching and General Studies, Braude College of Engineering Karmiel), Dr. Dan Cuperman (Braude College of Engineering, Senior Faculty Member), and Dr. Ira Raveh (Department of Teaching and General Studies) presented a study in which they examined the relationship between the use of digital teaching methods and lecturer stress. The quote presented by an Israeli teacher vividly reflects one reaction: "Jumping into online-teaching from face-to-face-teaching is traumatic..."

© Peggy Germer

Findings from the last semester are to be evaluated in a comparative study. The successful further development of successful digital teaching with BQL.Digital of the ZLSB of TU Dresden is planned for the following semesters.
Together with colleagues from ORT-Braude College, the group from ZLSB visited the Advanced Manufacturing Institute after the exchange of experiences and was informed by Dr. Uri Ben Hanan (CTO) and Merav Grossman (CEO) about "Industry 4.0" in practice.

© Peggy Germer

The interaction of science education (starting with kindergarten) and the development of partnerships with educational institutions to arouse interest in technical professions was central.

The exciting exchange between the ZLSB and the Israeli educational partners on this trip not only raised new joint research questions, but also showed how important it is to continue to intensify relations and work together on forward-looking projects in the field of teacher training.