Professional Learning Communities (PLC) of Chemistry Teachers
Leading team
Project members
Summary
The chemistry teachers’ PLCs were launched in 2015 as the result of a joint initiative of the superintendent of Chemistry, Dr. Dorit Teitelbaum, and the Chemistry Group in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute. Since then, for the last six years, the chemistry teachers’ PLC project has had a significant impact on the field of education, and it is one of the most valuable factors affecting the professional development of chemistry teachers. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education and is supported by the Trump Foundation.
We conduct a continues research in the frame of the chemistry teachers’ PLCs and study different aspects of teachers’ PD: Knowledge development, sense of community, the identity of the leading teachers and the differentiated impact of the PLC on teachers at different career stages.
Administration
Links for further reading
- The website of the chemistry group
- The website of the National Center of Chemistry Teachers
- http://chemcenter.weizmann.ac.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/30-25-35.pdf
Publications
- Waldman, R., & Blonder, R. (2020). A sense of community in a professional learning community of chemistry teachers: A study of an online platform for group communication. 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. 111-139). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-29396-3
- Blonder, R., & Waldman, R. (2021). The role of a WhatsApp group of a professional learning community of chemistry teachers in the development of their knowledge. In A. Information Resources Management (Ed.), Research Anthology on Facilitating New Educational Practices Through Communities of Learning (pp. 820-843). Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global.