PREPARING FOR WORK THE ISRAELI WAY

by David Stern

The economy and educational system of Israel are both changing rapidly. Over the past 50 years, Israelis planted 90 million trees and invented efficient drip irrigation methods to grow orange groves and mango orchards along with other fruits and vegetables. Yet agriculture no longer dominates the economy, and accounts for only a small fraction of exports. The kibbutz--a kind of collective agricultural settlement where immigrants taught themselves to become farmers, shared their income equally, and raised children together--no longer sets the tone for society. In fact, kibbutz members are now less than five percent of the total population.

Instead, the fastest-growing industries now include computer software and biotechnology. Israel is a leading supplier of telecommunications and internet software. It is second only to the U.S. in the number of new biotechnology company start-ups. This industrial transformation has been helped by the latest wave of immigration, which in the past 10 years has brought 800,000 people from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Many of them are well educated in mathematics, science, and engineering. The new immigrants represent about 15 percent of the total population, but 30 percent of the employment in high-tech industries.

To prepare young people for work in the next century, Israel is starting with a new science and technology curriculum for elementary and middle school (grades K-9). This builds a foundation for employment and self-employment in a high-technology economy. According to Professor David Chen of Tel Aviv University, technology should be taught not as a study of tools or as applied science, but as a component of human intelligence. The new curriculum for science and technology is built around broad topics such as materials and energy, information and communications, earth and space, the world of living things, and human behavior, health, and the quality of life.

Methods of instruction combine information technology with project-based learning. An example of information technology for instruction is a set of modules developed as part of the new science and technology curriculum, entitled "My Body, Myself," "The Wonderful Language of Nature," and "Touch the Sky--Touch the Universe." Students can develop their own projects using video clips and text from CD ROM, which also provides easy access to internet sites for the most up-to-date information.

Project-based learning can sometimes result in real products for sale or of use to other people. For example, at Meyerhoff Technical College, a high school and postsecondary college associated with Tel Aviv University, high school students in a course on computer integrated manufacturing have designed and built parts for actual industrial use. Another example is at Kibbutz Ein Shemer, where high school students operate a computer-controlled greenhouse and commercial fish hatchery, running experiments on the optimal use of recirculated water.

After completion of formal schooling, the new economy increasingly demands that learning continue. Since classroom training is expensive, companies are seeking ways to promote learning by employees as part of the work process itself. This kind of work-based learning is also of great interest to American educators.[1]

When looking at educational reforms in the U.S. such as tech prep and school-to-work, it can be observed that "learning is centered on the relationships between and among occupations and other subject matter that is integrally linked to the roles adults fulfill throughout a lifetime."[2] This orientation toward learning and work is also reflected in Israel's educational system, which strives to prepare students for work in the coming century. Israel's integration of science and technology, its infusion of information technology into pedagogical practice, and its use of project-based learning all clearly acknowledge the need to link education with a student's future roles of worker and citizen in an ever-changing world.

[2]See Bragg, Enhancing Linkages to Postsecondary Education: Helping Youths Make a Successful Transition to College, CenterPoint Number 5, in press.

David Stern is the director of NCRVE and a professor of education at UC Berkeley.