This issue was one of the main goals that directed my career as a chemistry teacher, chemistry education researcher, and mentor of chemistry teachers. I wanted to help my graduate students as well as my high school chemistry students to gain a sense of ownership and recognize that they are professionals. In addition, supporting teachers in broadening their knowledge by linking chemistry to societal issues, economic issues and to other disciplines such as biology, physics, and history. I always believed, that by giving light and warmth to students, teachers and early career researchers, together with international collaborations, we may set them on career paths in chemistry that in turn may impact many others all over the world.
In Israel, over a span of more than forty years as a previous chemistry high school teacher, and as a scientist in chemistry education in Israel, at the Weizmann Institute of Science, I was teaching high school chemistry students in a disadvantaged region; conducting professional development programs for chemistry teachers; teaching chemistry and chemistry education courses for graduate chemistry students; advising and supervising graduate chemistry students. Over two-thirds of the students and teachers were women, and almost 20% of them were from the Arab sector of Israel.
The high school chemistry students that I taught were raised up in families from low social economic situation. Teaching them advanced chemistry, based on relevant and everyday happenings, together with care and personal teaching and learning strategies, helped in raising their motivation towards chemistry studies, as well as their self-efficacy.
Three programs will serve as examples for workshop and professional development programs for chemistry teachers in Israel:
- Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) for chemistry teachers and the Rothschild-Weizmann MSc Program for excellent chemistry teachers. The research findings show that these activities carried out in Israel, through international collaborations, impacted teachers and students of the Jewish and Arab sectors, including those on the West Bank.
- An MSc program for excellent chemistry teachers (Rothschild-Weizmann MSc Program). Each year since 2008, continuing today, I taught chemistry students (from all sectors in Israel), who are current high school teachers seeking knowledge and support for their careers. So far, almost 100 chemistry teachers have undergone this program, while most of them are women.
- A ten-years professional development chemistry program for biology teachers in the Upper Galilee: Preparing biology teachers to become chemistry teachers, due to shortage of chemistry teachers in this region (1989-1999). 40 teachers (80% women) participated in this program. This program served as a model for an additional similar course at the Weizmann Institute, due to lack of chemistry teachers in Israel.
My international collaboration also consisted of workshops and seminars for chemistry scholars as well as for teachers, as well as of studies about women’s careers. For example:
- A three-year European project “Addressing Attractiveness of Science Career (SciCar)”, IUPAC Gender Gap Committee, in which I was a member, offered recommendations for developing initiatives to encourage suitable environments for women’s careers in chemistry.
- I was a mentor in NARST Early Career Institute (ECI), aimed at supporting scholars who are beginning their careers
- During October 2013, I participated in an exhibit created for the Museum of the Civilizations of Europe in Marseilles. In the exhibit, nine women from the Mediterranean countries (including me) told their life stories in a filmed monologue, screened on a wall in the museum.
In summary, my experience over the years convinced me that loving my profession, and believing in what I am doing, are the main components to success. The passion to research a domain in which I am involved with my mind and with my soul, kept me moving on even when I faced difficulties. I am happy that I managed to cover a variety of chemistry education research and practice components, including the work done with students, teachers, and policy makers. I always felt the importance of stressing the point of education through chemistry, and not just teaching or learning chemistry.
