Routes to Excellence | British Council

MK Rabbi Shai Piron and Rt Hon Michael Gove MP sign a memorandum of understanding ©
British Embassy in Israel

Signing of the MoU (10 December 2013) between Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove MP and Rabbi Shay Piron, former Minister of Education | Photo Credit: Nimrod Saunders

Routes to Excellence is a nationwide teacher-training programme developed by the British Council in Israel together with the Israeli Ministry of Education to raise the level of English learning in Israel. Routes to Excellence is a 5-year programme supported by a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UK and Israeli governments expected to reach the majority of English teachers in Israel by 2018.

Programme goals

Raise the standards of English teaching in Israel
Deliver standardised needs-based teacher education in line with the approved in-service course framework
Ensure a clear and systematic continual professional development track for teachers

Methodology

Routes to Excellence is built on a cascade model. Ministry of Education Inspectors identify suitable teachers to participate in a training course run by British Council teacher trainers. Selected teachers participate in intensive training to make the transition from teacher to trainer by developing skills in running effective workshops, conducting peer observations and giving constructive goal-oriented feedback through a micro-training model.

Newly accredited lecturers cascade their learning to English teachers by delivering British Council 30-hour in-service teacher training (INSETT) courses for up to 25 English teachers, who receive a Ministry of Education accreditation (gmul) upon completion. The cascade model promotes personal career advancement.

As a result of this training, currently over 300 teachers are taking part in British Council Learning Technologies courses offered in teacher-training centres (pisgaot) throughout the country.

Course registration and information

For free teacher development resources sign up to the TeachingEnglish website- https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development

For further information please email us routestoexcellence@britishcouncil.org.il

Our courses:

Trainer the Trainer - Special Educational Needs (SEN)

Special Educational Needs (SEN) will focus on pedagogical techniques and methods of promoting autonomous learning and ensuring inclusion of students with special needs in your classroom. This course will allow sharing the techniques with colleagues as a certified British Council teacher trainer and will cover the following sections: gifted and talented learners; multi-cultural influences and the impact on learning difficulties; dyspraxia; inclusive assessment approaches; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); autism spectrum disorder (ASD); language and speech difficulties; visual, hearing and physical impairments; dyslexia; social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBDs)

Teachers applying to the course must be approved by their regional inspector and have a background of teaching students with special needs.

English for Teaching 3 (Proficiency)

English for Teaching 3 follows a learner-centred approach which includes both a focus on communicative methodology as well as opportunities for study and analysis of grammatical patterns.

contextualised language input and practice, with opportunities to relate content to participants’ own teaching situations
analysis of target language items
focus on common learner mistakes to determine underlying causes
consciousness-raising approach to language analysis through guided discovery and deductive activities
communicative skills development through pair and group work, class surveys, role play, and classroom games
exposure to different teaching techniques and methods
reflective activities to facilitate learning and improve teaching
hands-on practice through micro-teaching and tasks in the Teacher Development Journal.

Register with your inspector to participate in courses at your local teacher-training centre (pisga) in the coming school year.

Learning Technologies in the Classroom

This course is driven by the underlying principle that activities using learning technologies in the classroom should be driven by pedagogy and not by technology and that students learn languages best through a communicative, constructivist approach.

The course content includes an introduction to Learning Technologies; digital literacies and the interactive web in the classroom; cyber well-being; using Office software for whole-class teaching, pair work and group work; social networking for educational use & mobile learning; evaluating and selecting websites / integrating the web; searching & copyright; learning technologies in low resource contexts; online writing for students and teachers; collaborative writing; and practising listening and speaking with online audio and video.

The course is open to English teachers.

Register with your inspector to participate in courses at your local teacher-training centre (pisga) in the coming school year.

Alternative Assessment for Learning

The Alternative Assessment for Learning course takes teachers beyond traditional testing and explores new approaches to assessment for learning.

The Alternative Assessment for Learning Course covers:

• Understanding the differences between alternative assessment and traditional testing

• Design, planning and evaluation of alternative assessment

• Exploring and using a number of alternative assessment tools

• Integrating alternative assessment into your curriculum

• Taking advantage of the digital tools for alternative assessment

The course is open to English teachers.

Register with your inspector to participate in courses at your local teacher-training centre (pisga) in the coming school year.