New Perspectives in Science Education

Since 2010, the Academic Arab College of Education (AACE) is one of the partners in the TEMPUS-project SALiS (Student Active Learning in Science) funded by the EU. SALiS aims at the expansion and enhancement of science education in formal education by innovating teacher training.  The purpose of the project is to develop new teacher training materials and incorporate them into pre- and in-service training of chemistry and science teachers. The idea is to develop and promote innovative teaching strategies and cognitive functions of teachers for the purpose of professional development.¹

According to the rationale of SALiS and the ultimate goal of the project, science experiments and activities were developed and processed at the College.  They were written in Arabic to suit the target population.  Afterwards, they were translated into Hebrew and English.  The processed / developed experiments were selected from a variety of topics in science such as biochemistry, enzymes, genetics and molecular biology, botany, microbiology, environment (sustainability) microscale chemistry, nano-chemistry, physical chemistry, and more.  In most of these experiments, science teachers participated.  According to testimony from participating teachers, the use of demonstrations allows the transfer of knowledge in a very experiential and relatively simple means, particularly, the use of microscale chemistry.  The experiments were performed in the biology / chemistry lab in the college.  During the process, we used the equipment that was purchased by SALiS budget.  All the carried out experiments of the SALiS project were bound in three brochures that can be distributed to teachers and their students.