The Hashkafa Program as a Framework for the Professional Development of Teachers: The Perceptions of Principals

ABSTRACT

Professional development communities (PDCs) are professional learning communities for teacher development in schools. Israeli educational reforms made principals responsible for staff professional development and introduced a teacher-led, PDC-based program called Hashkafa for teacher development. The current study examined principals’ views regarding: the teacher characteristics necessary to lead a PDC; the facilitators and barriers to effective PDCs; and the effect of Hashkafa on teacher professional development. Participants were the principals of 17 of the 97 schools participating in the Hashkafa pilot program. Most (13) principals considered the program to have a moderately or strongly positive effect on teacher professional development.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Israeli Ministry of Education for enabling the research to take place.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MOFET Institute.