[etni] Re: Three cheers for the NBA

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Avi Tsur wrote: 
 
Is it from following ETNI and the same 4,5 or is it 6 gripers who never tire to 
say the same thing over and again and who think they have a following from here 
all the way to ..... well heaven knows. Yes, Ronald and others. The NBA is 
working. Why don't you talk 
to the pupils as well as to the teachers but do so in the schools where the NBA 
is being implemented properly. It is refreshing to hear the kids and yes I hear 
many more teachers who are in favor of rather than against. You may ask where 
are they. Well unfortunately the majority are a quiet group of dedicated 
people/teachers doing the job and getting on with it. They are the ones who 
gave the NBA a chance and even though there may be obstacles are 
working out the problems. <SNIP>
 
Since I think that my posting was what started this latest thread (although 
there have been plenty of others that I had nothing to do with - I promise!), 
I'd like to just respond to some of the reactions. First, I don't know how 
others perceive me, but I don't consider myself one of the "4, 5 or... 6 
gripers" that Avi mentioned. While I've been negative about plenty of NBA 
issues, such as native speakers' performances on the Bagrut exams, our 
increased workload, doing projects without computers etc., I also haven't 
hesitated to present the positive sides of the NBA. For example, I believe that 
I was one of the first on this list to post a very long and (mostly) glowing 
account of my first experience with projects, and I later posted another such 
message about another project I did. I'd like to think that I can take a pretty 
objective look at the situation and pick out the advantages and disadvantages 
of the NBA, because guess what? Every single teaching / testing method has i
 ts
 advantages and disadvantages - the question is only what outweights what, and 
whether there's a way to negate some or most of the disadvantages in order to 
make the method even more attractive. Therefore, I think that if we just 
accepted the NBA as is didn't discuss the problems that crop up as we implement 
it, we would be doing ourselves and our students a great disservice. Again, I 
don't think that presenting the NBA as totally evil or entirely perfect is the 
way to go. Let's try to analyze what's working and what's not, and what we can 
do to change it. Even if we can't change those things ourselves, at least we 
can make ourselves heard...
 
Now, taking a deep breath after that long introduction (yes, that was just the 
introduction), I'm going to respectfully disagree with Avi that most teachers 
are quietly but happily implementing the NBA, and that only a few gripers are 
to blame for stirring up trouble here on ETNI. First, count how many people 
have posted messages pointing out one or more problems that they have with the 
NBA? Certainly more than four or five or six. They don't necessarily consider 
the NBA to be the source of all evil, but they very clearly state the problems 
that they are facing.
 
Second, I think that there is a possibility that Avi, because of his job as an 
inspector, isn't receiving all the complaints that someone more neutral might 
get (I'm not accusing him of not being open to receive complaints, just saying 
that many teachers are wary of saying certain things to people with an official 
position in the Ministry). I am basing this on the many, many conversations I 
have had with teachers and coordinators, mostly in the Jerusalem area. First, 
at one of the recent coordinators' meeting in Jerusalem, every single 
participant (and I would estimate that there were 50+ people in the room) 
signed Nina Golomb's petition to the Ministry relating to certain problematic 
issues which have come up as a result of the NBA. Every single participant. And 
I can assure you from speaking to these teachers / coordinators and from 
attending all the sessions that these people are all intelligent, knowlegable, 
motivated teachers who are not afraid of making changes in the
 classroom. They are the coordinators in just about all the high schools in 
Jerusalem - the ones who are guiding the hundreds, if not thousands of teachers 
on their staffs through the challenges of implementing the NBA. If they ALL 
felt it necessary to sign the petition (although there were one or two who took 
issue with one specific point, so we deleted that one point) - what does that 
say about the teacher population as a whole?
 
Many teachers who are very experienced - but far from the stereotypical 
burnt-out teacher - have told me of their intentions to retire early, only 
because of what they feel the NBA is doing to their teaching. Again, these are 
teachers who are doing their best to implement everything properly - but 
something is going wrong. The Ministry can deny it as much as it wants, Avi can 
say that it's only four or five or six gripers, but I can say without the 
slightest particle of doubt that the problem is much more widespread than that. 
When we talked to Judy about testing LD kids orally, all she could tell us is 
that she thinks we're saints for doing everything that we do without getting 
proper reimbursement. I also think that we're saints (not only because of the 
oral testing, but also everything else that we're killing ourselves over), but 
the truth is that most teachers don't have any desire to martyr themselves for 
the cause! If you don't believe that a very large percentage of te
 achers
 feel that way, I suggest that we start a new poll on ETNI, and let's see what 
the results are. Here are my questions, and please feel free to add your own:
 
1) Overall, do you consider the NBA to be a positive change as compared to our 
old method of teaching and testing? OR
 
If you could, would you like to go back to the old method of teaching and 
testing as compared to the NBA?
 
2) Overall, have projects been a positive learning / teaching experience in 
your classroom?
 
3) In your opinion, are there still one or more major problematic issues which 
need to be dealt with before the NBA can be properly and effectively 
implemented in our classrooms?
 
4) Has your workload increased since you began to implement the NBA in your 
classroom?
 
5) Do you feel that the results of the new modular Bagrut are less valid / 
reliable than the results of the old Bagrut?
 
I'm not sure what the percentages will be for questions 1 and 2, especially for 
2, since I myself would answer yes for question 2 (and yes, I was a very big 
sceptic about projects before I took an NBA course). However, I'm quite sure 
that the majority of respondents will answer YES to questions 3, 4 and 5. If 
the people in charge are agreeable to a multi-question poll, I'd urge everyone 
on this list (lurkers and non-lurkers alike) to make their voices heard.
 
All the best,
Rivka 
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