The Israeli Foundation for Math Achievement for All
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The Israeli foundation for mathematical achievement for all - a few main points


1. The state of Israeli mathematical education: in the 1964 international tests (held every few years), Israel came first. In 1999 it came 29-th out of 38 - the last among the industrialized countries. In the Pisa exams of 2003 it came 31-st out of 41 - again last in the Western world.

2. IFMA: A few devoted people, realizing the catastrophe, joined to make a change. Indeed, over the last 4 years a dramatic change has occurred as a result of their intervention. In the academic year of 2005-2006 the organization they established, IFMA (the Israeli Foundation for Mathematical Achievement for All) is working in 157 elementary schools, which is over 10% of the Hebrew speaking schools in Israel. And the changes they initiated have permeated the mathematical education in Israel in general, also in schools not working with IFMA. These changes are described below.

3. The "structural approach": in 1978 a very strange system of books was initiated into the country. It was designed following ideas that were an import of the "new math" revolution that took place in the US in the 1960's, and failed there miserably. The idea of the structural approach was indirect teaching. Instead of the concepts themselves, the children were taught models, with the hope that they would later transfer the understanding to the original concept. For example, the arithmetical operations were taught by the use of the Cuisenaire rods, which were long before abandoned in the rest of the world. There is now general consent that the strange and cryptic approach was one of the main reasons for the decline in the Israeli mathematical education. A major achievement of IFMA is that as a result of its actions, the structural approach has been formally abandoned. Instead of one dominating system of books there are now 7 systems of books, mostly built on sound mathematical basis.

4. Introduction of a new, sound curriculum: following the poor performance of the Israeli students, the ministry of education initiated the writing of a new mathematics curriculum for elementary school. The proposed curriculum, called "Program 2000", followed the so-called "constructivist approach", an educational reform that began in the US 20 years ago, caused there havoc in the mathematical education, and is now mostly abandoned there. As a direct result of the intervention of IFMA people, this curriculum was eventually replaced by a conservative, sound curriculum.

5. The Singapore books: For the last 20 years, Singapore has consistently won first place in the international tests (those at which Israel is among the last). As a result, many countries have examined the Singapore books, to see if the reason for this unique success is the special quality of the books. The founders of IFMA also examined these books, and found that they are indeed of exceptional quality. Moreover, they discovered that the principles of the books are in remarkable agreement with their own principles, which they had been applying in their teaching. Using a donation of an Israeli-American donor, the books were translated, and since September 2002 they are taught in the schools in which IFMA operates. But more than that is true: other book systems adopt these principles in their own teaching.

6. Activities: The work in schools is accompanied by close guidance by IFMA instructors. Every class is visited by an IFMA guide once a month. In addition, IFMA runs every summer training courses for all teachers participating in the program. Further courses are given during the academic year. In addition, IFMA members give instruction to parents in every school. Up to now, thousands of parents have heard lectures on mathematical education, intended to encourage active participation of the parents in their children's studies. A special book for parents, "Arithmetic for parents", was written for this purpose by an IFMA member, Prof. Ron Aharoni.

7. The principles of IFMA: IFMA, as well as the Singapore books, organize their teaching of mathematics according to 5 principles:

A. Starting from the concrete: every student has a basket on his/her desk, full of objects that he/she uses for counting, for exemplifying the operations, and for concrete materialization of the decimal system.
B. Meaning before calculation: Most people believe that knowing arithmetic means knowing how to perform the arithmetical operations. The fact is that preceding the calculations, and more important, is the understanding of the meaning of the operations. Namely, not what is the outcome of the operation, but when should it be applied, to which operation in the world does it correspond. For example - addition corresponds to joining two sets, subtraction to taking away objects. The Singapore books, and the teaching of IFMA, put great stress on the meaning of the operations, and teach them before the calculation.
C. Systematic teaching of the concepts: mathematics is a hierarchic body of knowledge. Every concept is built upon its predecessors. The books, and the IFMA teaching, respect the order of the concepts. This should be stressed, since there are now prevalent modern approaches which renounce the order. The "investigation" (or "constructivist") approach let the children discover the concepts on their own, not respecting the order. This resulted in the US in major struggles, known as the "math wars". A main achievement of IFMA is that it stopped, at the very last minute, a hyper constructivist curriculum from being implemented in Israel.
D. Stress on precise formulations: A common mistake is that children should be taught on an intuitive level. This is false. Children need precise formulations. They also need to formulate fine points, like the existence of different meanings to the same arithmetic operation.
E. Mediation: The teaching of IFMA follows the rule that the principles should come from the child. He/she should be led gently to find the principles, via experience, and to formulate the principles. This does not mean that the child is left to his own resources, but that the teaching is done by discussion with the entire class. Among other things, this means that the teacher is brought back to the center of the class, and she is supposed to teach, not only supervise the filling of workbooks.


8. Members of IFMA include members of the academic community, people from the hi-tech industry, and many teachers. The first head of the organization was Prof. Dan Amir, a former rector of Tel-Aviv university. The current head is Prof. Dany Leviatan, presently the rector of Tel-Aviv university.

9. Evidence of success: As yet, the ministry of education has not done any systematic comparative tests. But the few occasions in which tests were held have all vindicate the IFMA approach. In a comparative test in which Kiryat Shmona and Tel Aviv schools participated, the Kiryat Shmona school working with IFMA came out first (while the other schools of Kiryat Shmona came last). In a comparative test in Tveria, the school working with IFMA came first. In Maalot, which is like Kiryat Shmona a development town, the schools working with IFMA are well ahead of the other schools in their achievements. In kibutz Kabri there was a test for diagnosing giftedness in children, and while the usual rate of children diagnosed as gifted is 10%, the rate among the children learning with IFMA was 40% - the school people said that there is no other explanation but the change that IFMA has introduced.