Yozma - Center for Knowledge and Research in Education mission

Yozma strengthens a culture in which the use of scientific knowledge is part of the process of policy-making and as such, enhances the education system’s ability to cope with the challenges it faces and to improve educational attainments in Israel.

Basic assumptions

1. Articulating research questions derived from decision-makers’ agendas encourages education scholars, in collaboration with scholars from other knowledge areas, to create knowledge useful to education stakeholders.

2. Decision-makers in the field of education, from teachers to the Ministry of Education administration, derive benefit from consensual, up-to-date and critically-appraised knowledge, while at the same time contributing to the development of such knowledge from their own professional experience.

Strategy: Yozma operates according to three mutually-reinforcing main strategies:

1. Setting discourse in motion and stimulating interest around fundamental and contemporary issues in a manner that brings together researchers, decision-makers and practitioners.

2. Developing knowledge in an ongoing process, its conceptualization and translation to meet the needs of decision-makers in the education system.

3. Adapting and disseminating knowledge to diverse audiences in the education field.

Avenues of activity: Yozma addresses topics found on the agendas of decision-makers via three main avenues:

1. Expert committees which tackle complex challenges – fundamental issues of ongoing concern to the education system and in which many entities are involved, at times working in opposing directions, for example, parent-teacher relations, professional development for teachers, and teaching in a heterogenic society. The committee is comprised of 10 scholars from diverse disciplines and roles who focus on different aspects of the topic being studied. After approximately 30 months of work, the committee submits a complex and up-to-date status report that includes conclusions and practical recommendations.

2. Working groups established for the purpose of developing a specific product required for setting policy or implementing it, for example, an index, an assessment tool, or a seminar. These groups consist of both Ministry of Education managerial and field staff as well as expert scholars on the topic in question. In a process which generally continues for 8-15 months, the scholars present theoretical perspectives and research findings which contribute to developing the desired product, and managerial and field staff present the practical, integration perspective and point to existing constraints. Thus, an implementable product is created from the collaborative learning process.

3. Research to Support Policy-Planning - This avenue of activity is designed to provide research-based answers to specific questions on topical issues that concern policy planning at the Ministry of Education. An Yozma-affiliated researcher manages the approximately three-month research endeavor, which is accompanied by an academic advisory committee and an expert in the field. At the end of the process, a clear and focused document is submitted to the commissioning body, presenting a range of solutions being used around the world with respect both to policy and principles of action. Research to Support Policy-Planning activities are intended to instill the use of applied research knowledge in the ongoing processes of decision-making.

Yozma’s steering committee is appointed by the president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and is responsible for Yozma’s work plans and for peer-review processes of its output. Yozma publishes the products of its work and makes them accessible to diverse target audiences in the education system and to the public at large.

Yozma's history: Yozma was founded in 2003 as a joint venture of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Ministry of Education and Yad Hanadiv. Since the beginning of 2010, Yozma has been operating as a unit of the Israel Academy. In the summer of 2010, the Israeli Knesset amended the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Law and regulated the Israel Academy's advisory role vis-à-vis government ministries seeking its services. yozma directs the consulting activities on education-related issues provided by the Israel Academy to the government and various authorities.

Yozma is part of an international network of national academies of science that have chosen to engage in activities that promote the education system through a combination of research-based learning and previous experience (in the spirit of the NRC’s Division of Education in the U.S.). In these countries, as in Israel, they advance the systematic use of knowledge and scientific evidence-based research by decision-makers, principals and teachers in the aim of improving students’ educational achievements.