Goal 4: Quality Education
ENSURE INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE QUALITY EDUCATION AND PROMOTE LIFELONG LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL
Research
Literacy in Africa
At the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Prof. David Share is contributing a chapter to the first volume on Literacy in Africa to be published through Springer Nature and including contributions from over 20 African countries. Entitled Literacy and Illiteracy in Africa: The Tower of Babel Predicament, the chapter provides a continent-wide overview of the current state of literacy and illiteracy in Africa.
New Approaches to Teacher Mentoring
Preservice teacher education programs worldwide are increasingly becoming field-based with student teaching as the capstone experience. Consequently, mentor teachers at field-placements are bestowed with new functions, calling for reexamination of teacher mentoring approaches. Work published in the Journal of Teacher Education by Prof. Lily Orland-Barak of the Faculty of Education analyzes underpinnings of major approaches to mentoring during student teaching, and proposes a new integrated approach.
Lorry I. Lokey City Campus
Public Engagement
Toll of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education
Prof. Yair Ziv led a research team from the Faculty of Education in publishing a special report for the Ministry of Education National Committee on Covid-19 that aimed to inform decision makers on the increasing gaps and inequalities in early childhood in Israel as a result of the pandemic.
Suicide Prevention among Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Co-chair of the International Lobby for Suicide Prevention of Students in Higher Education and member of the Ministry of Health Committee for Suicide Prevention, Dr. Joy Ben-Tov of the Faculty of Education is developing 
programs that focus on suicide prevention among students with Autism Spectrum Disorder, while providing training for healthcare professionals in the use of machine learning to identify suicide-risk in hotline chats.
Learning and Students
New UofH Podcast
The He’arat Shulaim (‘Footnote’) podcast connects UofH researchers directly with the public. Each episode features a different scholar who discusses r their research in an informal and light atmosphere. Since its launch in May, there have been over a thousand episode downloads. In the most popular episode to date, Prof. Oren Gazal-Ayal, former Dean of the Faculty of Law, spoke about “How do the identities of judges influence their verdicts?”
First Israeli Forest School
“Education needs to rethink itself,” says Anat Peterson, an MA alum from the Division for Investigating Education Alternatives. Anat is one of the founders of Beit HaYaar, the first forest school in Israel in a grove situated in the Merom HaGalil regional council. In operation since 2017, the school educates children with hands-on techniques for living in a more sustainable fashion and provides a new model for schools within the Israeli education system.
Operations
Bloom School of Graduate Studies
To support an ambitious research agenda and attract high-quality doctoral candidates and postdoctoral fellows, the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Bradley Bloom, and his family made a gift to establish the Bloom School of Graduate Studies. The school will play a key role in attracting talented academics whoeagerly address global problems from a cross-disciplinary perspective.
Lecture Hall Renovation
Recently approved budget of over $1.5 million will allow for the complete renovation of two run-down lecture halls on campus.
Expanding Activity at Downtown Campus
The Lorry I. Lokey City Campus spans three central areas in the rejuvenated Downtown Haifa Innovation Quarter. Designated as a technological campus, both the Information Systems and Computer Science Departments moved to the new, portside campus this year.
