The MOFET Institute

The MOFET Institute is a center for the research and development of programs in teacher education and in teaching. The Institute constitutes a unique framework in Israel and worldwide for preparing teacher educators for their work and supporting their professional development.

The MOFET Institute which was established by the Department of Teacher Education in the Ministry of Education in 1983, is a Ministry- funded Non Profit Organization.

Every year, thousands of teacher educators who teach in Israel's 26 academic colleges of education and in non-academic educational institutions visit The MOFET Institute . The Institute's staff members are recruited from the colleges and universities.

MOFET's two main missions are: (1) To facilitate the professional development of teacher educators; (2) to assist in the establishment and broadening of the knowledge base in the field of teacher education. This can be achieved by; maintaining an educational dialog among colleagues both in the teacher education system and in other settings in the education system; holding professional encounters; exchanging opinions; conducting collaborative studies; specializing in the various topics relevant to the professional work of a teacher educator; creating and disseminating professional knowledge regarding the significance of teacher education, its patterns of action and its meanings; initiating and developing system-wide directions and projects in teacher education and in fields of research and educational enterprise, and so forth.

The MOFET Institute aspires to raise the standard of education by improving teacher education and preparing teacher educators to face the most demanding challenges of the rapidly-changing modern world a situation that requires them to adapt themselves constantly to changing environments.
In order to accomplish its main missions, MOFET has developed many various frames of action.

Frames of Action

A school for professional development

The aim of the studies in the school's specialization tracks is to consolidate the teacher educators' professional perception and to furnish them with essential tools for their work in the colleges. In addition to the ongoing tracks, unique programs are devised in response to needs that arise in the teacher education and general education systems.

Writing channels

The MOFET Institute writing channels aim to encourage the teacher educators to transform their personal, theoretical and practical knowledge into public knowledge that is available to the entire community of educators in the colleges and in the field.

The Institute also publishes refereed academic journals, Dapim and Kivunim, which focus on the theory, research and practice of teacher education as well as on its development.

Research

The research authority, on all its departments, has set itself the goal of promoting research conducted by the teaching staff of the colleges and at The MOFET Institute in order to raise the standard of teacher education and improve the status and image of the colleges, the teacher educators and the teachers.

Collegial encounters

Intercollegiate encounters of colleagues for the teacher educators' professional development are held at The MOFET Institute in various settings and in the range of fields. During these encounters, the colleagues clarify shared topics, discuss various research studies, formulate standpoints in the field of teacher education, and so on.

The integration of technology into education and teaching

MOFET promotes the integration of advanced technologies into teaching and learning methods, and teaching contents, and creates and develops tools for improving teaching.

The Information Center

The Information Center houses databases of materials and documents that are unique to teacher education and are available to teacher educators. The center runs academic content portals in English, Spanish and Hebrew.

The Communication Center

The Communication Center provides communication services and develops state of the art teaching technologies for the benefit of individuals as well as academic institutions.

The International Channel

The Institute operates an International Channel that is in contact with institutions in countries throughout the world as well as with the Jewish Diaspora. The aim is to make the knowledge that has accumulated at MOFET about the field of teacher education, available for the global community of teacher educators and educators. Knowledge sharing occurs both via face-to-face encounters (in Israel and abroad), as well as via online settings.