Thoughts on my journey in the world of education

Next week I’m going to attend a meetup of “Cyber Ladies” and share all sorts of insights I have about Cyber education. Yesterday I sat down to write down what I want to say, and suddenly I could see my journey very clearly from these words.

Six years ago, Zohar (my third son) was born, and I decided it was time for me to leave the army and move on. I was enjoying a promising career in unit-8200 after receiving the Israel Defense Prize for a stunning cyber project, that I had the privilege to take part in. Yet I realized that it was time for me to invest in the field that appeals the most to me : The world of education. I remember the long conversations I had with my commanders, during which I tried to explain again and again why I suddenly decided to leave and why is it so urgent for me to go and work in education.

In my last role in unit 8200, I was head of the technology department. One woman in a group of more than 40 men. Thankfully, I have never encountered a discriminatory or disrespectful attitude, but I feel that my presence has brought important qualities to this team that, among other things, were related to the fact that I am a woman. Throughout my time in the army, I tried to understand why I was actually alone there. Where do all the women go? As a result I discovered all sorts of things about myself. In addition I also found a lot of research that analyzes the integration of women in the Technology Industry. I think the biggest difference I found was self-efficacy: I grew up with a father who really believed with all his heart, that I can do anything. My father was a physicist, and I was a first child who wanted to please and so I grew up to love the field of science. I went to a high school for gifted girls and even there we had only four girls in the physics course. It was hard for me, but at no point did I think there was something I could never learn to do. It was this self-efficacy that allowed me to get a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering while having the demanding full time job in the army; to set up a new team from scratch; to command a software team and then to manage a section that deals with one of the most complex aspects of cyber technology. Most women alongside of me during these courses, and then throughout the various positions in the system lacked this self-efficacy.  They felt that they were unable to solve difficult problems or deal with complex challenges, even though they had all the necessary skills and knowledge. Studies show that one of the problems for women in the Technology sector and later on their path to more senior positions is their lack of confidence. I think that under the insecurity, they lack this self-efficacy.

After getting discharged from the army, I was very happy to join the Cyber Education Center that was in the early stages of its establishment at that time. I had the privilege to closely follow the cyber curriculum in high school and run a huge operation of 70 schools where we trained the teachers, found teaching assistants from industry to accompany the students, and also wrote the curriculum and accompanied the teachers in the field. The same phenomenon repeated itself in almost every school: The number of girls in the course was significantly smaller than that of boys and their characteristics were very similar: They were more insecure than the boys. They were afraid to ask questions in class, afraid that they would be laughed at if they did ask questions and, most of all, they were afraid to make mistakes. I worked at the Cyber ​​Education Center for almost five years, and I repeatedly came across the phenomenon of people who claim that “gender is a phenomenon that has disappeared from the world” and that “today, there are no differences between girls and boys”. In the reality I have seen in the field and that emerges from many studies (the number of women in the high-tech industry, the number of women with senior positions in the high-tech industry, the number of women in the university in professions such as physics/electrical engineering, etc.), these claims are far detached from reality. In the cyber programs I ran, the most significant element we tried to develop in the students was self-efficacy. We have worked with a variety of methods, such as focusing on practice, allowing each student to progress at his/her own pace and ensuring that the students look for the answers by themselves and don’t simply get them from the teacher.

These days, I found my next station on my journey: Acton. And when I prepared what I wanted to talk about at the meetup, suddenly I saw clearly how everything is connected. Today, I get to educate the younger generation on the basis of the same principles. I get to develop the same self-efficacy in those Eagles, and I feel I am giving them a great gift that will serve them wherever they choose to go in the future. These educational principles, which include: Not answering questions but guiding the child to find the answers by herself, allowing each child to progress at his own pace, and most importantly, encouraging them to constantly fail and not be afraid to make mistakes, are the things that will instill self-efficacy in these children and make them feel that there is nothing they cannot accomplish and overcome.

You must be wondering what this has to do with the coding and robotics quest? Let me explain 😊 The two oldest Eagles in the studio are more or less at the same stage in the code.org virtual coding course. They are at a relatively advanced stage, and the problems they encounter are not easy for them at all. Yet, they do not give up. They sit together for hours and progress step by step. They do not despair. Even when they call me, I usually look at the screen with them, see the explanation, and they understand what to do before I can speak. Seeing this self-efficacy built in reality is indescribably exciting.

And the journey continues.