Section archive - Teacher Education

Compelling reasons exist for moving toward inclusion of diverse learners in Jewish day schools. Graduate programs face the challenge of preparing pre- and in-service teachers as effective educators for inclusive settings. While the development of skills is vital, the inculcation of positive attitudes regarding diverse learners may be equally important. This article explores the process of using student work to evaluate students’ attitudes in the context of a course on teaching diverse learners in a Master’s degree program.

Many believe that being a great Jewish educator is, above all, about being a passionate and spiritual Jew. But decades of education research have shown that good teachers are made, not born. Ultimately, an inspiring Jewish journey can only take an educator so far. The best Jewish educators need to have deep knowledge of how to teach as well.

According to the New Horizon educational reform, all teachers in Israel must implement small group instruction within the school curriculum. Small group instruction is perceived as an opportunity to provide a supportive learning environment that can enable schools to reach their educational aims in individualized ways. Having examined the implementation of small group instruction by novice teachers, our objective is to present the results of a research which aimed to clarify how pedagogical instructors perceive training for small group instruction, and how small group instruction is embedded in their curricula. Data were collected from 16 pedagogical advisors pertaining to EFL, Physical Education, special Education, and Sciences.

Following the almost worldwide implementation of policies giving all students – including those with special education needs – the right to learn within the general education system, there has been a sharp increase in the number of inclusion assistants (IA). IAs provide special-needs students one-to-one accompaniment, allowing them to function in the general education classroom and reducing the onus on the classroom teacher in such cases. Unfortunately, many, if not most, of IAs enter the system without suitable training or special qualifications and often neither they nor the teachers have a clear idea of how they should fulfill their role. This exploratory study used a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to identify and compare how 30 classroom teachers and IAs define the IA’s role. It also studied how eight IAs changed their perception of their roles after attending an IA training course and what the implications of such courses may be.