Jewish Portal of
Teacher Education
The online resource of pedagogical and academic content on teaching and Jewish education
Section archive - Formal Education
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378 items
171
A commitment to empathetic understanding shaped the field of religious studies; although subject to critique, it remains an important teaching practice where students are charged with the task of recognizing, and perhaps even appreciating, a worldview that appears significantly different from their own. However, when the focus of the course is historical trauma there are significant epistemological and ethical reasons empathetic understanding may not be our best pedagogical strategy. Drawing primarily on my experience teaching a general education class “The Holocaust and Its Impact” at California State University, Bakersfield, I advocate replacing empathetic understanding with engaged witnessing as a pedagogical framework and strategy for teaching traumatic knowledge. To make this case, I delineate four qualities of engaged witnessing and demonstrate their use in teaching about the Holocaust.
Published: 2015
Updated: Jun. 17, 2015
172
While the Final Solution was instituted throughout Europe, this paper will focus on the inhabitants of the Kovno Ghetto. As they faced extermination, Kovno Jews risked their lives to create detailed records including: lists and accounts of people killed, diagrams of the camp, artwork, journals, and photographs of the events in the camp. One act of defiance chronicled in the photographs and writings was the hidden school system that the Jews conducted to exercise one of the few powers they possessed, the power to preserve their culture. The history of clandestine schools is outlined using the diary of Avraham Tory, excerpts of the diaries of students, historical information provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and other historical resources.
Published: 2015
Updated: Jun. 17, 2015
173
There has been a lot of discussion recently in the rabbinic community about bar/bat mitzvah preparation. Some are claiming that bar/bat mitzvah preparation needs to be changed from emphasizing the mastery of the Haftorah (a section from the Prophets) to simply being able to lead some prayers. It is being claimed that these new curricula, although less rigorous and less authentic to the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony, will enable students to put to practice that which they may use on a weekly basis rather than that which occurs once each year, when their particular Haftorah is scheduled to be chanted in the synagogue.
Published: 2015
Updated: May. 27, 2015
174
Mrs. Tikvah Wiener outlines a PBL project design unit focusing on Tefillah. As many of our schools struggle with engagement and Tefilllah, Tikvah and her colleagues have outlined a new project putting the dilemma into the hands of the students for whom the dilemma is a reality. Problem-Based Learning, as its name suggests, asks students to solve a real-world problem. One thorny problem Jewish educators face is how to approach prayer — tefillah — in school. At the PBL Collaboratory in Judaic Studies that took place last month in late March, a group of us were inspired by RealSchooler Ronit Langer, who dropped by and spoke about the fact that tefillah in school seems more punitive than aspirational. We decided to tackle the topic during our project design session.
Published: 2015
Updated: May. 21, 2015
175
The re-examination of the raison d’etre of day schools goes beyond the rewriting of mission statements – it cuts to the core of what day schools are for and why they are invaluable, if not irreplaceable. This process can be both frightening and energizing, and raises many questions. Who should be involved in that process – day school heads, middle management, teachers, students, parents, lay leaders, communal religious leaders? Are the goals identified going to be descriptions of “ideal graduates” with the requisite body of knowledge, skills, beliefs, and behaviors, or a picture of adult members of the Jewish community five, ten, and twenty five years beyond graduation? Will the goals be measurable and demonstrable, or will we have to wait a generation to see if we are successful? This issue of Jewish Educational Leadership is dedicated to re-opening the question of where we are going.
Published: 2014
Updated: Apr. 19, 2015
176
To understand how day schools are measuring up to their potential as incubators of Jewish commitment, a team of researchers undertook to visit some 19 schools and learn first-hand how they enact their Jewish mission. The eight-member team – consisting almost entirely of former day school heads who now work in other arenas in the field of Jewish education – spent time observing schools between the spring of 2012 and the end of the 2012-13 school year. Usually in teams of two, the observers focused their attention on the ways day schools enact their self-defined Jewish mission. The Case Study team consisted of Michael Berger, Josh Elkin, Cheryl Finkel, Reuven Greenvald, Pearl Mattenson, Alex Pomson, Jack Wertheimer and Tali Zelkowicz.
Published: 2015
Updated: Apr. 16, 2015
177
Rochel Berman of Boca Raton — a member of the Boca Raton Synagogue Chevra Kadisha (sacred burial society) and consultant to the Congregation B'nai Torah Chevra Kadisha in Boca Raton — has embarked on a trailblazing project to develop a curriculum and study guide for Jewish high school students to learn about the Jewish preparation for burial. Berman has partnered with Rabbi Jonathan Kroll, head of school at Weinbaum Yeshiva High School (WYHS) in Boca Raton, to introduce the eight-session course titled 'The Final Journey: How Judaism Dignifies the Passage.'
Published: 2015
Updated: Apr. 02, 2015
178
Teaching Traumatic History to Young Children: The Case of Holocaust Studies in Israeli Kindergartens
Recently, the Israeli Ministry of Education initiated a mandatory nationwide curriculum for Jewish kindergarten children focusing on the study of the Holocaust. This initiative raises general questions regarding the inclusion of sensitive historical issues in curricula for young children. In this article, we use the new Holocaust curriculum as an instructive case through which to address the broader questions about what might constitute an appropriate and acceptable curriculum in early childhood.
Published: 2015
Updated: Mar. 04, 2015
179
Michel de Montaigne’s L’art de Conférer offers a moral groundwork for students’ learning of havruta, a traditional Jewish form of studying in pairs, based on collaborative critical text-based learning, that can be applied to students everywhere. The article attends to the nature of havruta learning and to cultural norms that make it difficult for students to become open to their partners’ opposing ideas. Students’ critical discussion of Montaigne’s essay is then conceptualized as a pedagogical tool for cultivating the welcoming of opposing viewpoints and opening their own ideas to critical scrutiny in text- and discussion-based learning.
Published: 2015
Updated: Feb. 19, 2015
180
The importance of environmental education as part of national strategies for sustainability is recognized throughout the world. In recent years, substantial efforts and many millions of shekels have been invested in developing environmental education programs in Israel’s schools. Unfortunately, outcomes in terms of pupils’ environmental literacy are far from satisfying. This article reviews the origins of environmental education in Israel, considers its evolution, describes the present situation within Israel’s educational system, as well as the major educational programs that are active in Israel today.
Published: 2015
Updated: Jan. 28, 2015