Section archive - Formal Education

The aim of this study was to test the notion that integrating movement into the learning environment contributes to the academic achievements of kindergarten students. One hundred and sixty Israeli 4–6 year-old kindergarten students participated in the study for 145 days, which included pre- and post-intervention tests in language, mathematics, and non-verbal intelligence. The three interventions consisted of (a) a mindful movement—integrating movement in academic learning, (b) a movement for its own sake—allowing children free movement without providing academic instruction, and (c) a control condition—children engaging in their regular academic environment activities.

Jewish prayer may be conceived as a self-reflective conversation between the supplicant and the Divine, an anchor in moments of challenge or success, and a tool for clarifying values, meaning and purpose. Acquisition of tefilla (prayer) skills is an important goal during adolescence, and psychological and biological changes occurring during adolescence accentuate the relevance of positive tefilla experiences. Appropriate engagement of middle school and high school students by the Yeshiva school community can play a significant role in the development of an adolescent’s Jewish identity and lifelong commitment to prayer. The purpose of this study was to explore factors critical to student engagement in tefilla during adolescence, particularly those that may create a foundation for lifelong tefilla practice.

It sounds like a Jewish mother’s nightmare: a preschool class held outdoors in the desert. But parents in this remote Israeli town drop off their children at Gan Keshet every weekday during the school year, setting them free to cook on a campfire, whittle sticks with switchblades and search for scorpions. Class goes on rain (rare) or shine (intense). Gan Keshet, which means “rainbow kindergarten” in Hebrew, is the country’s first “forest kindergarten” – and it’s public. Thanks to local media coverage and word of mouth, parents have lined up to enroll their children and educators across Israel have sought to emulate the model.

This article examines the impact of contact-based educational encounter strategies of shared learning on Jewish–Arab relations in Israel. It analyses a programme of education for shared life that takes place in a mixed (75% Jewish/25% Arab) city at the centre of Israel since 2012. The programme aims to mitigate Jewish–Arab relations in the city amidst tensions resulting from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, unequal power relations and hostilities between the groups. Uniquely, it assimilates shared life education into the generally separate educational system in the city, and uses methods of shared learning – adopted and adjusted in part from an educational approach developed in Northern Ireland.