Search results for: Krakowski Moshe

This paper uses data from Jewish religious chumash (Bible) study to examine how students’ conceptions of biblical truth are grounded in the particular forms of chumash study they engage in. Using data from clinical interviews with Orthodox Jewish Bible students, we argue that, in relation to the biblical text, questions of truth are functionally meaningless; that is, they are irrelevant to the implicit epistemology embedded in the practice of chumash study. Because of this, students were unable to coherently answer questions about the truth-value of the biblical text, even while engaging in sophisticated reasoning about its literary character. This has implications for how religious schools and teachers approach religious study of traditional texts.

The Problem Based Learning approach has only recently been developed in Jewish educational contexts, and the transition to Judaic subject matter has revealed some significant learning and motivational benefits, as well as some significant challenges. One of the largest and most central benefits of the PBL approach is student empowerment, as PBL curricula allow students to take charge of their own learning in powerful ways. This paper identifies the key features of problem and project based learning, and will use two case studies from Judaic studies classrooms that have successfully employed this approach to illustrate how students can be empowered through deep engagement in meaningful projects and problems.