Search results for: Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education, Brandeis University

Jewish educators and Jewish educational policy makers often use the language of transformation when describing the effects of programs. We aim for more than just cognitive achievement; we want our programs to make a meaningful, lasting difference in the lives of the participants. But the language of transformation needs to be explored more critically. What do we really mean, when we talk about transformative Jewish education? How do we think that transformation occurs? What does it look like when it happens? There are many pockets of excellence across the Jewish educational landscape – but for the most part, those examples remain isolated and hidden. The best and most creative educational work is neither visible nor documented, so no one outside these programs is learning from them. This conference was a step towards improving that situation by bringing together some of those programs, and creating an opportunity for leading educators to study them systematically.

The Teacher Learning Project Team at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University has made available an Interactive Online Toolkit, a series of teaching modules. Each module focuses on one aspect of comprehensive, school wide induction. The exercises in each module are designed for use with school administrators or faculty who are interested in thinking deeply about how the current professional culture and structures in their school facilitate -- or hinder -- ongoing teacher learning.

The quality of a school depends on the quality of its teachers. Finding promising teachers is an ongoing challenge for many school leaders, and keeping them is even more challenging. New teachers leave Jewish day schools at alarming rates, creating what has been called a 'revolving door' of educators. The Induction Partnership Project at the Mandel Center and the New Teacher Center's Jewish New Teacher Project have published a joint position paper in which they offer an image of the kind of new teacher induction that transforms the educational experiences of teachers and their students by establishing a professional, motivated, effective faculty.