Search results for: Pekarsky Daniel

This article takes as its starting point the conviction that high quality Jewish education depends heavily on high quality teaching. Grounded in this idea and in a multileveled exploration—one indebted to recent Jewish thought—of the nature of excellence in teaching and its defining characteristics, the article proceeds to try to understand policy implications that might flow from possible and actual conclusions concerning these characteristics. Along the way, the policy implications that would flow from an inability to identify a core of characteristics shared by excellent teachers are also explored. The article concludes by highlighting the indispensable role of communities in fostering excellence in teaching in Jewish education: In explaining this role, it seeks to identify some of the key qualities of communities that succeed in this challenge.