Jewish Portal of
Teacher Education
The online resource of pedagogical and academic content on teaching and Jewish education
Search results for: Research
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911 items
221
To survive we must adapt and change. We must disrupt, iterate, and take risks. This is the bold challenge posed by Dr. Jonathan Mirvis in his new book, It’s Our Challenge: A Social Entrepreneurship Approach to Jewish Education. As someone who has worked side by side with Jewish social entrepreneurs for the past two decades, I could not agree more. We stagnate at our peril. However, it is not enough to merely be bold and creative. For innovation, entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship to make strong contributions to the Jewish future we need to really understand how these processes work. We need to understand how concepts born in the commercial sector are best adapted for use in the nonprofit sector. We need to delve into cases of successful entrepreneurs and unpack the factors that contributed to their success. We need to trace the process that gives birth to new norms and practices, pushing beyond the novelty of a singular innovation. These are the offerings contained in It’s Our Challenge: A Social Entrepreneurship Approach to Jewish Education.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 18, 2017
222
In recent years the Jewish community has witnessed a growth in the development of Jewish afterschool programs that provide childcare as well as Jewish educational programming to elementary age children. This possible trend may represent a diversification of options for families seeking to provide Jewish education and Jewish experiences for their children. Through a close examination of three afterschool programs and neighboring congregations, this article will consider whether these new start-up educational institutions threaten or complement the existing Jewish educational structures such as the congregational supplementary school and whether or not there are opportunities for congregational schools and afterschool programs to partner in serving families and what might those partnerships look like.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 18, 2017
223
Ever since the institution of formalized prayer there has been anxiety about the impact of that decision. “When one makes his prayer fixed it is no longer a supplication” (Mishnah Berakhot 4:4). The implications are educational as well as theological. Educating to the formal structures of tefillah functions as an important gateway to socializing the student into an adult community of Jewish prayer, but the more we focus on that important element the more we constrain the individual expression and the internal prayerful experience. In the contemporary educational scene, this dichotomy often expresses itself as a lens of the school’s halakhic orientation. Read more about tefillah, in this issue of Jewish Educational Leadership.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 17, 2017
224
Studies suggest that even when students have above-average intelligence and come from families of high socioeconomic status, they will experience increased anxiety and anger and decreased academic achievement when they feel disengaged from learning. All the more astonishing is that engagement in learning is on the steady decline from entry into kindergarten and through high school, with children sometimes showing signs of disengagement as early as first grade. How do we take this ivory tower research and make sense of it within our Jewish educational system? How can we provide a Jewish education that fosters engagement, enthusiasm, psychological investment, rather than compliance – or even worse – rejection?
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 13, 2017
225
During their school years, students encounter difficulties of various types from both content-related and emotional aspects. Often, when asked directly about their learning difficulties, students struggle to express these difficulties explicitly and clearly; as a result, teachers find it a challenge to provide them with a suitable and satisfactory response. In order to help students express their scholastic difficulties, particularly cognitive and emotional ones, and foster their ability to chart out courses of action for coping with these difficulties, we have developed a tool we call “Corresponding with the Professor”.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 06, 2017
226
This study examines changes in feelings of school belonging and social engagement of Israeli-Ethiopian pupils, linking them to achievement and inclusive-supportive school environment. The study brings forward the pupils' voice, the home class teacher's assessment and the school's head master conceptions, on inclusion and support in one elementary school in Israel. The school's environment is focused on social-emotional support, aiming to promote achievement, by enhancing feelings of school belonging and social engagement.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 06, 2017
227
In January 2012, a team of curriculum specialists based at Bar Ilan University in Israel were approached by a Jewish day school in Australia to design a new Jewish Studies curriculum for its school. The mandate was to design a curriculum model from first-steps that would form the basis for the new curriculum. This article demonstrates how combining elements of Fullan's ideas about school partnerships with Schwab's 'commonplaces' concepts can best meet the needs of the school's specific population and ethos.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 06, 2017
228
Between 1990 and 2001, the Israeli Ministry of Education freely distributed to students countless copies of the books written by Holocaust author Ka-Tzetnik. This educational project has never been researched and, despite its magnitude and uniqueness, it has abruptly disappeared from public awareness as if it had never been carried out. The motivations that stand behind this initiative and the lessons it teaches about Holocaust pedagogy are the focus of this article.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 06, 2017
229
How do educators become successful leaders? This qualitative study set out to learn more about The Lookstein Center ELAI program as well as mentoring and leadership training in general, with the hope of offering insights to other school leadership programs. The mentor-mentee relationship was seen to develop into a collaborative partnership, with the reflective relationships becoming enriching for both the mentor and mentee.
Published: 2017
Updated: Aug. 30, 2017
230
Mussar, an approach to character growth emerging as a movement in the 18th century, has increasingly been incorporated into contemporary Jewish education. The purpose of mussar—the cultivation of character—is consistent with the goals of Jewish day schools and other settings. This article examines the implementation of a mussar-based program in a Jewish community high school. Particular attention is given to questions raised by the introduction of this program into a pluralistic school setting. Implications are discussed in terms of the broader goals of Jewish education.
Published: 2017
Updated: Aug. 30, 2017