Rabbi Berger,
In response to Dr. Tobias' narrative, "Teaching Methods in Synagogue and Day School Courses", I'd like to offer these three comments.
1. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on two pedagogical methods for Synagogue and Day School instruction: the hevruta and the classroom discussion method (prompted by students sharing summaries of their assigned reading).
2. One increasingly popular way of engaging students in the discussion of enduring ideas or problem solving is via the flipped classroom. In general, in the flipped classroom the teacher prepares a video on a Judaic topic (tzedakah) or skill (i.e. reciting or singing the motzi), and students come to class discussing or practicing what they had learned outside of class. For more details on the "flipped classroom" click on these urls: [
yu20.org] and [
www.jewishboston.com]
3. One approach that I have advocated is Jewish Integrated Experiential Education (JIEE) Activities where students create web-based Judaic knowledge products ( i.e. wikis, audio files, picture collages, multi-media presentations, power point presentations, etc) to demonstrate what they have learned. For more details on JIEE Activities click onto this url: [
docs.google.com]
Kol Tuv,
Richard
