American Association for Jewish Education Launches Teacher Training Experiment

An experimental teacher training program, which may have far-reaching consequences for Jewish education in the U.S., was recently launched in Kansas City with the aid of the National Curriculum Research Institute of the American Association for Jewish Education, according to Rabbi Hyman Chanover, NCRI director. The project will train a select group of teachers in Jewish schools of all types in Kansas City in the skills necessary for new teaching techniques designed to help students on the junior and senior high school levels to learn through guided searching and inquiry, as opposed to the more traditional methods. The theory behind pupil self-directed learning is that it leads to a more lasting commitment to study. Co-sponsoring and co-funding the pilot venture with the AAJE is the Jewish Community Foundation of Kansas City, an arm of the local Jewish Federation and Council.

Fifteen Kansas City teachers, representing the entire spectrum of religious ideologies in the community, are participating. In line with NCRI’s current focus, the subject matter on which their classes are concentrating is either the State of Israel or the American Jewish Community. Rabbi Chanover expressed the hope that as a consequence of this program the instructional effectiveness of the teachers involved will be improved, and highly productive techniques will emerge for teaching about Israel and about the American Jewish community which can later be shared with other schools around the country. The training course will be conducted over a five-month period. Interest in the type of pupil self-directed learning involved in this project is not new to general education. In Jewish education, however, less than a handful of schools have experimented with it to date, and then without benefit of the caliber of research, training and evaluation specialists associated with the AAJE program. The Jewish Education Council of Kansas City, local central agency for Jewish education, is coordinating the program on AAJE’s behalf.