The Making of Experiential Jewish Education

As some of you may know, I have the privilege of participating in the Leadership Institute for Congregational and Synagogue Educators a two and a half course of study focusing on the three pillars of Judaic knowledge, pedagogy, and leadership. This year as part of the program, each participant was given a grant to support professional development for our teachers. The stipulation being that we, the education leaders, must craft and lead the professional development sessions. I have chosen to focus on experiential education. Over the course of the year, I will guide the teachers through educational sessions and conversations exploring this topic This project is not only about improving the teachers' teaching practice, but it is also about improving the overall effectiveness of the school. Together, as a team we will analyze the structures in the school to think about how we can improve the learning and social atmosphere.

The program I design will be based on some of the most up-to- date research and writing that has been done about Jewish experiential learning.* We will focus on three criteria for effective experiential learning - recreation, socialization, and challenge. I want to briefly discuss what each of these terms means to give you an idea of how this impacts on the Hebrew School. Recreation means that the learners should feel at ease in their setting. It should feel like where they would want to socialize and have fun. Socialization can be seen as akin to acculturation. The learners are socialized into a set of norms, cultural references, values. These first two elements would be familiar to anyone who has gone to religious summer camp or been involved in a religious youth group. It is in the last element, that of challenge, that we find real depth and learning. The idea is to challenge the learners in some way, to push them slightly beyond their "comfort zone." The aim is to get them to reconsider their preconceived notions and get them to see the world in a new way. Challenge is what marks the difference between an activity and an experience. An activity can be fun and engaging but if it does not guide the students to reflect on and reassess their view of the material in a new way then it is not a learning experience. This is a high bar to set and we may not always reach it, but my plan is to embark on this journey of exploration with the teachers and for the sake of (and truly accompanied by) your children and you, to raise the level of education and to engage as many different learners in as many different ways as possible. I will keep you posted on our individual professional development sessions as we have them.

--Gidon B. Isaacs

*Paraphrased from an article by Professor Joseph Reimer and David Bryfman called "What We Know About Experiential Jewish Education."