Breaking Through the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy About Jewish Education

This article responds to three articles in the most recent issue of The Journal of Jewish Education (74:1) in which a variety of researchers examined Bible teaching that employed an approach to Bible pedagogy that had been characterized by the present author as “the Contextual orientation” in his previously published book, Textual Knowledge: Teaching the Bible in Theory and in Practice. The article responds to these three empirical studies in the light of the theory that he had previously articulated and explores issues, complexities and new insights that are raised by the suite of articles. In particular the article looks at various uses of the “The Documentary Hypothesis” as they appear in the empirical studies and it explores complexities in the relationship between the Contextual orientation and other orientations (particularly “Personalization”) that were raised by these three studies, many of which were not anticipated in the author's original work.     

THESE THINGS I REMEMBER

This article investigates the use of the contextual orientation to the Bible—which seeks to understand the Bible as a product of its time, and in the context of historical-critical biblical scholarship—as a deliberate, significant aspect of a teacher's overall approach to reaching Jewish adults in their 20s and 30s. Through classroom observation and qualitative interviews, the authors (one of whom is the teacher in the article) explore how this approach affects student learning and engagement and facilitates a meaningful attachment to and understanding of the Bible. This article also reflects one teacher's examination of his own teaching orientation and its expressions, serving as a possible model for other such investigations.     

当代美国教师教育课程思想的三种价值取向分析

学术取向、专业取向、社会(公正)取向共同构成了20世纪80年代以来美国教师教育课程思想的三大价值取向。专业取向教师教育课程思想以教育学科为中心,相信教育科学研究和教学知识基础的作用,在教育研究和专业评判的基础上,致力于建立专业教师队伍。学术取向教师教育课程思想以通识教育、任教科目为中心,通过教师掌握其知识结构,并把其注入教师教育课程中,完善教师的知识体系,促使教师形成良好的教育判断力。社会取向教师教育课程思想是在美国面对日益多元化的教学环境下,把教师当做转化型知识分子,赋权增能,以社会重建、改造为中心,实现教育和社会公平。三大价值取向的思想体现出了融合与多元模式的思想特征和发展趋势,构成了当代美国教师教育课程思想的基本图景。     

论早期教育中的游戏与教学

早期教育领域一直存在两种不同的游戏取向,一种是文化传播或文化定位取向,一种是生成式或响应式取向。在早期教育领域,儿童自由与教师掌控之间的矛盾一直难以解决。教师可以采用综合教学法,增加教师与儿童共同建构知识的可能性。     

美国教师教育的专业教育改革理论取向

本文总结梳理了20世纪50年代以来美国教师教育的专业教育所受到的批评,将针对专业教育部分的改革理念和实践分为三种取向——学术取向、教学有效性取向以及合作取向,并分析各种改革理念和实践对解决专业教育存在问题的意义。     

Teachers' goal orientations for teaching: Associations with instructional practices,interest in teaching,and burnout

Two studies (one longitudinal) were designed to extend Butler's model of teachers' goal orientations for teaching. In Study 1, results from 281 teachers in Germany confirmed the predicted four-factor model comprising mastery, ability-approach, ability-avoidance, and work-avoidance goal orientations. As expected, mastery orientation and work avoidance emerged as positive and negative predictors, respectively, of adaptive patterns of instruction (mastery-oriented practices and cognitive stimulation) and high interest in teaching and low burnout; associations for both ability orientations were less consistent. In Study 2, 69 Israeli teachers completed the measures of instructional practices, interest in teaching and burnout several months after reporting their goal orientations. Results were very similar to those of Study 1. The two studies confirm that research on teachers' goal orientation is promising and has implications for understanding how teacher motivation might influence both teachers and their students.     

教师认识论与教师的教学专业成长

教师认识论是教师教学专业成长的重要研究领域。教师认识论的研究主要形成了三种取向:哲学取向、教育心理学取向和教师教育取向。教师教学专业成长的重要方面,是教师对教学知识的积累、掌握与运用。而教师认识论作为教学知识的知识,在教师教学专业知识积累、掌握与运用中起支配的作用。因此,在教师职前与职后的教育活动中,必须重视教师自觉认识论的形成,以促进教师的教学专业成长。     

由技术理性主义到整合主义:美国专业取向教师教育课程的演进

应时代发展要求,美国专业取向教师教育课程思想由技术理性主义向整合主义发展,教学专业化发展也经历了相应的转变。20世纪中下叶占支配性影响地位的技术理性主义教师教育课程,主张对教师进行训练,让其掌握批量的教学技术理论知识。这导致教师教育课程出现理论知识与实践分离、忽视了实践知识的情景性等问题,促使新的教师教育课程理念和实践的出现。整合主义教师教育课程关注对实践知识的情景性关怀、对个体知识的关怀,以解决目前美国乃至国际教师教育面临的问题——提高(职前)教师教学实践能力,强调在合作探究的基础上寻求理论本位与经验本位知识的融合。     

Knowledge Orientations of Prospective Early Childhood Teachers: A Study of Students' Scientific Versus Subjective Orientations in Teacher Education Courses in Germany

Recent changes in the system of early childhood teacher education in Germany raise the question of whether different academic levels of early childhood teacher education lead to different beliefs and orientations. In this study, prospective early childhood teachers' orientations to scientific knowledge and to research were explored. A questionnaire addressing orientations to the utility of research, educational and psychological theories versus orientations to intuitive theories and personal experience was completed by 712 prospective early childhood teachers. In a latent profile analysis, two types of orientation profiles could be identified: (a) an orientation towards subjective theories, lay theories, and subjective experience, and (b) an orientation towards scientific theories and research results. Results are discussed from the perspective of professionalization in early childhood teacher education.     

美国卓越教师教育课程特征研究——基于密歇根州立大学教师教育课程案例分析

美国密歇根州立大学的教师教育项目以培养卓越教师和教师领导者为目标,构建起了以基于满足多样化学习者学习需求的教学专业核心课程、基于实践反思和角色建构的教育实习课程为主体的优质教师教育课程体系,彰显出学会学习、基于研究、反思探究、多元文化、理念引领等特征,凸显出对高质量教学的追求,体现了学习中心取向、专业发展取向、多元文化取向三个鲜明的课程建设取向。     

教师教育标准及其价值取向研究

教师教育标准是教师专业发展逻辑的必然结果。教师专业发展的不同价值取向,产生不同的教师教育标准。学术取向、实践取向、批判或社会取向以及综合取向的教师教育标准,既彰显教师教育专业发展的多样性,也显示出格外重视教学实践的共同发展趋势。     

Teaching Vision: Cultivating a Philosophical Disposition About Jewish Educational Practice

We are sometimes told that practitioners have a hard time with theory. But those who are committed to nurturing a certain kind of intellectual capacity among Jewish educational practitioners—the capacity to identify and critically engage with vision in Jewish education, a capacity that we can call a “philosophical disposition”—must accept the challenge to develop ideas, questions, resources, and learning activities appropriate to that goal. In this article, Levisohn presents a study of his own teaching of novice educators in order to contribute to a conversation about how we might contribute to the development of practical intellectuals in Jewish education in various ways and in various settings.     

新形势下地方高师院校教师教育改革的困境和对策

新形势下教师教育改革逐步从封闭定向走向多元开放,从低层次向高层次培养转移,学科专业教育与教师教育逐步分离,职前培养和职后培训趋于一体化。面对这种发展趋势,地方高师院校面临很多困境：定位不明确,盲目提高办学层次;教师教育队伍分散、薄弱;学术性与师范性之争的矛盾依然存在,在多种培养模式中徘徊;实践教学面临新挑战。为了走出困境,各地方高师院校应该根据校情有所为有所不为：明确定位,突出特色;加强教师教育队伍建设,特别要尝试兼职队伍建设;有效处理好学术性与师范性的矛盾,选择适宜的人才培养模式;开创实践教学新模式。     

Investigating Prospective Jewish Teachers' Knowledge and Beliefs About Torah: Implications for Teacher Education

Teaching the Torah in liberal settings demands a set of skills and a sophisticated knowledge of the Bible. It presupposes an open approach to the text that posits multiple interpretations, and demands close reading and explication of the text as in a literary-critical approach. In this article, the author describes the knowledge and beliefs of six different cohort groups of prospective Jewish educators regarding the authorship of the Torah and their understandings of two central narratives in the book of Genesis. She explores the tenacity of their early beliefs in the face of a variety of pedagogic interventions question and speculates about the nature of that tenacity.     

Reconsidering an Economy of Teacher Education

This article has an overall aim as follows: to develop an alternative understanding to a narrow view of education, and in particular teacher training—preparatory and continuing—in terms of economy, as well as the competencies needed for the teaching profession. It takes the view that such an alternative is or could be found in the ideas put forward by Paul Standish, where poetry, or a more poetic understanding of education, is necessary—particularly in regards to teacher training.     

Final thesis models in European teacher education and their orientation towards the academy and the teaching profession

This study concerns different final thesis models in the research on teacher education in Europe and their orientation towards the academy and the teaching profession. In scientific journals, 33 articles support the occurrence of three models: the portfolio model, with a mainly teaching-professional orientation; the thesis model, with a mainly academic orientation; and the action research model, related to both orientations. All models had some relationship with both orientations. The study discusses these findings, the different models’ possibilities to integrate both major orientations as well as how a final thesis can be used to integrate theory and practice in higher education programmes.     

Interaction Between Science Teaching Orientation and Pedagogical Content Knowledge Components

The purpose of this case study is to delve into the complexities of how preservice science teachers’ science teaching orientations, viewed as an interrelated set of beliefs, interact with the other components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Eight preservice science teachers participated in the study. Qualitative data were collected in the form of content representation, responses to an open-ended instrument, and semi-structured interviews. Preservice teachers’ orientation and PCK were analyzed deductively. Constant comparison analysis of how their orientation interacted with other PCK components revealed three major themes: (1) one’s purpose for science teaching determines the PCK component(s) with which it interacts, (2) a teacher’s beliefs about the nature of science do not directly interact with his/her PCK, unless those beliefs relate directly to the purposes of teaching science, and (3) beliefs about science teaching and learning mostly interact with knowledge of instructional strategies. Implications for science teacher education and research are discussed.     

The structure and goals of a student teaching program and the character and quality of supervisory discourse

This study compares the form and substance of supervisory discourse between university supervisors and elementary student teachers during postobservation conferences in two teacher education programs with similar organizational structures but with very different ideological orientations. One program represents a traditional-craft orientation to teacher education while the other represents an inquiry-oriented approach. The findings indicate a great deal of similarity with regard to both the form and substance of supervisory discourse in the two programs and suggest the need for changes in the organizational context of student teaching if innovations in the curriculum of student teaching are to be realized.     

The Gender Agenda in Teacher Education

This paper explores some of the relationships between the understanding of gender equity and gender issues in education held by academic staff in an institute of higher education, and their views on the importance of incorporating gender into the curriculum. The paper discusses findings pertaining to how academics approach gender issues in their teaching in their relationships with students and with other members of staff. In so doing the question is raised—what messages are trainee teachers receiving about gender issues? The findings also discuss some of the pedagogical implications arising from the absence of theoretical perspectives or orientations in relation to gender in preservice teacher education.