Prejudiced,historical witness,and responsible: Collective memory and liminality in the Beit Hashoah museum of tolerance

In terms of collective memory, few issues match the import of the representation of the Holocaust and the ways in which such collective memory is presented is often fraught with controversy. A recent controversial site of memory is the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. This essay examines the representational strategies of the museum, arguing that its critics have failed to consider important aspects of the museum's representational practices. Specifically, the museum's representation of the Holocaust involves liminality, structured to engage audiences, preserving the Holocaust as a profoundly important historical event while emphasizing personal responsibility in the prevention of hatred, violence, and genocide. By exploring the museum's novel approach of leading visitors through breach, liminality, and reintegration, we may better understand the ways in which historical presentations can accentuate a liminal and thus a potentially significant experience with the past, and we may learn more about how collective remembrance can be promoted to encourage contemporary responsibility.     

LESSONS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FROM COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

Recent work in the cognitive sciences provides new neurological/biological and evolutionary bases for understanding the construction of knowledge (in the form of sets of ideas containing functionally useful inferences) and the capacity for imagination (as the ability to run inferences and generate ideas from information) in the human mind. In recent years, a growing number of scholars are making use of cognitive science to understand and explain religious beliefs and behaviors in terms of these evolved cognitive capacities and structures of mind. Based on a literature review of cognitive studies of religion, this article examines relevant themes from cognitive science studies of religion toward drawing pedagogical lessons for religious education.     

A Mythical Realist Orientation for Religious Education: Theological and Pedagogical Implications of the Mythical Nature of Religious Story

This article proposes a concept of “mythical realism” as a way of understanding important characteristics of religion and orienting religious education. The focus is on beliefs as one central aspect of religion. The author draws on recent cognitive studies in religion to illumine the “counterintuitive” and “mythic” character of religious belief, while also arguing that religious thinking should be and commonly is held together with “intuitive,” “scientific” understandings of experiential reality. A case is made for the enhancement of “mythical realist” religious understanding as a fundamental goal of religious education. Pedagogical suggestions are given for nurturing such mythical realist faith.     

Evaluation of a teacher's classroom performance using the Florida performance measurement system

This article documents the use of the screening and formative observation instruments of the Florida Performance Measurement System; a system whose content validity, reliability, and predictive validity has been established for use in evaluating beginning, certified, and master teachers. A videotaped lesson, taught by the Secretary of Education, William Bennett, was coded and the data analyzed by reference to the norms of high school teacher performance in Florida. The specific strengths and areas of potential improvement of the teacher's performance are identified and constructive changes in performance suggested.     

Change in strategy: The relationship of attribution,expectancy, performance,and satisfaction

The purpose of the study was to examine the degree to which change in examination preparation is related to measures of attribution, expectancy, prior performance, perceived success/failure, and satisfaction. Subjects were students in an intermediate graduate statistics course. Although performance is the single best predictor of change in preparation, three attribution measures and satisfaction contributed unique predictive variance. While expectancy was significantly related to change in preparation, it did not add uniquely to the multiple correlation.