Activating Learning Through Activating Students (Summer 2009)

Mention "Active Learning" and you will likely get one of two responses. The first will be a puzzled, glazed-over look, as if you had just landed from Mars or returned from some education conference. The second is a different kind of puzzled look, indicating something like, "Doesn't everyone use active learning? Are there still people who stand in front of a room and lecture?"

Like many educational techniques, the practice of active learning is not new. Moses and Aaron may have experienced it, Socrates probably used it, the Talmud has multiple references to active learning types of situations, and apprenticeships of various kinds were probably the primary form of learning trades for thousands of years. Any well-designed laboratory experiment was a form of active learning; every child who learned to walk or talk or who said, "No, ME!" or who played dress up with his mother's clothes was engaged in a self-designed active learning, also known as constructivist learning, activity. What is new about it is that it has now been studied, analyzed and formalized; today there are specific techniques that can be identified and specific situations where different activities have been demonstrated effective.

As I sat down to write this I did a Google search for active learning – it turned up 43,600,000 results. Many of those relate to university settings. Yes, research has shown that active learning is valuable for adult learners, too, and university professors are being encouraged to expand the way they teach to include a variety of active learning techniques in their classrooms. The awareness of the need for active learning is permeating educational systems, from the earliest ages through high school and college. Some teachers will take this as a challenge to radically alter the way they teach, others will find it foreign and threatening, and yet others may be tempted to experiment, trying out small techniques until they begin to feel comfortable and begin adopting more varied types of instructional vehicles in their classrooms.

This issue of Jewish Educational Leadership is blessed with a very rich Research section. Jeffrey Glanz reviews the foundational research and literature on constructivist learning, and suggests three tools for appropriate alternative assessment for the constructivist classroom. Jill Farrell provides an overview of active learning that is both conceptual and historical and suggests that it is not only good education, but that active learning is more appropriate now than ever. Steve Lorch, who has built an entire school revolving around constructivism, presents both theory and examples, addressing some of the critiques of constructivism. Richard Solomon reviews some of the research related to its success, and suggests thirteen active learning strategies, with specific suggestions for Jewish education.Finally, Beverly Buncher addresses teachers and administrators with suggestions about how to introduce active learning to teachers who may be reticent to adopt yet another new teaching "trick."

Our Applications section includes field-tested projects designed and implemented for middle and high school students. Mark Smilowitz (whose popular podcasts can be accessed at https://www.lookstein.org/podcasts/) shares with us a fascinating constructivist approach to teaching halakhah he developed that can be applied to almost any high school discipline. Aliza Libman Baranofsky experimented with her teaching middle school Humash, Tova Warburg Sinensky introduced roller-blading into a Talmud class and Debra Danilevsky rounds out this section with a project integrating art and identity building.

Highlighting the Features section is an interview with Yonah Fuld, longtime principal of SAR Academy, a unique Jewish school built on the open classroom model and recipient of a Presidential Blue Ribbon for excellence in education. Avraham Glustein, who was a member of the 2007-8 cohort of the Lookstein Center's Principals' Program, describes an extraordinary action research project he is doing in his school, introducing action research to both general and Judaic studies teachers. Levi Cooper presents a delightful vignette revolving around a 19th century Eastern European betrothal ceremony and a Pesah seder. For our Perspectives column, we are proud to present Alvin Mars, a lifelong practitioner and promoter of active learning in camping, JCCs and day schools.

In this issue we also introduce tow new features – be sure to look for them. One is a basic glossary of terms related to the issue. Second is a discussion guide, or questions for discussion, related to the articles in the journal. These can be used at faculty meetings, in informal discussions, in discussions with lay leaders, in classrooms, and more.

At the very least, we hope that the discussions emerging from this issue of the journal will help ensure that no teacher experience those stupefied stares when the topic comes up again. At the very best, we hope that it will spark new interest and inspire teachers to experiment and be creative as they engage their students in an authentic quest for meaningful learning.

Bivrakha,

Zvi Grumet