What does it mean to design a Beit Midrash? Dr. Elie Holzer Bar Ilan University and Mandel Brandeis University

“Beit Midrash”: a neo-traditional phenomenon a.Adult Education b.High Schools and Middle Schools c.Professional preparation: * Teacher education * Teacher education * Rabbinical Training * Rabbinical Training

Is this a Beit Midrash?

Beit Midrash, Text Study, Hevruta learning Buzzwords ? Learned by osmosis?

Why Design? Teaching Teachers Need for justification

They are Practices: 1. Purposeful, intentional and reflectively chosen action  Concepts of Good TS and HL. 2. Theory and practice are twin moments in the same activity. 3. Knowledge arises through engagement in a social situation and interaction. 4. Require engagement, deliberate choices, interest and passion; full personality. 5. Good text study and Good Hevruta are practices (incl. skills, dispositions). They require learning. What is our view of Text Study and Hevruta Learning?

Content areas for curriculum: 1.The “subject matter” 2.The practice of Text Study 3.The practice of Hevruta Learning 4.(The practice of group discussion)

Design of Good Text Study HOWWHOWHEREWHAT By what processes and activities might students learn? Who are the students in the Beit Midrash? What purposes should TS serve in this context, at this point in time? What does good TS look like and why? What are its core practices? *** What should students know, be able to do and cultivate? Learn in and from practice; Inquiry oriented reflection. Prior beliefs, prior knowledge; cultural norms; personality Acquisition of content knowledge; engagement with a topic; self understanding; preparing for classroom lesson “Protocols” and skills for textual analysis; interpretations skills; dispositions;

Design of Good Hevruta Learning HOWWHOWHEREWHAT By what processes and activities might students learn? Who are the students in the Beit Midrash? What purposes should HL serve in this context, at this point in time? What does good HL look like and why? What are its core practices? *** What should students know, be able to do and cultivate? Learn in and from practice; inquiry oriented reflection. Prior beliefs; prior knowledge; cultural norms; personality Acquisition of learning-social skills; cultivation of dispositions related to good teaching; skills; dispositions; learning about oneself as a learner and about the Hevruta partner as a learner

What is our understanding of the Beit Midrash as a learning environment? 1. Purposeful, intentional and reflectively designed learning environment. 2. Reflects institution’s core values and ideas. 3. Entails dialectic between individual and collective.

Design of a Beit Midrash Physical Setting a. What’s the setting like and why? b. What access to relevant information is available? ( printed, digital and human resources).

Design of a Beit Midrash (cont.) Beit Midrash in Broader Context a. What are the learning purposes of Beit Midrash sessions in relation to additional learning settings? b. What and how can values, concepts and practices from other parts of the program be integrated in the Beit Midrash? c. What are Beit Midrash students to produce? How, when and where in the program, are they to make visible what they have learned? d. Differentiation: what is Beit Midrash, TS and HL good/not good for?

Design of a Beit Midrash (cont.) Ex. of additional issues 1. Rationales and criteria for pairing up Hevrutot 2. Roles of leader(s) during Beit Midrash sessions 3. Ways to help create authentic “presence” in Beit Midrash learning. 4. Worksheets: form & content; guidelines VS. open inquiry 5. The impact of the literary genre on design of text study + Theoretical views of interpretation and learning. שקופית 14 שקופית Develop Beit Midrash’s Curriculum for learning of subject matter, text study and Hevruta learning. 7. Evaluation of Beit Midrash learning

Beit Midrash, Text Study and Hevruta learning Reflects and cultivates the 2 great conversations that we “are” as Jews: 1.The Diachronic Conversation with the Past 2.The Synchronic Conversation with contemporary fellow Jews