I’m honoured to be leading the BA degree at LSJS and shaping students’ journeys from post-A Levels to competent classroom professionals. We build our degree around empowering our students to learn about teaching, learning, inclusion and classroom management, reflect on their learning and apply this to their practice - really the best way to becoming the best teacher you can be.
Teachers Learn
Whether you are a class or a Jewish Studies teacher, chances are you have a strong intrinsic motivation to make a difference to young people’s lives: Teaching is a value driven profession.
Beyond knowing and understanding the subject matter you teach, there is also a body of knowledge and research about how children learn and the most effective pedagogies to ensure that learning is embedded as skills and understanding.
The pace of change in the twenty first century is rapid – we have access to so much more information about how the brain works, how social contexts shape us and how individual needs can be met. This information is crucial to teachers, who navigate this changing landscape daily in class. New approaches to learning often involve a new, ‘flipped’ perspective rather than a list of ‘extras’.
For example: rather than thinking of extra modifications I need to make for individual students, I can think instead about how to adapt the learning with scaffolds that would be valuable for all students, from the start. A new attitude might involve the planning of different activities, giving pupils choice and igniting their interest and self-motivation, or working with colleagues to create projects that allow pupils to explore issues in depth and across subject boundaries. Rather than doing ‘what we have always done’, learning about new educational research can give us new ideas and approaches that enable meaningful change in the classroom.
Teachers Reflect
Taking time to reflect on ideas and research gives us the opportunity to consider how they might apply in our classrooms. Reflecting on how a lesson or a teaching unit worked in the classroom, on one’s own or with colleagues, is a valuable way of making impactful adaptations.
Time is a rare commodity in a teacher’s life, yet reflection, which needs time, is a crucial aspect of learning and progress, and is worth the time investment. The few minutes a teacher takes to get his or her head above the metaphorical trees and see which direction the class is headed in can save far more time further down the line.
Consider building reflection into your classrooms in a regular way:
- Give children time to read your comments on marking their work and to respond to it;
- Encourage children to evaluate their work, to consider what they found challenging and what they enjoyed and what they would do differently next time;
- When starting a new topic, direct children to page back in their books to see how their thinking and knowledge have developed over time.
Create opportunities for children, not just to learn lots of facts, but to apply their knowledge to the real world or other learning areas, and to ultimately create their own responses to this integrated knowledge. This is such a powerful tool in helping children build their literacy and identity at the same time.
The same applies to teachers. Give yourself regular time to reflect, because having the time, not just to learn about learning, but to reflect on this against the background of your classroom knowledge, is a powerful way to shape a deep understanding of your unique teaching and learning techniques.
Teachers Apply
Having time to read, reflect and discuss with colleagues and mentors, teachers will have the confidence to apply new approaches to their planning, assessment and teaching over time. This then builds a continual improvement cycle of piloting an idea and evaluating it through reflection.
Including the children in this process can be very insightful – ultimately, we do not just teach knowledge to children but also the deeper structures of our subjects. Getting their feedback about different ways of learning gives them more insight into these structures.
Learning, reflecting and applying is not a linear process but a cycle that becomes a spiral, where reflection and application leads to a desire for new learning, which is then discussed, reflected on and applied in the classroom and shared with other teachers through the various networks in the UK and internationally.
We are fortunate in the UK to have a strong culture of collaboration between faith schools. Being mainly state rather than private schools, they do not compete against each other but instead work together, often using the same curricula and sharing innovative ways of adapting resources. LSJS works hard at the centre of this collaborative approach, offering forums, networks and conferences for Jewish Studies and Ivrit teachers as well as degrees in Jewish Education and Teacher Training programmes.
I’m determined to put forward this approach in my new role and I look forward to nurturing more amazing teachers to go out and make a difference in our communities.
Yolande Pieters, incoming Head of Undergraduate Studies and Professional Development at LSJS, has a passion for lifelong learning and has been teaching on our BA degree for some time. Yolande has already shaped the journeys of so many LSJS students and her impact is expected grow even further in this expanded role.
For more information on how you can take the BA (Hons) degree in Jewish Education, visit lsjs.ac.uk/ba.
