Improving Instructional Quality in Jewish Day Schools and Yeshivot ...

stimulate them to realize their full potential by speaking to theirnoble, lofty souls?”Incident number two: I was recently asked to participate in a“phenomenal” shiur. Admittedly, I have not attended a shiur in yearsbecause I can no longer learn by simply listening; I need to beengaged and challenged. I was informed that this shiur would indeedbe engaging and challenging. After informing his audience of ten tofifteen baalei batim that they would be learning masekhet MoedKattan, the rabbi continued to explain that we would be learning thetext, Rashi, Tosafot, Mishnah Berurah, etc. There was no preassessmentmade of the skill level of the audience. For manyparticipants, learning Tosafot was well beyond their skill level,although I do understand that “talking out” a Tosafot may beappealing to some individuals. I then decided not to attend anothershiur when the rabbi, who was most articulate and inviting, explainedthat we needed to review the material, that during the week weshould find a havruta to do so, and that he would answer anyquestions the following week. The rabbi proceeded to speak for thenext 45 minutes occasionally addressing a question from the audience.Although the speaker was competent in the material and interestingto listen to, I walked away with little information I could retain. Ofcourse, I noticed a few baalei batim engaging the proverbial practiceof “nodding off.” Many of our talmidim and rabbeim in yeshivot,exposed to such frontal teaching practices, tend to think that is theway all students learn. We teach as we were taught. No wonder, then,that a student teacher I was observing working with a group of 9 thgraders while employing the same directive teaching methods, wassurprised to find few, if any students engaged in the lesson!Incident number three: I received this email message from asemikhah student while writing this monograph; it is quite startling:“I face a huge frustration; My mind is generally in the pedagogicmindset, always thinking what way there is to enhance education, . . .However, I then sit in shiur. . . and I am lost half the time, and threequartersof the shiur are unresponsive. The rabbi, however, might talkor explain something for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then asks‘okay, any questions?’ ‘No, okay, great, let’s go on.’ Later, he is35