This PowerPoint helps students to consider the concept of infinity.
JewishGPS BJELA Categories Schmattegories Nov 2012
1. Arrival Activity
• As you come in … notice the five
posters on the wall.
• Grab a marker. Please write examples
or characteristics of the category
labeled on each poster.
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2. Categories Schmategories:
What Makes it So?
BJELA Religious School Educators’ Conference
November 11, 2012
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3. Methods vs. Settings
• Setting – the location in which
the learning takes place
• Method – the pedagogy used to
impart the knowledge; the
technique the learner encounters
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4. Informal Settings
infed: the Encyclopedia of Informal Education:
informal education is “the education of daily
living,” one can conclude that informal settings
are all the places you live your daily life: home,
community, grocery store, library, shopping mall,
restaurant, etc. They write, “This contrasts with
formal education which tends to take place in
special settings such as schools.” http
://www.infed.org/i-intro.htm
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5. Jewish Informal
Education Settings
(according to Robyn)
• Summer Camp
• Youth Lounge
• Hotels
• Retreat Centers
• Geographic Location
(i.e. DC, NY, NOLA, Israel)
• Park
• Volunteer Site
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6. Informal & Non-Formal
Education Methods
Tony Jeffs and Mark K. Smith
“…informal education is the lifelong
process in which people learn from
everyday experience … and non-
formal education is organized
education activity outside of formal
systems.”
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7. Informal, Non-formal or Voluntary?
Setting or Method?
Jewish social scientist Bethamie Horowitz
Makes a distinction when she titles activities
typically called “informal” as “voluntary”
such as youth group, Israel trips, and Jewish
college programming.
(2000, June; rev. 2003). Connections and journeys: Assessing critical
opportunities for enhancing Jewish identity. Retrieved
from http://www.ujafedny.org/assets/documents/PDF/who-we-
are/Connections-And-Journeys-Opportunities-for-Enhancing-Jewish-
Identity.pdf
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8. Experiential Education Theory Overview:
It all starts with Dewey
“In a certain sense everhas
“…the principle of continuity
“What he [the learner]
experiencethe way do something
learned in should of
of experience means that
to prepare a personin one
every experience bothlater
knowledge and skill for takes
experiences of a deeper and
up something from those
situation becomes an
more expansive quality. That is
instrument of understanding
which have gone before and
the very meaning of growth,
and dealing effectively with
modifies in some way the
continuity, reconstruction of
the situations which follow,”
quality of those which come
experience,” (p. 47).
(p. 44).
after,” (p. 35).
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9. Theory Overview: Kolb
EBLS company was
founded in 1981 with
the goal to provide
ongoing quality
research and practice
on experiential
learning
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11. Example
Experiential Element Application
Activity Put toast in oven, set dial, and
toast
Reflection/Observation Toast is burnt; Toast tastes bad
I am not happy; I’m hungry
I made a mistake
Abstract Conceptualization Because I set the dial too high,
this was the result I got
Planning for Next Time Plan another meal that I need
toast, determine how much to
lower the dial, buy more bread,
clean out the toast
Activity Make another piece of toast, this
time with the determined lower
setting
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12. Going DEEP
In 1999, the Experiential Training and Development Alliance published
The DEEP Document: The Definition, Ethics, and Exemplary Practices of
Experiential Training and Development.
What the DEEP document asserts in comparison to the others is
the difference between experiential education and experience-
based learning. “Experience-based learning (action alone)
becomes experiential when the elements of reflection (reflection
optimizes learning), transfer (transfer applies learning), and
support (support maintains transfer) are present.
(ETDA, p. 6, 1999). http://www.etdalliance.com/Resources/Documents/DEEP.pdf
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13. Categories Schmattegories!
A Re-View
• Let’s look at the answers on the wall
– anything you want to disagree with
or challenge?
• Mis-use of “experiential” education
for experience-based education.
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14. EXPERIENCING the Difference
Four-Corners Game: Jewish, Zionist/Zionism, Education/Educator, American
•This word describes my core personal identity
– Share one memory from your teen years that shaped your
core identity
•This word describes my core professional identity
– If a reporter were to describe your professional
achievements in Jewish education, what are three words
they would use.
•If my immediate family had to choose one of these words to
describe me, they would choose ….
– What is the moment you became a Jewish family? or What
is your first Jewish family memory?
•This is the most important aspect of my work
– If you were king/queen for a day, what would you decree
about Israel Education in your organization?
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15. Simon Says/Follow the Leader
• Exodus 18:21 'But you must [also] seek out from among all the
people capable, God-fearing men - men of truth, who hate
injustice. You must then appoint them over [the people] as
leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and
leaders of tens.
• Isaiah 54:4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader
and commander to the peoples.
• Genesis 33:13-14 [to Esau] 'My lord,' replied Jacob, 'you know
that the children are weak, and I have responsibility for the
nursing sheep and cattle. If they are driven hard for even one
day, all the sheep will die. Please go ahead of me, my lord. I will
lead my group slowly, following the pace of the work that I have
ahead of me, and the pace of the children
• Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the judges. Do not curse a leader of
your people.
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16. Compare and Contrast
• How are the two experiences
similar?
• How are the two experiences
different?
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18. Reflection & Wrap Up
• START, STOP, CONTINUE
• A-Ha Moment
• Rate Today
– 1, wasted my time
– 5, learned a lot & walking away a
better understanding of Experiential
Education
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9:50-9:57 Arrival Activity Posters on the Wall: Informal Education Settings, Informal Education Methods, Formal Education Settings, Formal Education Methods, Experiential Education Markers, Giant-post it notes 4 sets around the room
9:57-10:00 Introduction
10:00-10:20 Theory Overview Dewey – 1938 “… the principle of continuity of experience means that every experience both takes up something from those which have gone before and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after ,” (p. 35). “ What he [the learner] has learned in the way of knowledge and skill in one situation becomes an instrument of understanding and dealing effectively with the situations which follow,” (p. 44). “ In a certain sense ever experience should do something to prepare a person for later experiences of a deeper and more expansive quality. That is the very meaning of growth, continuity, reconstruction of experience,” (p. 47). So, from Dewey, we start to learn that the experience a learner has must somehow inform future thinking, understanding or behavior in order for it to be on what he calls - the continuum of experiential learning.
10:00-10:20 Theory Overview
10:00-10:20 Theory Overview concrete experience, observation of and reflection on that experience, formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection, testing the new concepts, (repeat).
10:00-10:20 Theory Overview Extract – in experiential education, the learner takes something they learned via an experience and applies it to a future activity and the understanding of that activity/experience A lot of what we call “Experiential are really highly participatory or experience-based, but not experiential. Let’s test it out.
10:00-10:20 Theory Overview
10:20-10:25 Poster Re-View Cattegories Schmattegories Debrief the answers on the wall Other things are experience-based or even “participatory” or maybe “co created” or “experience-based” but not experiential Red Marker the things on the experiential list that are not! – Four volunteers - one at each station reading out.
10:25-10:55 Experiencing the Difference
10:25-10:55 Experiencing the Difference With the people around you, pick at least one of these quotes to reflect on as a result of the two “leadership” experiences you just had.
10:25-10:55 Experiencing the Difference How are the two experiences similar? (not frontal, small groups/pairs, active/movement, visual and kinesthetic) How are the two experiences different? (reflection, possible application for future behavior, retention, influence understanding) Example of Volunteer Project vs. Service Leanring
10:55-11:00 Q&A Processing
11:00-11:05 Wrap Up Rate it on a scale of 1-5 Aha Moments; Start, Stop, Continue