Well, it's finished. All 99 pages of it. It's hard to imagine that I could write 99 pages on a single topic in the course of a 16-credit semester and four part-time jobs. While yes this semester was a "light" course load for me, writing 99 pages did not feel as cumbersome as I thought it would. And I'm quite proud of the finished product.
For my honors thesis, I wrote about the Hebrew school curriculum in two synagogues that I'm connected with. They both use the same curriculum and have interesting similarities and differences that could potentially affect the effectiveness of the curriculum. CHAI was developed by the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) as a way of nationalizing Reform Jewish values in American congregations. There are seven levels, sub divided into strands that are continuous throughout all the levels. The lessons plans are carefully outlined to transfer enduring understandings or big ideas to students focusing on Reform Jewish values. There is a lot of front matter, introductory material that contextualizes the lesson for the teacher before the lesson outline and learning activities. As a teacher and a college student, I can say first hand that the front matter typically gets ignored by my peers and they head straight for the learning activities when planning their lesson for the class. Without that introductory material, the teachers potentially miss learning about the importance of certain questions or activities.
The purpose of my thesis was to explore the effectiveness of this curriculum in a setting of mostly college-student teaches versus part time professionals (most of the teachers at the other school work full time and teach on the side, they are also older than their students, especially when compared to the age differences between college students and elementary school kids. The different learning philosophies of the education director and the emphasis on education within both synagogues also has affects on the effectiveness of the curriculum, in addition to classroom size and congregation size.
I surveyed teachers, students, and education directors at both schools with the hope of equalizing the questions in order to effectively compare the differences of the schools. In addition to analyzing my survey in the paper, I provided background information on education in the Reform movement, backward design, which is the educational theory on which CHAI is based, a brief history of the schools I worked with, and examined previous studies similar to the one I was about to conduct.
This is the largest work I have ever written. And besides its length, I am proud of my thesis because the topic is something I am deeply passionate about. This kind of work is what I will be doing after graduate school. Not on this scale, but analyzing curricula is an important job of the education director at a school to make sure that the lessons that are being taught first are taught well but also that they fit with the philosophy of the school and synagogue. When I went for my interview at grad school, I was able to talk about what I was researching and the interview committee was impressed. Some of the teachers and education directors I worked with were curious to see the finished product to see what I had come up with. I hope that this thesis exemplifies my ability to research and synthesize material as well as present and analyze my findings in a clear and explanatory way.
For my honors thesis, I wrote about the Hebrew school curriculum in two synagogues that I'm connected with. They both use the same curriculum and have interesting similarities and differences that could potentially affect the effectiveness of the curriculum. CHAI was developed by the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) as a way of nationalizing Reform Jewish values in American congregations. There are seven levels, sub divided into strands that are continuous throughout all the levels. The lessons plans are carefully outlined to transfer enduring understandings or big ideas to students focusing on Reform Jewish values. There is a lot of front matter, introductory material that contextualizes the lesson for the teacher before the lesson outline and learning activities. As a teacher and a college student, I can say first hand that the front matter typically gets ignored by my peers and they head straight for the learning activities when planning their lesson for the class. Without that introductory material, the teachers potentially miss learning about the importance of certain questions or activities.
The purpose of my thesis was to explore the effectiveness of this curriculum in a setting of mostly college-student teaches versus part time professionals (most of the teachers at the other school work full time and teach on the side, they are also older than their students, especially when compared to the age differences between college students and elementary school kids. The different learning philosophies of the education director and the emphasis on education within both synagogues also has affects on the effectiveness of the curriculum, in addition to classroom size and congregation size.
I surveyed teachers, students, and education directors at both schools with the hope of equalizing the questions in order to effectively compare the differences of the schools. In addition to analyzing my survey in the paper, I provided background information on education in the Reform movement, backward design, which is the educational theory on which CHAI is based, a brief history of the schools I worked with, and examined previous studies similar to the one I was about to conduct.
This is the largest work I have ever written. And besides its length, I am proud of my thesis because the topic is something I am deeply passionate about. This kind of work is what I will be doing after graduate school. Not on this scale, but analyzing curricula is an important job of the education director at a school to make sure that the lessons that are being taught first are taught well but also that they fit with the philosophy of the school and synagogue. When I went for my interview at grad school, I was able to talk about what I was researching and the interview committee was impressed. Some of the teachers and education directors I worked with were curious to see the finished product to see what I had come up with. I hope that this thesis exemplifies my ability to research and synthesize material as well as present and analyze my findings in a clear and explanatory way.
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