Teaching Sacred Texts in the Classroom: The Pedagogy of Transmission and the Pedagogy of Interpretive Facilitation

ABSTRACT

Empirical research in Jewish education has found almost exclusive use of transmission pedagogy among Jewish studies teachers. This study hoped to fill out the empirical landscape by studying Jewish studies teachers who prioritize student-driven interpretation. It followed six Jewish studies teachers in four different Jewish elementary schools who all professed a commitment to student-driven textual interpretation. It found that in such classrooms there was a clear pattern of teaching moves. This article offers a detailed portrait of the previously undocumented Jewish studies pedagogy, interpretive facilitation.

KEYWORDS:

• Constructivism
• Hebrew Bible
• interpretive discussion
• pedagogy
• transmission

Notes

¹ Rosenak discusses these two educational priorities throughout his large body of work. See also Rosenak (1986, 1987, 1995, 2011).

² Holtz makes this point elsewhere as well. See Holtz (1999, 2011).

³ Two topical episodes did not fit any of these codes. In these two cases, a student read a biblical verse and another student immediately offered an interpretation without being prompted by a question. In both cases the interpretation was unrelated to any previous topic that came up. Although it would be justifiable to code these topical episodes as interpretive facilitation, after all, the teacher did not constrain students’ interpretations, I excluded these episodes from my formal analysis because they did not begin with a question and did not fit under the code classroom logistics.

⁴ Ruth is a rabbi. But her pseudonym reflects the fact that she went by her first name at school.

⁵ Yonatan began his classes with a review of the portion of the biblical text they had studied the class before. He would ask the students review questions. For example, “What was in Pharaoh’s dreams?” These 3-minute review sessions at the beginning of whole class text discussions (which often ran through the entire class period) accounted for eight of the nine topical episodes coded as transmission. Arguably, these 3 minutes of class should not have even been included in the data.