Learning Torah Through Partnership

We wanted to share the latest representation of our work. This work and our current collaboration were born in the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and we continue to be grateful for all we have received from the Foundation and our Wexner colleagues.

The video, through the words and images of middle school students, brings to life our most recent design research around meaningful engagement with both peers and texts. "Pedagogy of Partnership" is a program we've developed for learners of all ages.

To view the longer version of the video, click here http://vimeo.com/97982899. This version gives a fuller account of the seventh graders’ experiences learning Torah through partnership and will bring you further inside their challenges, discussions of text, and reflections on learning.

Please contact us with any questions or thoughts or if you want to bring the "Pedagogy of Partnership" project to your organization. 

Allison Cook, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship (Class 14), is an affiliated scholar at Brandeis University’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. Her research, with colleague, Dr. Orit Kent, focuses on developing and teaching a “Pedagogy of Partnership” for deepening students’ intellectual, ethical, and spiritual engagement with texts and with peers. Beginning in the Fall of 2014, Allison will serve as the senior educator on a multi-year project helping to articulate and implement a culture and program of "intentional pluralism" at Boston's Jewish Community Day School. Allison earned her Ed.M. in Teaching and Learning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2003 and M.A. in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College in 2004. Allison can be reached at alltcook@earthlink.net.

Orit Kent, an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship (Class 14), holds a Ph.D. in Education and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University and an Ed.M. in Teaching and Learning from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She serves as a lecturer at Brandeis University and an affiliated scholar at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education. At Cook and Kent Educational Consulting, Orit works on developing and teaching a "Pedagogy of Partnership" with both formal and informal educators in many contexts, and has conducted workshops for such organizations as AJU, BIMA and Genesis at Brandeis, CJP, JOIN for Justice, Mechon Hadar, Pardes Alumni Program, and the Schechter Day School Network. Orit can be reached at okent@brandeis.edu.