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Int Rev Educ (2017) 63:2949
DOI 10.1007/s11159-016-9609-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Zehavit Gross1 Suzanne D. Rutland2
Published online: 24 December 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning 2016
Abstract In our post-modern, globalised world, there is a risk of unique cultural heritages being lost. This loss contributes to the detriment of civilization, because individuals need to be rooted in their own specic identity in order to actively participate in community life. This article discusses a longitudinal case study of the efforts being made by Australian Jewish schools to maintain Jewish heritage through annual experiential religious education camps, coordinated in a programme called Counterpoint. The researchers aim was to analyse how a school youth camp can serve as a site for socialisation and education into a cultural and religious heritage through experiential learning and informal education. During research trips which took place over several years, interviews enabling insights into the process of experiential education were conducted with a total of three different Directors of Informal Jewish Education, two Jewish Studies heads, ve participating teachers, seven youth leaders, as well as seven student focus groups. In their analysis of the semi-structured interviews, the authors of this article employed a grounded theory approach using a constant comparative method, which enabled a more nuanced understanding of the main phenomenon investigated. Over the years, they were able to observe two philosophical approaches, one of which focused more on socialisation, with immersion into experience, while the other focused on education, with immersion into Jewish knowledge. Their ndings reveal that some educators aim to transmit knowledge through evocation, with the students involved in active learning; while others focus more on students acquisition of knowledge through
& Zehavit Gross [email protected]
Suzanne D. Rutland [email protected]
1 School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
2 Department of Hebrew, Biblical & Jewish Studies, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
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transmission. Experiential learning activities were found to be more meaningful and powerful if they combined both approaches, leading to growth.
Keywords Experiential learning Informal education Immersion Transmitting
knowledge Evoking, acquiring
Rsum Apprentissage exprientiel...