Source: Kohelet Foundation
The Kohelet Foundation announces the creation of the Yeshiva Lab School (YLS). Rooted in a constructivist model of education, YLS hopes to advance the Jewish day school field by employing replicable, empirically supported and developmentally appropriate methods of pedagogy. To meet the needs of the growing Orthodox community, this school will also be the first philosophically Modern Orthodox elementary school in the Philadelphia area.
The Yeshiva Lab School project is being developed by a team that includes Kohelet Foundation staff with the consulting expertise of Dr. Samuel D. Mandelman, an Ivy League trained educational and developmental psychologist. Dr. Mandelman’s work focuses on understanding the way children learn as a path to transforming education. According to Dr. Mandelman, “children learn by constructing knowledge, through exploring and interacting with the world around them and asking questions. Training a child to learn this way allows her or him to not only gain knowledge but to successfully acquire the requisite skills to analyze and meaningfully understand information. These skills, much more than rote memorization of information, are imperative for success in meeting the challenges of tomorrow.”
At each grade level YLS classrooms will be specifically designed to create a developmentally appropriate environment which will support exploration, wonder, discovery, problem solving, and creativity. A skills based curriculum will equip students to become lifelong learners. Projects and assignments will foster collaboration and leadership skills. The curriculum will be rigorous and individually tailored to meet each child’s needs.
The Yeshiva Lab School will open in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania in the Fall of 2015 with a Kindergarten class.
For more information go to the YLS website.