The Center for Attentive Teaching is an education and research institute dedicated to true educational excellence. Based in the David Yellin College of Education, the institute aims to conduct research and educational initiatives on ‘Attentive Teaching,’ (AT) a novel cognitive and experiential approach to teaching and learning developed by Prof. Yaron Schur. Prof. Schur, a renowned and innovative educational scholar, is the founding head and director of the center.
A critical issue that educators are grappling with is how to create a dialogue between teachers and students as a means to facilitate learnin There is a deep need for learners to convey their difficulties in conceptual understanding to their teachers - and for the teachers to gain such insight - so as to formulate meaningful individual-focused instruction. If these needs are not met, both students and teachers experience frustration. Inadequate teaching leads to inadequate learning, low motivation, and growing gaps in educational achievement, as well as teacher burnout.
AT is an approach to teaching and learning designed to meaningfully enhance learner understanding. It provides educators with a set of pedagogic techniques crucial to “seeing” learners in real time, and providing teaching solutions to inspire and motivate them. It utilizes these tools to accelerate conceptual and practical changes, and to promote exciting learning.
Regular student drawings of the material studied are used by the educator to gain accurate insight, at any point in time, as to how individual students grasp the material and concepts, and where their difficulties lie. This is a surprisingly effective method. In addition, The process uses one of the following:
“Thinking Journey”: Encounters with nonconventional situations that allow students to consider multiple perspectives.
“Dynamic Learning”: Repeated cycles of visual representation and “mediation.”
Students engage in discussions that require profound thinking about the material and concepts, which they then explain to their peers. The discussions engage students and provide them with ample time for reflection.
The teacher relates personally to each student, and adapts his/her teaching based on each student’s unique understanding and needs (“mediation”).
AT combines several groundbreaking educational methodologies: Feuerstein’s idea of cognitive development through mediation, applied by Schur to teaching for understanding in the classroom. Using drawing systematically to allow teachers to see precisely how each child in class understands concepts - without testing(!), and adapting teachers’ mediation accordingly. Keeping students active and engaged throughout the teaching/ learning process. Together, these lead to a revolution in teaching in terms of the depth of learners’ engagement and understanding.
Perhaps it does. But as a group of experienced and successful educators, led by Prof. Schur, we bring our knowledge from years of practical teaching at all levels, from kindergarten through undergraduates, from remedial students to practicing teachers, locally and internationally, in multiple subject areas. This is not a group of starry-eyed dreamers.
True communication between teachers and students can make amazing things happen. Boost learners’ motivation, increase teachers’ understanding of where the students are at, so they can refine their teaching, and watch understanding leap.
JOIN US ON THIS JOURNEY; HELP EVERY STUDENT IMPROVE HOW SHE/HE LEARNS!
