Pedagogy of Partnership (PoP) is an innovative research-based pedagogy for the design of relationship-centered education. Founders Dr. Orit Kent and Allison Cook have used educational research and their extensive experience to develop a pedagogical approach with concrete tools to improve learners’ communication and interpretive skills. The pedagogy teaches skills around havruta, or partnered text study, one of the great Jewish contributions to the history of teaching and learning that instills a sense of purpose into the study. PoP trains educators to take full advantage of the power of havruta study in Jewish studies classes and other disciplines as a lever to help student learning become more meaningful and student centered. PoP consults to educational organizations around the country and runs two day school programs in partnership with Hadar, an educational institute based in New York City.
Recently, PoP trained 24 Jewish educators in the methodology in a track at Hadar’s annual Day School Educators Institute.
“I’ve always been interested in havruta learning. I felt I wanted to do some more formal training with it, and especially teaching 5th and 8th grade this year, I wanted my students to have the tools to be good havruta partners,” said Lianne Gross, a Judaics teacher at Chicago Jewish Day School and participant in the recent program.
“I’m really glad I went. I had all these ideas going into the program about ways to teach havruta learning, but at the end of the program I had language and a framework for these ideas. I also got a better feel for what it would look like to teach these havruta skills,” she said.
The pedagogy emphasizes that there are three partners in a havruta – the two learners, and the text itself. This approach to Torah study proposes each learner take responsibility for the relationships between all three partners. To navigate through these relationships, PoP focuses on six partnership practices, or skills, bundled into three pairs of contrasting practices —Listening and Articulating, Wondering and Focusing, and Supporting and Challenging. On one afternoon, the group explored Wondering and Focusing as a tool to scan a variety of different directions of inquiry and dive into one that is particularly interesting.
Dr. Orit Kent explaining the six Pedagogy of Partnership practices
Dr. Orit Kent says she has seen how important this work is for educators. “Teachers are looking to learn new ways to work with students to meet their goals. For veteran teachers, it helps give them language and tools for deeply held belief sets. It’s a way to enrich what they’re doing and make meaningful changes to deepen student learning.”
“We also work a lot on the purposes of learning and elevating what that purpose can be for students. All of us need to think about purpose, and it’s satisfying for all teachers,” Allison Cook added.
Participant Zach Mann, Chair of Jewish Studies and Hebrew at the Rodeph Sholom School in New York City, agrees that PoP creates meaning in the day school classroom. “As Jewish educators, we always strive to have our students engage in meaningful work and to create an environment where meaningful work is being done. Meaning is a notoriously difficult word to nail down. What’s profound about PoP is that, through research, Allison and Orit have done an amazing job at describing the process of thinking that we should engage in, and giving language for it. The language of Wondering vs. Focusing and how these work together is really profound. It’s the movement back and forth between these mindsets that creates the meaning. We know it when we see it, but without this language it would be difficult to describe with any clarity,” he said.
“It’s a Pedagogy that’s about describing the process for doing havruta work that can easily work in tandem with other working goals and educational philosophies. I’m a believer in Understanding by Design, and I feel PoP and UBD can work hand in hand very well. One complements the other,” he added.
Naomi Bilmes, a Gann Academy English teacher, talked about the relevance of the havruta experience for her students. “One awesome aspect of learning in havruta is the act of developing a relationship with another person. In schools you’re given many opportunities to build relationships as a group, but a havruta relationship can be different and special. You may not be best friends with your havruta. It’s a different relationship, about learning and yourself, and that’s a really important relationship for my students to experience.”
Lianne spoke passionately about the value of teacher training in havruta so that students could benefit from this modality of learning. “I feel very strongly that the skills students learn from being in a havruta partnership can be applied at any time at any point in their lives. Judaic studies is such a beautiful place to introduce this concept. Communication and silence and equal participation are the pinnacle of how we communicate with each other, and being able to do that in the classroom is a great place to practice. When I’m studying in a havruta that I click with, it fills me with so much energy, and that’s something I want my students to experience. I want them to feel comfortable stepping into Hadar or whatever beit midrash they choose and having a fulfilling and energizing havruta partnership.”
In addition to the Institute, PoP offers an online community of practice during the year for teaching and reviewing content as well as office hours for educators who may need more targeted assistance on applying the learning. For those with a team at their school interested in participating, the PoP Day School Fellowship is a multi-year program that trains a cohort of educators and a school leader within each school who can support and coach one another on the ground.
If you are a Jewish educator interested in incorporating or improving havruta learning and relationship-centered education in your classroom, Orit and Allison would like to hear from you. You may contact them via https://www.hadar.org/pedagogy-partnership.
