Excellence Program Students Learn About Experimental Schools

By Rav Uriel Touitou – Excellence Program, Elkanah Campus

In an unusual step, the presenters at a recent academic conference were college students – including a group of students from Orot Israel College’s Excellence Program. Organized jointly by the National Excellence Program and the Education Ministry’s Experiments and Projects Division, the conference focused on educational projects and experiments conducted at various schools across the country.
Early in the school year, the Orot students met with representatives of the Experiments and Projects Division as well as staff members from two different high schools: Yeshivat Kinor David in Ateret and Ulpanat Dolev in Dolev, where they learned about the experimental education project run by these schools. Later, they visited the schools for observation and spoke to the principals, teachers, and high school students about their experiences and impressions of the project.
As the semester progressed, the Orot students continued to learn more about the project. They studied the material they received from the principals and kept in touch with the staff members, who graciously answered their  questions.
Finally, the group of students used their findings to compile a dynamic and well-prepared report – including a workshop, an activity, explanations, and a slide show - and presented it at the conference. Special thanks to the two principals – Rav Ilan Biton of Ulpanat Dolev and Rav Motti Hershkopf of Yeshivat Kinor David – for their considerable help and support.
Throughout the entire process, the students concentrated on one question: As future educators, what can we learn from the experiment?
According to the students, the experiment demonstrated that core pedagogical principles can be adapted to meet the needs of different schools which cater to, social structures, and values. In addition, the students discovered that educators should not feel restricted by the traditional school or classroom format. Rather, educators must implement and incorporate innovative and creative ideas into their teaching.
As head of Orot Israel College’s Excellence Program, I am proud to say that the students acquired more than dry knowledge. They were exposed to experiential learning which enabled them to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the educational project they studied. Furthermore, their impressive presentation at the conference showed that they have become independent thinkers. Clearly, they learned just as much from the method they used to study the project as they did from the project itself.

Orot Students Study Medical Ethics

By Rav Uriel Touitou, Excellence Program Coordinator

In the Orot Excellence Program's course on medical ethics students learned about the intersection of medicine, Jewish law, ethics and morals. During a recent tour at the Shaare Zedek hospital as part of their study they observed how professionals deal with real-life halachic and medical challenges presented by the rapidly advancing world of modern medicine.
Created ten years ago, Michlelet Orot's Excellence Program provides advanced students tools and skills to transform their intellectual abilities into tools they can in their educational career. In addition to offering enriched courses that focus on education and teaching, the program looks to expand students' horizons by offering classes on subjects they would not encounter during their normal course schedules.
In a world of instant communications and media, students find themselves exposed to questions about organ donation, pregnancy and childbirth issues including abortion, fatal diseases as well as many others. To address many of these questions, students in the Excellence Program attend a course in medical ethics given by Prof. Menachem Schlesinger and Rabbi Menachem Schahor. Study includes frontal classes as well as a tour at the Shaare Zedek hospital guided by lecturers from the hospital's Schlesinger Institute for Medical Halachic Research.
During their recent tour students met with doctors and nurses and heard proposed medical solutions to address marital problems and pregnancy and childbirth issues. The tour included a lecture on the subject of medicinal treatment for brides before the huppah and an additional lecture on the issue of genetic match between couples. Students learned about genes that might be carry diseases, the identification process and medicinal treatment to prevent possible future diseases, genetic matching between spouses and coping mechanisms for couples where both spouses are genetic carriers of the same disease.
In the Department of In vitro Fertilization students learned about different stages of infertility treatment as well as the challenges that couples face in their quest for pregnancy and childbirth.
The students' final lecture addressed the challenges of running hospitals on Shabbat and hagim according to halachah. Run various systems whose operation requires chillul Shabbat requires hospital directors and poskim to find creative halachic, technological and scientific solutions.
Student responses to the course were excellent. They found that this special course opened a window for them to an important and fascinating world which they would not have been otherwise exposed.