48 research outputs found
DeLeT: Graduates' Perceptions of the Program and Their Preparedness for Teaching: An Evaluation Report
This report focuses on how DeLeT graduates from both programs perceive their preparedness for day school teaching, as well as how they perceive the DeLeT faculty and the programs' strengths and weaknesses. It also examines similarities and differences between the two programs and offers possible explanations for the handful of differences we identified. Such an in-depth examination of graduates' perspectives provides valuable formative feedback to both programs. In addition, we anticipate that this report will be useful to funders and faculty at other Jewish teacher education programs who may be interested in using the evaluation tools and procedures we have developed to learn about their graduates and identify areas for program improvement
The Effects of Teacher Preparation on Student Teachers’ Ideas about Good Teaching
Utilizing a mixed method approach, this study focuses on the perceptions of good teaching held by graduates of a teacher education program in the U.S. Specifically, this paper examines whether graduates embrace their program’s vision of good teaching and core standards as a guide to their self-reported teaching practice. Six cohorts of graduates’ responses were recorded and analyzed upon arrival and completion of preparation to examine whether students’ ideas changed during the course of the program. Findings suggest mixed results suggesting that teachers adopted several ideas about good teaching that are related to the core standards of the program (e.g., collaborating with a colleague, encouraging risk taking, and asking open-ended questions)
The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses
The question of Jewish ancestry has been the subject of controversy for over
two centuries and has yet to be resolved. The "Rhineland Hypothesis" proposes
that Eastern European Jews emerged from a small group of German Jews who
migrated eastward and expanded rapidly. Alternatively, the "Khazarian
Hypothesis" suggests that Eastern European descended from Judean tribes who
joined the Khazars, an amalgam of Turkic clans that settled the Caucasus in the
early centuries CE and converted to Judaism in the 8th century. The Judaized
Empire was continuously reinforced with Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman Jews until
the 13th century. Following the collapse of their empire, the Judeo-Khazars
fled to Eastern Europe. The rise of European Jewry is therefore explained by
the contribution of the Judeo-Khazars. Thus far, however, their contribution
has been estimated only empirically; the absence of genome-wide data from
Caucasus populations precluded testing the Khazarian Hypothesis. Recent
sequencing of modern Caucasus populations prompted us to revisit the Khazarian
Hypothesis and compare it with the Rhineland Hypothesis. We applied a wide
range of population genetic analyses - including principal component,
biogeographical origin, admixture, identity by descent, allele sharing
distance, and uniparental analyses - to compare these two hypotheses. Our
findings support the Khazarian Hypothesis and portray the European Jewish
genome as a mosaic of Caucasus, European, and Semitic ancestries, thereby
consolidating previous contradictory reports of Jewish ancestry.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, 7 supplementary figures, 7
supplementary table
Evaluating Efficiency-Effectiveness-Equality Trade-Offs: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach
This paper presents a resource allocation model based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The model extends the original objective of the DEA methodology from measuring efficiency to include the evaluation of various aspects of effectiveness and equality considerations. The model is formulated as a linear program that can be solved by means of a Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition algorithm. Theoretical properties of the model are compared with those corresponding to the model developed by Mandell (Mandell, M. B. 1991. Modelling effectiveness-equity trade-offs in public service delivery systems. Management Sci. 37(4) 467--482.) to evaluate the trade-off between equity and effectiveness. A numerical example is used to illustrate the comparison between the models.DEA, efficiency, effectiveness, equality