About the Institute
The Idea Institute has been training Jewish educators in project-based learning (PBL), student-centered learning, and other innovative pedagogies since 2014, through a variety of workshops, teacher cohorts, and conferences.
From 2018-2023, the Institute was embedded within The Idea School, a Jewish, project-based learning high school, located In Tenafly, NJ. During those five years, The Idea School actualized theories about student-centered education and innovative educational models in dozens of rich lessons and units that integrated Judaic and secular subjects, so students experienced learning that was personally and spiritually resonant and that bettered the world around them. Students grew curious, confident, and creative.
The Institute is primed to take our years of knowledge and experience and bring them to the broader community to further support schools and educators interested in creating more student-centered learning that taps into students’ passions and empowers them to tackle local and global problems.
This is crucial since we find ourselves at an important inflection point, with the world around us becoming increasingly complex, colleges and employers seeking power skills such as collaboration, communication, and problem-solving, and students seeking meaning and purpose in their studies. Our schools and educational settings must reflect on their practice and recalibrate so that we are equipping students with the vital skills they need, not only to succeed in college and beyond, but to thrive as Jews and human beings.
We look forward to partnering with you.
