Date of Award

Spring 5-21-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Doctoral Program

First Advisor

Dr. Robyn Cruz

Second Advisor

Dr. Nancy Beardall

Third Advisor

Dr. Steven Durost

Abstract

Teacher self-efficacy is a construct that continues to be extensively researched. With the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, the learning environment has shifted dramatically and has had an impact on Jewish educators’ sense of efficacy. This study examined the pre- and post-test scores for self-efficacy of Jewish educators who engaged in either an online psychodrama-based professional development workshop, a hevruta-based workshop, or an integrated session using both psychodrama and hevruta study. The participants were 28 Jewish educators from around the United States who were split into one of six groups. Two psychodrama-based groups and two integrated groups met online for 3-hours, and two hevruta-based groups met for 2-hours. Participants filled out a participant information form which provided demographic data and all participants filled out the TSES-short form at the start of their respective sessions. Only 22 participants filled out the post-TSES survey sent one week after the session. Data analysis consisted of ANOVA to compare the means of the three groups with the respect to the TSES subfactors of Student Engagement, Instructional Efficacy, and Classroom Management. Due to the small sample size, statistically significant results were not expected, and the data were examined through a lens of program evaluation. Of interest was the higher post-scores of the psychodrama-based groups and the lower scores for the hevruta-based groups. Expanding the sample size could be a way to rectify some of the study’s limitations. This study contributes to knowledge on the practice of psychodrama and expressive arts in an online format as it relates to teacher training and could help support the growth of expressive arts pedagogy in Jewish education, both as teacher professional development training and as a methodology for classroom teaching.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Language

English

Number of Pages

109

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