COMING CLOSER TO LITERATURE: LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION IN A CONSTRUCTIVIST SPIRIT

The Israeli educational system is a centralist one – the Ministry of Education sets goals andobjectives, establishes detailed curricula, and maintains a supervisory mechanism. One of the objectivesset for teachers, beginning in 2007, was a transition to meaningful learning and teaching, using "thinkingdevelopment teaching". To attain this objective, the supervisory body for the teaching of literature runsin-service programs for teachers, aimed at introducing the teachers to approaches to thinking developmentin the teaching of literature. Teaching that emphasizes the fostering of cognitive skills requires a changein the perception of the roles of teacher and student as well as a change in teaching and learning strategies,in learning environments and in methods of evaluation. The process of teaching and learning thatfosters cognitive skills is based on constructivist principles of educationThis article presents a study conducted among 79 teachers of literature in junior high schools and highschools in Israel, who participated in in-service programs for teachers, in 2007-2008. The study was carriedout using a mixed method, combining quantitative and qualitative methods.The findings present a picture of teachers’ attitudes toward the goals of teaching literature and of theschool teaching environment in general and of that of teaching/learning in literature classes. It also demonstratesthat teachers hold constructivist attitudes toward teaching while exercising conservative teachingbehavior.