The most striking finding so far has been the high degree of student involvement and engagement. By making the student an active partner, both high and low ability students become increasingly more task-oriented and achieve a better understanding of the sugiya.

1. Use of the computer helps students to focus on the Gemara text. Computer-based support tools help to gain and maintain the learner's attention, and decrease off-task behavior and discipline problems in the classroom.

2. Gemara Berura enables the teacher to change his role from sole transmitter of knowledge to facilitator of student-directed learning. This allows teachers more time to:
- work with individual pupils
- diagnose the causes of student errors
- give positive reinforcement and feedback
- integrate new knowledge with students' previously acquired knowledge

3. This shift in roles enables teachers to spend more time on complex tasks, such as helping the student to:
- make inferences and predictions.
- formulate abstract principles from specific cases.
- determine implications and applications of the text.
- connect the content to the realities of our modern context.

4. Heterogeneous classrooms are characterized by a range of different learning styles and levels of ability. The use of the computer allows each student to progress at his own speed. Gemara Berura also enables the teacher to match instructional presentation with the students' preferences and needs.

For example, learners who prefer a global learning approach need "to see the forest" before they begin to deal with specific "trees". In order to stay on track, these learners require an advance organizer or graphic overview of the whole discussion at the beginning of the lesson. Presentation of an overall concept or "map" of the discussion provides global learners with a graphic framework into which they can fit the details of the discussion.

For learners who prefer a serial approach, the teacher can work with the flowchart as a post-organizer or integrating summary at the end of the lesson.
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• How can Gemara Berura be used in the classroom?
• Gemara in the classroom: Problems and Gemara Berura
       Solutions
• The lesson bank and additional guides
• Return to The Teacher's Page