Global terms: Teaching

Worlds Apart

Research Spotlight: Worlds Apart

December 2022

Emily Downe & Nick Spencer

 

Science and religion’ is one of the most interesting discussions it is possible to have in the classroom – not that you would necessarily know that from the wider public debate.

That debate has often treated science and religion as different (and competing) theories about the way the world is, and so reduced the ensuing conversations to an either/or: evolution or creation? God or the Big Bang? Religious experience or brain chemistry? Science and religion become worlds apart – and even worlds at war. Discussion slides into debate and debate slides into argument.

This animation is based on a three-year research project conducted by Theos and The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. The researchers conducted over a hundred in-depth interviews with experts (scientists, philosophers, theologians, etc.) and commissioned a 5,000+ national survey of the general public, to get an unprecedentedly deep understanding of how people, at different ‘locations’ in society, conceive of science and of religion.

The research made it clear that the topic was huge and sprawling. Indeed, it is more of a series of topics than just one. Much of this was drawn out in the research report Moving away from the shallow end, and more will emerge in two books on the topic that are due for publication in 2023 and 2024.

However, we are conscious that only a comparatively small number of people read books or research reports on these topics, and we wanted a way to reach a wider audience. Hence the animation.

Worlds Apart sweeps us through a universe of questions surrounding the science and religion debate. Dynamic, fluid visuals illustrate topics such as cosmology, evolution, anthropology, neuroscience, and ethics in a way that engages the imagination and brings the words to life. This allows a young audience to connect with these important concepts in a different way. The overarching idea is moving from seeing things from far off to looking closer at the details of the conversations. The film is bookended with being above the clouds, which acts as the metaphor for how things look different from a distance, and the film takes the audience below the clouds into the details of the conversations. The purpose is to inspire interest in the questions about science and religion, seeing that they are not simply in conflict with each other, and to invite people to join the conversation.

The overall intention of Worlds Apart is to inspire interest, provoke questions, open horizons, and improve conversations. We hope that the resource– along with the on-line Science and Religion Compass which is be launched in autumn 2023 – will (re)kindle students’ interest in a topic that encompasses some of the most important questions in life.

Some discussion questions from the animation follow below. Regarding how to use them, we imagine that teachers will show the animation and then discuss some or all of the questions with pupils, so that the film and questions work together. We would emphasise that the animation should be used to inform and steer the discussion, rather than just being a launch point: the animation serves as an interpretation of what each question means – the bad science vs. good poetry one being a particularly good example of this.The animation and questions seem suited to the secondary phase, but teachers will need to modify the questions depending on the age of pupils within this phase and their state of readiness: in this light, the animation and questions could also usefully guide a department meeting or CPD session during which their use in the classroom is being planned or discussed.

Discussion Questions

  • When did we become recognisably human, and what makes us different from other animals?
  • How should we read holy books? Are creation stories bad science or good poetry?
  • Are spiritual experiences a sign of something deeper, or are they simply an illusion of the brain?
  • If nature obeys laws, does that mean there is a lawgiver?
  • Is altruism just an evolutionary trick or a glimpse of who we were meant to be?

Emily Downe and Nick Spencer

What makes great teaching?

Research Summary: What makes great teaching?

This report reviews over 200 pieces of research to identify the elements of teaching with the strongest evidence of improving attainment. It finds some common practices can be harmful to learning and have no grounding in research. Specific practices which are supported by good evidence of their effectiveness are also examined and six key factors that contribute to great teaching are identified. The report also analyses different methods of evaluating teaching including: using ‘value-added’ results from student test scores; observing classroom teaching; and getting students to rate the quality of their teaching.

Researchers

Robert Coe, Cesare Aloisi, Steve Higgins & Lee Elliot Major

Research Institution

Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, Durham University, Sutton Trust

What is this about?

This review set out to address three apparently simple questions:

  1. What makes ’great teaching’?
  2. What kinds of frameworks or tools could help us to capture it?
  3. How could this promote better learning?

What was done?

The researchers carried out a review of a large number of international research sources on what makes great teaching and different ways to evaluate teaching quality. Those found to be most relevant are included in the review. The review concludes with recommendations about how the findings might be taken forward, i.e. keeping a focus on student learning, using multiple measures of evaluation, asking school leaders to develop high quality assessment and data skills and balancing challenge and acceptance so that there is not too big a gap between the research evidence and what teachers are already doing.

Main findings and outputs

The two factors with the strongest evidence of improving pupil attainment are:

  • teachers’ content knowledge, including their ability to understand how students think about a subject and identify common misconceptions
  • quality of instruction, which includes using strategies like effective questioning and the use of assessment

Specific practices which have good evidence of improving attainment include:

  • challenging students to identify the reason why an activity is taking place in the lesson
  • asking a large number of questions and checking the responses of all students
  • spacing-out study or practice on a given topic, with gaps in between for forgetting
  • making students take tests or generate answers, even before they have been taught the material

Common practices which are not supported by evidence include:

  • using praise lavishly
  • allowing learners to discover key ideas by themselves
  • grouping students by ability
  • presenting information to students based on their “preferred learning style”

Relevance to RE

The emphasis on teacher content knowledge underlines the need for RE to be taught by qualified specialists. It also encourages RE teachers to think hard when planning topics and lessons about how their specialist subject knowledge might be used to promote student learning. The other main findings are also relevant to RE classroom practice, e.g. the emphasis on quality of instruction suggests that teachers and departments might build up banks of questions and assessment tasks found to be effective in promoting student learning.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The authors do recognise limitations. For example, their review is focused on teacher effectiveness, “that which leads to high achievement by students in valued outcomes, other things being equal.” (p.9). However, they acknowledge that this might not fully capture desirable aims for education. They also acknowledge that attributing effects on student outcomes to individual teachers is not straightforward and that a range of factors should really be taken into account. The report merits careful consideration and cannot be understood as a check-list.

Find out more

The report is freely downloadable from https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/great-teaching/

The Faith & Belief Forum Special Objects Project

 

Research Spotlight: The Faith & Belief Forum Special Objects Project

January 2024

Stacey Burman

My name is Stacey Burman and I have been working as an RE advisor for several London boroughs for some years, involving some projects with the Faith & Belief Forum. I was therefore delighted when they asked me to become involved in the Special Objects Project.

How can we increase parental engagement in schools?

We wanted to consider how schools could help their parents and carers to better understand the type of learning that might be happening in the RE classrooms of their children. This followed the publication of the recent Culham St Gabriel’s Religion and worldviews survey in 2022, and the worrying finding of the 2018 NATRE survey that 16% pupils are still being withdrawn from lessons.

Our Special Objects project aimed to engage ten schools across five London boroughs to take part in a pilot program to boost parental engagement in the RE learning of their children. The idea was that children would be sent home with a particular object which was used within a certain religion or tradition. These volunteer families would then host the item in their own homes and explore the object together with their children, and were invited to take part in a simple online questionnaire that was designed specifically to start a learning conversation about the symbolism of this object:

What might it symbolise? How might it connect to some ‘big ideas’ or concepts such as ‘love’, ‘hope’, ‘belief’, ‘community’ and so on? We gave them a list of ideas.

We then asked them to think about how it might be used and what this might be showing and encouraged them to think about whether they had any other symbols or items or practices from their own worldview or tradition or in their own family experiences, that may be similar. Some even took up the opportunity to send in photos and videos, but we think more would have done so had they been able to add these when completing the questionnaire.

How can we encourage learning through personal knowledge?

The objects were purposely selected so that any connections with concepts from a particular worldview would not be obvious, and respondents were asked not to Google the objects. This was so that these families would have the freedom to identify and make connections of their own, as we wanted to focus on a model of learning that engaged parents through their own personal knowledge.

We aimed for 50 responses, but we managed to achieve over 70 and were delighted with the large array of ideas and examples from various worldviews and traditions: 32 of these were shared with us.

All of these were collated and shared with pupils in lessons, as well as in whole school celebratory events.

How can we include more worldviews in the classroom?

Almost all respondents said they really enjoyed the opportunity: 88% said they better understood how their children would be learning RE in their classrooms; and over 70% wanted to learn more. Many even offered to help share some of their own experiences with children at the school in the future. Overall, we feel that this project demonstrates and provides a model for how schools and SACREs can boost parental engagement with RE.

Teaching morality, developing character: lessons from John Dewey

Research Summary: Teaching morality, developing character: lessons from John Dewey

This article is about John Dewey’s philosophy of education and the problems it has been accused of causing. In the USA, some have expressed concerns about a crisis of character, leading to a decline in moral behaviour in society and in schools. For some scholars, this crisis of character has been caused by Dewey’s ideas of child-centred education, whose influence has stopped children from getting the authoritative, character-building instruction that they need. The author examines these criticisms of Dewey and finds them to be misplaced. He reviews aspects of Dewey’s educational philosophy and finds that it would support good character education and education for democracy. There is plenty of relevance to RE pedagogy here, because (whilst RE is not directly mentioned), it is shown that Dewey’s ideas on pedagogy suggest ways to study content (e.g.religious beliefs and values) whilst avoiding two potential pitfalls: using content (e.g. religious beliefs and values) as items of instruction, or allowing children the ‘freedom’ to develop their own beliefs and values without challenge.

Researcher

Brian White

Research Institution

Grand Valley State University, USA

What is this about?

  • Why do some scholars view John Dewey’s ‘child-centred’ philosophy of education as responsible for a ‘crisis of character’ in the USA’s society and schools?
  • When Dewey’s key ideas about education are revisited, can the accusations against them be maintained?
  • How do Dewey’s ideas about education really relate to issues of morality and character formation?
  • What lessons for pedagogy can be drawn from this discussion?

What was done?

This is a scholarly essay, describing and evaluating criticisms of John Dewey’s philosophy of education and shaping conclusions that are of use to teachers.

Main findings and outputs

  • Some critics accuse Dewey of a ‘free-wheeling child-centredness’ that prevents children from developing discipline or will. However, what Dewey actually says is that children’s interests must be harnessed and developed. This needs seriousness, absorption and purpose on the part of teachers and children.
  • Some critics accuse Dewey of minimising the role of teachers, but what he says is that teachers’ guidance is crucial. They must point out obstacles and guide children through them, for instance, and must establish a democratic culture in the classroom.
  • Some critics accuse Dewey of pushing academic subject content to the margins, but what he says is that a subject content-rich environment is needed, for children to examine the necessary problems and develop the necessary skills and traits (investigative, communicative, just, disciplined); natural interest must be engaged with content.
  • For Dewey, the traditional, instruction-driven, obedience-driven classroom dilutes character. If students’ natural interests are ignored, if they are outwardly compliant, they will be be inwardly engaged in avoidance. The development of character through education is dependent on teachers actually getting to know who their students are as people and as thinkers. For Dewey, values, moral or character cannot be simply ‘hammered in’ to children.
  • One USA character education programme, Positive Action, in a way reflects his ideas on collaboration and enquiry. Instead of being told what character is and how they should behave, students are asked how they like to be treated. They suggest the same top values of respect, fairness, etc.

Relevance to RE

There are two main ways in which this material is relevant to RE pedagogy. In the first place, it calls into serious question the pedagogy of ‘direct instruction’. If religious beliefs, values or other items of religion are simply presented to pupils to absorb or ‘learn about’ without opportunity to respond or engage, their character development will not be strengthened. A more productive pedagogy arises through the skill of matching pupils’ interests to religion and making use of their natural inclination to debate and discuss. Secondly, what Dewey says about obstacles is relevant. Religious beliefs can be used to challenge pupils’ opinions and force them to reason and develop (“but what about the idea that all life is sacred . . ?”); or vice versa (“can you see any problems with holding to the belief that all life is sacred . . ?”). Teacherly concern for pupils’ development does not mean leaving them in a comfort zone, but just the opposite.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Whilst not presenting data as such, this essay presents issues and ideas that are very worthy of general consideration by all teachers, perhaps especially those concerned with RE, moral education, citizenship education and values.

Find out more

Scapegoat: John Dewey and the character education crisis, Journal of Moral Education 44.2 pages 127-144 (published online 13 May 2015), 10.1080/03057240.2015.1028911

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057240.2015.1028911

Teaching gifted children in RE

Research Summary: Teaching gifted children in RE

Through RE, many gifted students who might otherwise be missed can be identified. The findings of this research are based on a study of Heads of Department in three very different sec-ondary schools in Cambridgeshire, and how they identified and challenged students gifted and in studying religion. The lack of student challenge in much RE is discussed and ways are suggested to extend and enrich all. Strategies are discussed for doubly exceptional students (e.g. those with profound insights but poor written skills). The research suggests how the RE profession could develop an approach to giftedness, with direct implications for classroom activities including poems, debates and plays.

Researcher

Jane Mary Ramsay Simpson

Research Institution

Independent researcher

What is this about?

  • What does ‘being a gifted student’ mean in relation to RE?
  • What is a ‘doubly exceptional’ student?
  • What kinds of pedagogy and support do gifted students need in RE?
  • What are some good examples of these, and what can teachers do next?

What was done?

Literature searches on RE and giftedness, interviews with Heads of RE, surveys of schools’ policies and documentation.

Main findings and outputs

  • Few teachers were aware of the overlap between RE skills and ‘doubly exceptional’ giftedness (e,g autistic or dyspraxic pupils with high insight but poor writing).
  • Doubly exceptional pupils often show spiritual or emotional sensitivity, profound questioning, high expressivity and a sense of social justice.
  • However, usually, RE teachers have responded to giftedness by producing extension activities based on higher thinking skills.
  • ‘Teacher A’ says her most important strategies are asking open-ended questions, and providing extended reading resources.
  • ‘Teacher B’ says her department has just begun to re-write schemes of work to cater for gifted students, providing more depth to challenge the most able.
  • ‘Teacher C’ struggles to find opportunities to train to teach gifted pupils.
  • ‘Teacher B’ used both classroom observation and assessed tasks to write students’ reports, commenting on both empathy and knowledge level. ‘Teacher A’ provided laptops and placed doubly exceptional students in top sets.
  • Such pupils need support. ‘Concept cracking’ provided adequate tasks, e.g:
  • Pupils decide which concept they are going to crack, such as abortion, find the related concepts such as ‘Is life sacred? ’, study the core ideas in different religious traditions and then see how these religions diverged when they put their ideas into practice.
  • Moral dilemmas can be set: pupils can use creative methods such as poems, plays or debates to explore and respond to them. Gifted pupils themselves can help to identify suitable pedagogy.

Relevance to RE

  • School and departmental policies can be assessed in the light of the research: is provision for the gifted planned adequately?
  • The research would give an interesting and useful basis for teacher training or teacher development sessions.
  • Regarding RE pedagogy, the examples of tasks for the gifted that are provided by the research could be adapted for use in teachers’ own schools.
  • The creative, open-ended, exploratory style of pedagogy suited to the needs of gifted children could be explored and developed by RE teachers and RE departments; it could well prove to be helpful in improving provision for all children. Again, teachers can consult pupils about this.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Only three schools were researched, but the literature cited is broad and the examples of pedagogy are very interesting. For generalisability, it is really up to RE teachers to test out the conclusions of the research in their own schools, and the research gives a good basis for this.

Find out more

Bridging the gap between Religious Education and gifted education: theory and praxis in three secondary school programmes in Cambridgeshire, British Journal of Religious Education, 34:3, 247-261 (published online 6 February 2012)

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2011.649342

Teaching controversial issues in RE: the case of ritual circumcision

Research Summary: Teaching controversial issues in RE: the case of ritual circumcision

This is a critical scholarly essay, examining the following questions: What are controversial issues? Who decides whether something is controversial, and how does it affect how a subject is taught? These questions have been discussed often in relation to education, less so in relation to RE specifically. RE teachers need clarity and support, however. So, this research addresses the discussion to RE teaching, taking the example of ritual circumcision as a focus.

Researcher

Marie Von Der Lippe

Research Institution

University of Bergen

What is this about?

  • What counts as a controversial issue?
  • Who decides on whether an issue is controversial, and by what criteria?
  • How does this discussion affect RE teaching, and by what principles should RE teachers be guided?

What was done?

The researcher summarises and criticises different perspectives on what counts as controversy, also drawing on some questions of law and policy and referring to the example of ritual circumcision. She closes with some practical suggestions for RE teachers.

Main findings and outputs

  • Whether or not an issue is viewed as controversial often depends on the teacher’s background and the school and social context.
  • Teachers need to weigh up whether the issue is a matter of fact, or of political debate, and can be presented as settled or open.
  • So whilst ritual circumcision is a settled issue in some communities, it has been a matter of intense debate in Norway. Female circumcision is a settled issue (banned), male circumcision more open, though in Norwegian RE textbooks, female circumcision is presented as a violation whilst male circumcision is presented as a regular ritual practice.
  • Should RE teachers teach about it directively (with one answer in mind) or non-directively (asking for debate)? We need to deliberate and decide, as with other possibly controversial issues, and make this conversation part of teacher training and development. Even if a particular issue appears settled, directive teaching may hinder students’ critical development, so important in democratic life.

Relevance to RE

The research poses real questions to RE teachers – again, ones which they will recognise. The suggestion that RE teachers develop a professional culture of deliberation over controversial issues and how to approach them in the classroom is very good. The research could provide a basis for a CPD session or departmental meeting discussion.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is an interesting and useful scholarly discussion orientated towards guidelines for the classroom, The issue of data generalisability does not really arise, but the issues are certainly highly relevant to RE teaching and RE teachers may well find the guidance to be helpful.

Find out more

Marie Von Der Lippe (2019): Teaching controversial issues in RE: the case of ritual circumcision, British Journal of Religious Education.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2019.1638227

Story Tent

Research Spotlight: Story Tent

March 2023

Anne Moseley

This month’s research looks at the possibilities and challenges of looking inside sacred texts in the primary classroom through the lens of story and dialogue with people of faith or no faith. Questions for discussion are:

  • What stories from other faith traditions do you already use in your RE curriculum? Do you have access to members of local faith communities who could come into school and read them?
  • Are there any places in your school that could be developed into a “tent” space where stories could be shared, and difference explored safely?
  • As we move towards a worldviews approach in RE, do we encourage an openness where pupils talk about their beliefs and values and bring all of themselves to the learning experience?
  • Do you think that it might be possible for primary pupils to become “translators” of religious encounters? Do you think this is a helpful concept to explore further?

The Story Tent was conceived as part of a PhD research project developed at Warwick University. The basis of the research was to explore the possibilities and challenges of looking inside sacred texts in the primary classroom through the lens of story and dialogue with people of faith or no faith. The aim was to explore whether this type of encounter would help pupils to develop intercultural competencies as outlined by the Council of Europe.

Action Research methodology was applied, and an intervention was delivered over two iterative cycles with a group of three primary schools in the Midlands area. A research team was brought together to deliver the intervention which consisted of academics, religious education teachers and community faith representatives. A total of eighty-seven pupils from three upper Key Stage Two classes (children aged nine to eleven years) participated in the research, which included questionnaires and self-assessments, team evaluative interviews and a group of seventeen participating pupils who also took part in a semi-structured interview.

The intervention was based on Scriptural Reasoning principles with an emphasis on face-to-face discussion and the joint study of Scriptures around a shared theme. It provided a safe place for people of faith or no faith to explore the messages within the stories. Three texts were brought together, each with a faith representative as a guide to introduce, discuss and answer any questions. This provided an opportunity for open dialogue about the lived experiences of the story tellers and the pupils themselves. As pupils communicated through the story it helped them to connect with others about the story and begin to explore meaning together.

The Story Tent intervention was built on an age-appropriate application of Scriptural Reasoning which was based on three underlying principles.

  • Firstly, through learning and understanding about the beliefs and values of other people, it enables a deeper understanding of oneself.
  • Secondly, through an emphasis of exploring difference it helps pupils to discover ways to disagree well.
  • Thirdly, at the heart of Scriptural Reasoning is the concept of the meeting place and shared hospitality where friendships can be built. The tent space is not owned or inhabited by one group over another; rather it is a space where participants are both host and guest at the same time: a “tent of meeting”

This in-between location became an interpretative space where all were welcome, and all voices heard. This concept of the tent as a place of meeting was instrumental in the concept behind the development of the research and we used a gazebo to embody the principle of the “tent” space each time we delivered the Story Tent intervention in the classroom.

There were several findings that came out of the primary data collection and data analysis and interpretation that followed. I have listed below some of the significant findings that might be of interest to teachers.

The significance of Story

The practice of listening to stories created a unique space which allowed pupils to suspend judgement, tolerate ambiguity and imagine the views of another. As pupils engaged their imaginations, it broadened their horizons and perspectives to consider alternative viewpoints in a non-threatening way. Pupils develop an understanding of another perspective by relating and interpreting their experiences through empathetic engagement. It was also interesting to note that as well as providing a vehicle for meaning making, the story helped pupils to embed their learning in a way that was easy to recall after the event.

The significance of Dialogue

The Story Tent “meeting” place facilitated an environment which was different in nature to that of the normal classroom setting. It provided a space in which different viewpoints were specifically encouraged in a way that could be held in tension and explored together. Through dialogue in this structured space, pupils encounter the “other” in a way that was not compromising to personal beliefs, but rather expanded pupils’ insights and broadened their understanding.

The significance of Drama

Drama was a particularly good vehicle for enabling pupils to exercise intercultural competencies as outlined by the Council of Europe. Exploring how to present these stories with a group of pupils required attitudes of respect, openness, curiosity, and an empathetic attitude towards the ideas of others. The process of working together required the pupils to be communicatively aware of each other and the different competing interpretations. To deliver the performance pupils also needed to demonstrate the ability to explain what they had heard and relate it to personal experiences to draw out the core meanings extracted from the text with the support of the storyteller.

The significance of Identity

Pupils who identified a personal religious identity and were also able to tolerate ambiguity were more likely to demonstrate higher levels of intercultural competence. Their own beliefs and experiences actually helped them to connect with the leaning and relate it to their experiences as they were already familiar with some of the language and concepts of religion and faith. The literature surrounding interreligious dialogue suggests that there could potentially be a “translation” of religion similar to that experienced in language translation. It would be interesting to explore further whether this idea of religious translation might be conceptually possible at the primary level.

For those who might be interested to find out more about the continuing work of Story Tent we have a growing set of resources available at our website

There is also a Grove Education book which outlines in greater detail some of the principles and findings that came out of this research and available online at Grove Books

Moseley, A. (2022) “Scriptural Reasoning for Primary Schools: How to Share and Explore Sacred Texts and their Stories”, Grove Books Limited, Cambridge. – ISBN978 1 78827 249 0

RS Argument at GCSE research project

Research Spotlight: RS Argument at GCSE research project

September 2021 research of the month features Tim Hunting.

Introduction to the RS Argument at GCSE research project, Tim Hunting

Why? Background:

The research project started from the desire amongst colleagues to work together improve teaching of students the skills needed to reach the highest level in RS GCSE essays, which require ‘logical chains of reasoning leading to judgement(s)’. The essays are supposed to be short -guidelines suggest 250 words- and the time frame is around 15 minutes maximum for planning and writing time, so there is a lot of pressure on students to analyse the claim in the title and construct a quality answer very quickly. The idea was to think more deeply about what we mean by argument and concentrate minds on how to teach these skills through deeper reflection, learning and experiment in the classroom, as well as sharing our experience.  Kathryn at CSTG put me in touch with Nigel Fancourt whose research with the OARS project was invaluable. Nigel became a regular member and interlocutor for the group along with Kevin O’Grady.  

Nigel’s work with the OARS project was a really helpful foundation for our own research. A second aim was an interest in forming a local group for RE teachers in the Brighton area as a means of mutual support. In the event, we met on Zoom so the group quickly expanded and became open to teachers everywhere.  (Although the research project finishes this September we hope to meet in the coming year and continue to help contribute to study of argument in RS. If you are interested please contact me. thunting@hovepark.org.uk

What? The Process:

We met online and shared the challenges of teaching essay writing and helping students to construct arguments. Our shared reading of S. Toulmin’s seminal ‘Uses of Argument’ which bridges argument in philosophy with everyday reasoning helped to deepen our reflection. Covid did later bring limitations to what we were able to achieve in the classroom but the fruits of our discussions can be seen in the different materials that the teachers in the group came up with. Some such as Hannah’s and the teachers’ at SGS – Grace, Molly, Hanna and Gwilym – are based on adapting Toulmin’s model of warrant and backing and evidence. Other teachers developed effective metaphors for helping students to understand argument- Julia the courtroom scene- and Fay the tug of war.  I concentrated on resources to help students analyse essay titles. All these resources are listed below. Feel free to adapt them for your own classroom practice.

Nigel Fancourt writes: 

The broad process of developing one’s own argument has a vital place in current GCSE and A level syllabuses, and indeed across religious education. A recent review of locally agreed syllabuses (Chan Fancourt & Guilfoyle 2020) showed that while it was explicitly mentioned fairly frequently. Argumentation is generally poorly explained; different disciplines are referred to, such as theology or philosophy, but what this means is not developed. The group decided to adopt Toulmin’s (1958) model as a heuristic lens, which had been adopted by the OARS project (https://oarseducation.com/) – a cross-disciplinary study of RE and science teachers at KS3 (Erduran et al. 2019). Toulmin did not define philosophical logic, but rather identified general features of argumentation within and across disciplines and practices. He highlighted its ‘field-invariant’ elements: a claim supported by evidence or data, justified by a warrant, but subject to rebuttal and qualification. This provided a coherent external framework to against which to review current pedagogy, and which had proved workable in schools.

Questions arising from the project: 

There are still a lot of questions we all have about helping students to answer the evaluation essays. One issue is helping students to recognise the nature of the claim- is it about judging the importance of a belief or practice, or something very different? Secondly, what materials should students draw on for evidence and warrant? Surely not just texts from scripture and tradition- but what empirical evidence about, for example, the effectiveness of prisons as a means of punishment are relevant?

There are also aspects of the specification which need more detailed understanding in RS specifically such as ‘logical chains of reasoning’. The latter is also part of the A level Economics specification, but here it means analysing a possible sequence of consequences of a policy, for example. In RS it is more difficult to develop such a sequence.

Questions for discussion:

  • What are the main challenges you experience as a teacher and your students as learners, regarding evaluative essay writing for GCSE in Religious Studies?
  • What strategies have you adopted to help overcome these challenges? Are any of the resources below helpful to you?

REFERENCES

Jessica Chan, Nigel Fancourt & Liam Guilfoyle. 2020. Argumentation in religious education in England: an analysis of locally agreed syllabuses, British Journal of Religious Education, DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2020.1734916

Erduran, S., L. Guilfoyle, W. Park, J. Chan and N. Fancourt. 2019. Argumentation and Interdisciplinarity: Reflections from the Oxford Argumentation in Religion and Science Project. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research1 (8). https://diser.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43031-019-0006-9

Toulmin, S. 1958. The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: University Press.

RETOPEA

Research Spotlight: RETOPEA

April 2023

Professor John Wolffe

This month’s research looks at the RETOPEA project. It was funded by the European Commission and ran for four years finishing late last year. It linked together partners from eight European countries. Responding to a brief from the European Commission to produce materials engaging with the history of religion and developing innovative methodologies for getting young people to think constructively about religious diversity.

Click on the button below to download a PowerPoint presentation on the project.

Listen to Professor John Wolffe and John Maiden in a recent In Conversation event discuss the project. How did people neutralize religious contradictions in the past? Can we learn from those experiences? These are the questions that were central to a large-scale international research project RETOPEA. It investigated the different ways in which religious coexistence is thought of in different environments and how religious peace treaties have been established in the past.

Religious Education and Emergent Technologies

Research Spotlight: Religious Education and Emergent Technologies

April 2022 features Paul Hopkins.

Culham St Gabriel’s funded an innovative project to explore the use of current and emergent technologies in religious education. This project has been both hampered and raised in importance by the pandemic – as this has thrown into sharp light the need and relevance of technology in teaching and learning.

After some initial baseline data gathering a number of teachers and advisors were identified who were doing interesting things with technology in the classroom. Some very much “of the now”, things that could easily be replicated in other classrooms and some more forward thinking. All of these were focussed on learning in RE not on the technology per se.

These teachers all provided a case study of the work they were doing including ideas and exemplifications and these will be put together in both a report and also a series of electronic books to be available via the Culham online portal to all teachers of RE – these will hopefully inspire and develop future practice among teachers of religious education.

As we emerge from the pandemic it is vital that we do not just “snap-bacK’ but consider seriously the opportunities that technology offers us to develop, enhance and challenge our practice both in terms of space, time and content. I hope watching the video will offer you some markers to consider the following questions and I would fascinated by any thoughts you have in these areas.

  1. What technology do you currently use in your classroom that enhances your teaching of RE?
  2. What opportunities are there for the development of the use of technology in your classroom?
  3. What barriers are there to stop this development?

If you want to please do post and thoughts on this to this PADLET (https://padlet.com/p_hopkins/culhamretech) or access via this QR code