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Humanist worldview traditions
Jain
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Research

Finding out about what motivates RE pupils and using the knowledge to build up RE pedagogy

Kevin O'Grady

Research Summary

This is a report of a doctoral study on the motivation of 12–14‐year‐old religious education pupils in England. The study involved four action research cycles of teaching a topic, asking pupils about their learning experiences and building their views in to plans for the next topic. At the close, key factors for pupil motivation were identified: dialogue with difference, existential and ethical interest and personal significance. The research is of very direct relevance to RE pedagogy and gives recommendations for RE pedagogy in its conclusions, as well as remarks on how action research can be used as a teacher development methodology.

Researchers

Kevin O’Grady

Research Institution

University of Warwick

What is this about?

  • According to the pupils themselves, what motivates them to engage and learn in RE? A class of 31 12-14-year old pupils were studied, over a period of about 18 months.
  • Once we know what pupils say is motivating about learning in RE, what can we do with these data? The research developed by planning subsequent teaching topics in the light of what pupils had said, then collecting further data from them, so that factors in their motivation were identified over time and pedagogy strengthened over time.
  • Various factors building pupil motivation were identified and described: dialogue with difference, existential and ethical interest and personal significance.
  • The research gives evidence about good RE pedagogy, and also suggests that action research is an appropriate and useful way for RE teachers to build good pedagogy.

What was done?

The action research methodology involved teaching a topic, observing levels of pupil motivation during lessons and keeping notes on these, getting pupils to complete questionnaires at the close of each topic and interviewing them in groups about the questionnaire responses.

Main findings and outputs

  • Topic 1 was Islam, peace and surrender. The key motivation factor emerging was dialogue, with other students (the class was about one third Muslim) or with Islamic beliefs in abstract. It meant an equal emphasis between attention to religious education content and pupils’ responses and reflections.
  • Topic 2 was interfaith relations, reconciliation and peace. The central motivation factor was identified as existential interest: pupils valued the chance to focus on important human life situations and their meanings.
  • Topic 3 was Inspiration, Hajj and Passover. The key motivation factor was personal significance. Students had found the idea of inspiration to be less interesting than what had developed in their discussions around the idea of commitment, in religious life and in their own lives.
  • Topic 4 was Hinduism and Creation. The most motivating factors were investigating different views of the universe (i.e. Hindu and scientific) and ethical beliefs (i.e. karma).
  • Overall, at the close, aspects of learning in RE most likely to motivate pupils were summarised and a recommendation made: that RE should be a dialogue with difference, aimed at building existential and ethical interest and personal significance for pupils.
  • The action research methodology was effective in generating the above recommendation from pupils’ actual words. It was not found to be a neat or objective process: pupils never distinguished between their learning in lessons and their discussions during group interviews, and though the research was intended to investigate their motivation, it evidently increased it.

Relevance to RE

There are two main ways in which RE teachers can use this research. The first way is through its findings; they can prepare topics and lessons for their pupils which provide plenty of opportunities for dialogues with those of different beliefs, for reflecting upon big questions and issues of right and wrong and for thinking about what matters to pupils personally (noting that all this was done by matching content from religions to these concerns). For more details of what was taught in the lessons and how it was taught, readers are recommended to read the original article. The second way is through the study’s methodology; they can carry out similar investigations with pupils of their own. These can be small-scale to begin with (the research reported above had its origins in a shorter masters project).

Generalisability and potential limitations

The data arise from a particular context, a multi-cultural, lower secondary school classroom in Sheffield. The author takes the following position regarding their generalisability: a classroom in a different location, or with a different kind of class, presents a comparable context. Thus, the data might be used as starting points for improving pedagogy in a new setting, but it is up to the teacher to act as a researcher and re-investigate them.

Find out more

‘How far down can you go? Can you get reincarnated as a floorboard?’ Religious education pedagogy, pupil motivation and teacher intelligence, Educational Action Research 16.3 pages 361-376 (published online 28 August 2008), 10.1080/09650790802260315

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09650790802260315

 

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