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Research Title

The Story Tent – Developing Intercultural Learning in Primary Schools

Research Summary

This PhD thesis explored the possibility of applying Scriptural Reasoning (SR) principles to promote Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) in primary schools. It did so by using storytelling and interfaith dialogue to encourage pupils to exercise ICC in classroom settings.
My research title was “An inquiry into the development of intercultural learning in primary schools using applied Scriptural Reasoning principles”.
My hypothesis was that ICC could be promoted in primary schools using faith stories delivered by faith representatives through applied SR practices.
My aim was to test this hypothesis through practical classroom research.
My objectives were:

1. To develop and refine a teaching strategy intervention that employed an age-appropriate adaptation of SR with a view to promoting ICC among primary school children.
2. To measure ICC displayed by the children during the intervention against a model currently employed by the Council of Europe’s education programmes.

This thesis takes its philosophical position from the work of Ricoeur and combines a phenomenological and interpretive approach to religious education to develop pupils understanding of both the “other” and the “self.” From this theoretical position, an age-appropriate intervention was developed based on the principles of SR in collaboration with the Cambridge Interfaith Programme. The resulting “Story Tent” RE themed day built on the established work of Julia Ipgrave’s dialogic and Esther Reed’s narrative approach to religious education.

Researcher

Dr Anne Margaret Moseley

Research Institution

Warwick Religious Education Research Unit

What is this about?

SR is an approach to studying scriptures in interreligious encounters, originally in an academic context. Its focus is on developing an understanding of religion, as experienced by faith participants through shared dialogue around sacred texts. It is a practice where people of different faith traditions come together to share their sacred texts in an environment of mutual trust and respect. Exploring difference and learning to disagree well is at the heart of the approach.
In this research I explored whether it was possible for primary aged pupils to engage with SR principles and whether this approach to reading sacred texts might encourage intercultural communication. I wanted the research to be built on applications of good classroom practice, but I also wanted to give the work a solid theoretical foundation in current academic research. Before the Intervention I developed a theoretical framework through a consideration of two primary research questions, each with associated subsidiary considerations.

1. What are the possibilities for and challenges to the development of SR strategies for promoting ICC?
2. How might SR practices be adapted to suit the experience, skills and cognitive levels of primary age pupils for them to exercise ICC?

What was done?

The underpinning work utilised Action Research methodology through a cyclical approach which took place over two iterative cycles in three different schools, each with its own distinctively different religious ethos and demographic make-up. It was unusual in combining the contributions not only of teachers and researcher but also faith representatives from local communities.
The Intervention was delivered in three schools over two iterative cycles. A research team was brought together to deliver the Intervention that consisted of academics, religious education teachers and community faith representatives.
A total of eighty-seven KS2 pupils (children aged nine to eleven years), from three different schools participated in the research. Data was collected during the Story Tent Intervention day through pupil self-assessments at the end of each teaching session, and by transcribing recordings of focused group work and research team interviews. Follow-up interviews were completed the following day with a representative sample of seventeen pupils from the three schools, using a semi-structured interview developed by the Council of Europe, “The Autobiography of Intercultural Encounter” (AIE). The data was combined to produce pupil case study portfolios and ATLAS.ti was used to support the coding process and analysis of the data.
Useful Resources:
Moseley, Anne (2018) An inquiry into the development of intercultural learning in primary schools using applied scriptural reasoning principles. PhD thesis, University of Warwick. (Available to view on the Warwick University library catalogue e-thesis – WRAP)
The Story Tent blog at CIP https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/news/storytent [Accessed: Feb 2019]
Council of Europe (2009) Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters. Available at: https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/autobiography/Source/AIE_en/AIE_context_concepts_and_t heories_en.pdf [Accessed: Feb 2019].

Main findings and outputs

Primary Findings

1. Story proved to be an age appropriate genre for primary pupils to connect with and provided a familiar context in which pupils were quickly inspired and facilitated engagement. It enabled pupils to investigate difference through an authentic encounter of sacred texts with the support of a community faith representative. It provided a space where ICC could be practiced, and interpretations could be developed using applied SR principles.
2. The concept of the Story Tent “meeting” place facilitated an environment which enabled pupils to explore a “third space” place of translation, in which different viewpoints could be held in tension and explored together. Through the process of trialogue in this structured space pupils could encounter the “other” in a way that was not compromising to personal faith positions.
3. Drama proved to be an effective environment for pupils to exercise ICC. The process of working together to discover and interpret a story and present the findings provided a context in which many of the competences were being exercised in the moment.

Secondary Findings

1. Some of the competences were more frequently demonstrated than others suggesting the possibility of a hierarchy of competences. These differences were most noticeable in those skills that required cognitive thinking. From the pupils’ responses, explaining and relating were more frequently demonstrated than interpreting or critical cultural awareness.
2. Just as there appears to be a cognitively-related hierarchy among the skills-orientated ICC, there also appears to be an interactional hierarchy among the attitude-orientated ICC. For example, those pupils who were able to tolerate ambiguity were more likely to demonstrate a wider range and number of competences than those who did not.
3. Personal religious identity also impacted the pupils’ responses to the Intervention. It tended to have a polarizing impact. Those who expressed no faith position during the Intervention tended to demonstrate average overall Competence, whilst those who identified a personal faith position exhibited either high or low Competence. Pupils who had a strong sense of personal identity and were open to others and able to tolerate ambiguity were more likely to demonstrate critical cultural awareness and higher levels of overall Competence.
4. The Story Tent Intervention proved to be a significant learning experience for the Action Research team. The process of presenting and participating in the Intervention provided a space where a community of learning developed and all those taking part were being challenged by the experience.

Relevance to RE

1. Using Story – The research suggests that story is a powerful vehicle for pupils to interpret meaning without the need for irreducible truth claims. It provided a context where pupils could step out of themselves and imagine different worldviews alongside their own.
2. Using groups of 3 for discussion – The research suggests that pupils working together in groups of three provided a space for trialogue which moved beyond the position of binary dialogue to provide a space where multiple interpretations were possible.
3. Using Drama to develop ICC – The research suggests that the drama session provided a context for pupils to exercise ICC and recognises its potential to explore the views of the “Other”.
4. Using faith community members – The findings from this research suggest that adult and pupil participants demonstrated similar responses to the intervention indicating there is significant value to the involvement of members of faith communities.
5. Using the Council of Europe AIE structured interview tool – The research found that the AIE interview tool was an effective resource which enabled pupils to reflect on their intercultural learning.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Whilst it is difficult to draw conclusive evidence from the Intervention as the data sample size was small, the breadth of religious and demographic composition of the research schools provided an opportunity to explore responses to the Intervention over significantly different groups of pupils which provided an interesting comparison.
During the project I became aware of the limited opportunities the team had to fully explore the contributions of the teachers beyond the Story Tent Intervention day. Whilst the faith representatives were able to see how the Intervention worked out in different contexts over the two iterations, the teachers only encountered the experience in their own school contexts. This led to different roles emerging within the research team in which the faith representatives became more involved with the development of the Intervention and the teachers took on a more advisory role in assessing how the pupils had responded to the encounter.
Whilst the AIE interview provided a useful tool for comparison, I was aware of some limitations. Some competences were more difficult to observe, for example, very few pupils demonstrated non-verbal communication, which is by its very nature not communicated verbally. It would have been interesting to video pupils’ interactions to explore this dimension further, although there would be considerable ethical implications to this course of action. Pupils also demonstrated competences that were not included in the framework for example, an ability to collaborate and work together made a huge difference to pupils’ experience of the encounter and yet it is not recorded within the ICC framework applied.
This research drew heavily on the work of Byram and the Council of Europe to build an ICC framework for the Story Tent Intervention. However, during the research a new framework emerged from the Council of Europe. Whilst there is considerable overlap with previous models, there are significant differences, in particular a section that incorporates “Values” for intercultural competence. I chose not to change my research design midway and would further argue that Byram’s model and the AIE interview are still conceptually relevant.

Find out more

Moseley, Anne (2018) An inquiry into the development of intercultural learning in primary schools using applied scriptural reasoning principles. PhD thesis, University of Warwick. (Available to view on the Warwick University library catalogue e-thesis – WRAP)

http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/112822/

Research Title

Introducing ‘Big Ideas’ to UK Religious Education

Research Summary

This report details the research undertaken at the University of Exeter to apply the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ model (Harlen 2010) to Religious Education. The notion of ‘Big Ideas’ has been mooted as a suitable tool with which to negotiate the tricky task of curriculum reform. At the University of Exeter, the ‘Identifying Principles and Big Ideas for Religious Education’ project sought to follow Harlen’s example, given the lack of coherence in the RE curriculum at present (OFSTED 2013). A symposium of academics, consultants and RE specialists met on Dartmoor to try to identify Big Ideas for RE with the purpose of improving curriculum content selection and sequencing, and these have since been released in a wide-ranging report (Wintersgill 2017). Professor Rob Freathy, who was one of the lead researchers on this project, has also conducted research into how RE might take full advantage of the insights found in Harlen’s work by focusing not only on Big Ideas ‘in RE’ but also by considering methodological questions: Big Ideas ‘about RE’.

Researchers

Professor Rob Freathy & Dr Helen John

Research Institution

University of Exeter

What is this about?

The RE curriculum has long been recognised to be a problematic issue, with OFSTED describing it as overcrowded, incoherent, and confusing for pupils (OFSTED 2013). The Science curriculum faced similar problems and has been revised based on a ‘Big Ideas’ model (Harlen 2010, 2015), drawing on the research of Wiggins and McTigue (1998). At the University of Exeter, Dr Barbara Winstergill and Professor Rob Freathy sought to identify Big Ideas that would apply to the RE curriculum. Working with Professor Michael Reiss (UCL Institute of Education), who was on the team of international scientists who produced the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ (Harlen 2010), they convened and directed a symposium on Dartmoor. Academics, RE specialists and consultants drafted the ‘Big Ideas for Religious Education’, which were published by the University of Exeter in 2017 (Wintersgill 2017; available online).

However, while the ‘Big Ideas for RE’ document focuses squarely on curriculum content and sequencing, Professor Freathy was also interested in developing Big Ideas about methods, methodology and epistemology. In other words, he felt it important for pupils to consider how the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) is conducted. His research thus extends onwards to consider the ‘Big Ideas about’ angle, as well. The ‘find out more’ article below illustrates how that distinction might come into play.

The key questions in the Big Ideas project can thus be summarised as follows:

• How can we improve selection and sequencing of curriculum content in RE? Might the ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ project provide a means?
• What would ‘Big Ideas for RE’ look like?
• ‘Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education’ listed (a) 10 Big Ideas of Science and (b) 4 Ideas about Science. How might we map that distinction onto RE?

What was done?

A symposium of experts met to draft the Big Ideas for RE. Further reflections and feedback were requested from participants. The final report was edited by Dr Wintersgill. Professor Rob Freathy and Dr Helen John wrote an article engaging in critical reflection on the Big Ideas for RE report.

Main findings and outputs

The symposium found that Big Ideas for RE could usefully be used to select and sequence content in RE. They could be modelled on the Big Ideas in Science Education project. Six Big Ideas for RE were identified, and are entitled as follows (see the report for full descriptions):

1. Continuity, Change and Diversity: this big idea reflects on continuity and diversity within and between religious and non-religious traditions.
2. Words and Beyond: this big idea reflects on the difficulty in expressing some of our deepest-held beliefs in everyday language.
3. A Good Life: this big idea reflects on the concerns religious and non-religious traditions have with striving towards living a morally good life.
4. Making Sense of Life’s Experiences: this big idea reflects on religious, spiritual and transformative experiences.
5. Influence, Community, Culture and Power: this big idea reflects on the interactions between religious/non-religious worldviews and wider communities and cultures.
6. The Big Picture: this big idea reflects on the ‘grand narratives’ put forward by religious and non-religious worldviews to explain how and why the world is as it is.

Freathy and John’s article goes on to suggest that big ideas are also required to reflect on how we study religions and worldviews. They identify the following 4 ‘Big Ideas about the Study of Religion(s) and Worldview(s)’ that pupils should also be introduced to:

1. Encountering Religion(s) and Worldview(s): Contested definitions and contexts: this big idea recognises how contested descriptions/definitions are of the nature of religions/worldviews, the concepts of ‘religion’/‘worldview’ themselves, and the dynamic nature of the contexts involved, for example.
2. Encountering Oneself: Reflexivity, Reflectivity and Positionality: this big idea recognises that who we are affects (and sometimes determines) how we study, what we study, and what we find out about it.
3. Encountering Methodologies and Methods: Discernment and Diversity: this big idea focuses on the multi-disciplinary and methodologically diverse nature of our field of enquiry.
4. Encountering the Real World: Relevance and Transferability: this big idea recognises that the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) is a vital tool in understanding the world around us.

Relevance to RE

The Big Ideas are designed to be overarching concepts that help draw together and make sense of the many disparate facts that pupils might encounter in the classroom. Using the Big Ideas report (Wintersgill 2017), teachers might be encouraged to think about how they could orient schemes of work around Big Ideas. In addition, they might introduce pupils to different ideas about the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) from Freathy and John’s article. The RE-searchers approach (a primary resource but adaptable for secondary; see resources on RE:Online) could be used to encourage reflection on the Big Ideas about side of this research.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The Big Ideas for RE body of research is in its infancy but, given the success of the Science Education project, there is great promise for its success in RE. Teachers are encouraged to offer feedback to Professor Freathy.

Find out more

23. Freathy, R. and John, H. (2019). Religious Education, Big Ideas and the Study of Religion(s) and Worldview(s). British Journal of Religious Education. 41(1): 27-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2018.1500351

https://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/collegeofsocialsciencesandinternationalstudies/education/research/groupsandnetworks/reandspiritualitynetwork/Big_Ideas_for_RE_E-Book.pdf

Research Title

‘Growing, Together?’

Research Summary

‘Growing, Together?’ (2018) looks into how schools might unlock potential for powerful two way support by involving their local inter-generational community in creative projects to help them with RE and SMSCD. What sort of development are we aiming for when it comes to spirituality and RE, if it is to be of long term value?

Researchers

Liz Mills

Research Institution

Farmington Institute

What is this about?

‘Growing, Together?’ (2018) looks into how schools might unlock potential for powerful two way support by involving their local inter-generational community in creative projects to help them with RE and SMSCD, especially in terms of their provision for spiritual development. What sort of development are we aiming for when it comes to spirituality and RE, if it is to be of long term value?

What was done?

This was a piece of Action Research practically trialling a series of creative projects over the course of 2 years, linking a school with its local inter-generational community to see what potential might be unlocked for a better understanding of spiritual development and ways to encourage it in the longer term.

This was coupled with extensive reading into spiritual development, especially in later life, and ongoing work as a teacher; as well as practical involvement in groups for older people, locally and nationally, and networking with others involved in inter-generational community projects involving schools.

Main findings and outputs

That spirituality is not necessarily something which develops in a conventional ‘progress’ model, but more something that develops like a photo being ‘developed’ or realised, at any stage in life. There is much potential to be gained by involving older people in schools’ work in this area, though there are barriers to overcome. The next stage will be to investigate further ways to overcome the barriers, in order to harness the potential.

Relevance to RE

Teachers might develop their own ways to involve the local inter-generational community in RE. They might be helped by reading about the barriers that appeared and how these were overcome.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is small scale research, which others may be interested in following up and developing.

Find out more

http://www.farmington.ac.uk/?s=growing%2C+together%3F

Research Title

The Doughnut and the Hole: Spiritual Development in Primary schools

Research Summary

‘The Doughnut and the Hole’ (1997), aimed to try to find through talking with teachers, advisers, children, researchers and reading widely, some simple, appropriate ways to encourage Spiritual Development in Primary Schools. The resulting images from this research have been useful in further work by myself and others. Seeing ourselves as spiritual in the sense of being Holy Doughnuts: Holy Wholes with Holy Holes, and the need to allow time for openings: as Windows, of wondering about the Wows and Ows of life; as Mirrors (of reflecting on this;) and Doors (of opportunity to express and act on what is being learnt from this). This piece of research can be found via the link below and supports other work in which I am now involved.

Researchers

Liz Mills

Research Institution

Farmington Institute

What is this about?

‘The Doughnut and the Hole’ (1997), aimed to try to find some simple, appropriate ways to encourage Spiritual Development in Primary Schools.

What was done?

This was a piece of Action Research in schools involving interviewing and working with teachers, children, parents and governors as well as background networking with advisers and researchers around the country, together with wide reading.

Main findings and outputs

What is spiritual development? Here a simple definition image was offered: a Holy Doughnut. An image which might help us see ourselves as ‘spiritual’ in the sense of being like doughnuts with holes: Holy Wholes with Holy Holes. Secondly, how might spirituality be developed? Here an alternative understanding of the word ‘development’ was offered: development as a process of realisation, like developing a photo, rather than a continuous push for ‘progressive’ development.

Three images resulted from this research, to help schools to plan practically. Windows (of wondering about the Wows and Ows of life), Mirrors (of reflecting on this) and Doors, (of opportunity to express and act on what is being learnt from this).

Relevance to RE

Teachers might use the research to help develop appropriate, inclusive ways to understand the term spiritual development in primary schools; and to do practical, creative work with this in RE, SMSCD or throughout the curriculum.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Other teachers might like to make use of and build on the ideas contained in the research.

Find out more

http://www.farmington.ac.uk/index.php/ps12-the-doughnut-and-the-hole/

Research Title

Religious education and hermeneutics: the case of teaching about Islam

Research Summary

This article explores the ways in which Islam is presented in an essentialist way in RE in England and Wales, leading to stereotypes that are embedded in resources and agreed syllabi. It provides a critique of essentialism, and makes a case for the role of hermeneutics in teaching and learning about Islam. A hermeneutical approach is argued to be a sound way to conceptualise Islam and a pedagogical opening to make sense of it, that may help overcome some of the weaknesses of the current ways of teaching about Islam.

Researchers

Dr Farid Panjwani & Dr Lynn Revell

Research Institution

Institute of Education, University College London / Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

• In what ways do stereotypes enter presentations of Islam in RE?
• How can these be overcome?
• What contribution can hermeneutics make to the improvement of teaching and learning about Islam?

What was done?

This is a scholarly, analytical discussion of Islam and educational practice, focussed on the dangers of essentialism – defined as follows on page 268 of the article:

“Essentialism is the belief that a thing has a set of characteristics which make it what it is. Often this is accompanied with an assumption that how an idea or a phenomenon was in its original state, determines its essence.”

This limits engagement with the varieties of Islam and may set up Islam as the antithesis of ‘Western values’.

Main findings and outputs

• Academics often criticise essentialist views of Islam, but the tendency persists in RE resources and curricula.
• From p.270: “In endless textbooks we can see the playing out of this narrative as adherence to the same markers (dress, beliefs, festivals, rituals) are identified as the defining characteristics of belonging to religious communities. Approaches to the teaching of Islam that define Muslims through a focus on essential, ahistorical features are in effect creating and legitimising a stereotype.”
• Ibid.: “Even where diversity within Islam is recognised it is represented within cultural silos so that ‘different types’ of Muslims appear as a series of stereotypes, the liberal Muslim, the extremist Muslim, the Pakistani Muslim etc.”
• A second problem is to describe Islam as a ‘world religion’ by the use of common themes, beliefs, practices and concepts rooted in Christian traditions.
• Rather than just presenting diversity we need to explore why there is diversity in the first place. It is because of a hermeneutical process; when people first heard the Qur’an, different kinds of responses were made depending on the situations of the hearers. This process continues. There is no single teaching on attitudes to other religions, for example. Different communities place different boundaries and “Muslims make Islam as much as Islam makes Muslims”. (p.274)

Relevance to RE

Readers are strongly encouraged to read the original article in full, as lack of space here prevents sufficiently detailed summary. However, two clear pedagogical recommendations are made in its conclusion. First, rather than posing questions such as ‘what is Islam’s view on Christianity?’, it is better to ask ‘how have Muslims understood Islam’s relationship with Christianity?’. Second, the role of pupils should change – they should be enabled to enquire into different meanings; this is how religions continue to remain relevant and pupils can participate in this process for themselves.

Generalisability and potential limitations

As it is not a presentation of empirical data, the factor of generalisability does not really apply in this case. Rather, teachers are invited to weigh up the article’s arguments and try out and evaluate its pedagogical recommendations in practice.

Find out more

Farid Panjwani & Lynn Revell (2018) Religious education and hermeneutics: the case of teaching about Islam, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:3, 268-276.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2018.1493269?journalCode=cbre20

Research Summary

Disagreements about how Christianity should be taught in state-funded school RE have a long history. In this article are considered debates that have arisen about theologically-based pedagogy. The focus is Understanding Christianity, a resource inspired by recent developments in hermeneutics. When studying the Bible, should pupils should be viewed as insiders or outsiders? The argument is that hermeneutics offers a robust model for an academically rigorous approach that enables pupils to be both insiders and outsiders. There is explanation of how Understanding Christianity has attempted to embody this aspiration.

Researchers

Stephen Pett & Professor Trevor Cooling

Research Institution

RE Today Services / Canterbury Christ Church University

What is this about?

• How should Christianity be approached in state-funded school RE? Especially, how should the Bible be approached?
• Are theological approaches to Christianity appropriate in state-funded school RE?
• Hermeneutical approaches to Christianity are argued to be appropriate: academically rigorous, requiring pupils to examine the nature of the text but also attending to their own backgrounds and responses.
• It is shown how the Understanding Christianity resource puts this approach into practice.

What was done?

The article is a scholarly essay on theological approaches to RE, examining the different arguments for and against and presenting the strengths of a hermeneutical theological approach, as exemplified in the Understanding Christianity resource.

Main findings and outputs

• There is suspicion that using theology as a pedagogy of RE is hijacking RE for faith formation.
• However, Understanding Christianity and its hermeneutical approach answers this concern.
• Julia Ipgrave’s work is cited, whereby it is possible for students as academic outsiders to learn from the Bible as insiders with personal integrity, without being treated as Christian insiders.
• Pupils should ask what their ‘pre-understanding’ of texts is; from what point of view do they interpret?
• They should try to discern its originally intended meaning, through study of the various background factors, then ask about its significance (if any) for themselves.
• In these ways, there can be responsible interpretation and awareness of diversity.
• The selection of material for and pedagogy of Understanding Christianity reflect these priorities.

Relevance to RE

The article presents and defends the merits of an increasingly known though contested approach to Christianity in RE. It offers thought-provoking points for teachers to consider when preparing lessons (e.g. on page 265 where we are asked to consider the effect of offering pupils various titles for the same parable: Prodigal Son, Wasteful Son, Lost Son, Foolish Father, Careless Country, Forgiving Father or Two Lost Sons). Many RE teachers will be familiar with the Understanding Christianity materials and readers are encouraged to read the original BJRE article.

Generalisability and potential limitations

Because this is a scholarly essay, the question of generalisability does not really apply. Rather, readers are encouraged to try out and evaluate the approach in their own classrooms.

Find out more

Stephen Pett & Trevor Cooling (2018) Understanding Christianity: exploring a hermeneutical pedagogy for teaching Christianity, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:3, 257-267.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2018.1493268?journalCode=cbre20

Research Title

Reading religion in Norwegian textbooks: are individual religions ideas or people?

Research Summary

This is an analysis of Norwegian sixth form RE textbooks, with much wider implications. The content was analysed through a detailed coding system, to establish whether different religions were treated more as sets of ideas or groups of people. Some clear trends were found: Buddhism and Christianity receive significantly more attention for their ideas than Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, which are treated more as people. This has implications for teachers in all countries in terms of critical attention to text-books and perhaps needing to compensate to achieve balance.

Researchers

Andrew Thomas & Alf Rolin

Research Institution

Østfold University College

What is this about?

• Do Norwegian sixth form RE textbooks treat different religions more as sets of ideas or groups of people? I.e. concerned with beliefs or doctrines; or individuals’ or groups’ experiences, practices or lives?
• Are there reasons for the differential treatment?
• What are the implications for teachers, in all countries, in relation to fairness and balance when presenting and dealing with different religions?

What was done?

• All the textbooks written to teach RE in Norwegian sixth forms were analysed, though a coding system that showed whether words, images and questions presented different religions as sets of ideas or groups of people.
• The coding system was built on detailed, consistently-applied rules.

Main findings and outputs

• Questions tend to emphasise idea-religion (average 64% idea) and images tend to prefer people (average 70% people), with the word count usually landing somewhere just behind the questions (average 57% idea).
• Buddhism and Islam are treated in every textbook. Islam’s ideas feature consistently less than Buddhism’s. E.g. Images in one book’s Buddhism chapter portrayed religious people 63% of the time, whereas 85% of the time in the Islam chapter. This is strange, and cannot be explained by the nature of the religions, since Islam’s emphasis on texts is greater than Buddhism’s.
• Hinduism, Islam and Judaism all have word counts, questions and images devoted to people-religion more than idea-religion, Christianity consistently comes out as above average an idea-religion.
• The reasons need more research. Some ideas need further investigation, e,g, that religion tends to be treated as human behaviour rather than ideas for personal reflection where conflicts are involved, or that Buddhist ideas tend to be well received.

Relevance to RE

On p.50 of the article the authors say:
. . . teachers outside Norway wishing to present any one religion in a balanced way can compensate for their textbooks’ leanings. Where the ideas of Buddhism are well covered, a teacher might want to make up for the relative invisibility of religious communities in learning materials. Similarly, if the everyday life of contemporary Muslims is prominent in a textbook, a teacher might make extra use of philosophical discussion in the classroom so that all pupils have their ideas taken seriously . . .

Otherwise, the contribution of different religions to RE is unequal.

Generalisability and potential limitations

As can be appreciated, the data arise from the Norwegian context, but the messages for professional practice in RE are relevant to all national settings.

Find out more

Andrew Thomas & Alf Rolin (2019) Reading religion in Norwegian textbooks: are individual religions ideas or people?, British Journal of Religious Education, 41:1, 41-53.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2018.1484691?journalCode=cbre20

Research Summary

Sixty-five secondary school students are encouraged to develop the dialogic skills of consensus building through cumulative talk and constructive criticism through exploratory talk. With a stimulus of two texts – one based on science and the supernatural and the other on New Testament scholarship – the students from ten UK secondary schools engage with paired conversations. Their conversations are recorded and transcribed and subsequently analysed for quality.

Researchers

Dr Antony Luby

Research Institution

University of Glasgow

What is this about?

Research Question 1
To what extent do the students remain on task when their conversations take place out with the visible control of the teacher?

Research Question 2
To what extent does this intervention promote participation in cumulative talk and exploratory talk by the students?

Research Question 3
To what extent does dialogic RE promote a deep approach to students’ learning?

Research Question 4
How might the development of dialogic skills become a regular feature within classroom life?

What was done?

10 secondary schools selected by opportunity sampling – 9 in England (East Midlands & South Yorkshire) and 1 in Scotland.
4 are faith schools (2 Anglican; 2 Catholic); 5 are academies and 1 is a comprehensive school.
Overall then, taking together the four criteria of type, location, affluence of catchment areas and performance levels, the opportunity sample can be criticised on three grounds:
1. There is an over-representation of faith schools and academies;
2. The school locations are biased towards cities and towns; and
3. It skews towards schools performing at the lower end of the Ofsted spectrum.
Nonetheless, there is still a broad representation of schools given that:
a) The three most common types of schools are well represented;
b) All four kinds of location (city, town, semi-rural and rural) are represented;
c) There is a broad diversity of catchment areas spread throughout the deciles spanning from ‘most deprived’ to ‘least deprived’; and
d) All four categories of Ofsted performance levels are covered within the sample.

65 students were selected by the heads of department for paired conversations. 61 students participated from Y10-Y13 and 4 students from Y9. There was a wide range of religious and non-religious backgrounds i.e. the students self-declared as:
Agnostic = 22
Atheist = 14
Christian Catholic = 8
Christian Other = 12
Deist = 2
Muslim = 2
Non-religious = 4
Sikh = 1

The paired conversations were recorded, transcribed and then analysed for quality.

Main findings and outputs

The findings from the academies are particularly encouraging in that twenty-seven out of twenty-eight conversations are rated as either high quality or mid quality. High quality requires a minimum of 700 words and 70% cumulative talk and exploratory talk.

Further, using a series of 10 test items for the survey questionnaire it was ascertained that, to a high degree of statistical significance, the students claim that paired conversations promotes a deep approach to learning.

Also, the students clearly enjoyed the experience since from the sixty-two responses only two are negative; seven are mixed; and fifty-three are positive. Typical students’ comments include –

“I think this approach is generally helpful for learning in RE as it makes me question my opinion and the opinions of others when learning.”

“Useful for reinforcing information and critically analysing the information.”

“I think this way of learning is beneficial as it makes you engage in a subject and broadens your understanding through worked examples; it encourages openness.”

Some transcripts were viewed by two experienced heads of department of RE and elicited the following:

“You are getting pupils to really engage in the topic and I think it’s very difficult in a class situation where pupils can express their views clearly… I think honestly it’s just excellent, it’s so nice to see them doing critical thinking…”

With regard to future research –
The community of enquiry identifies software like Book Creator, GarageBand and i-Tunes U as having the capacity to offer pedagogic strategies whereby students can have a degree of privacy for their conversations before sharing these with teachers and peers. Such technologies should feature in future interventions and research intended to promote the development of dialogic skills in RE.

Relevance to RE

A good place to start would be with A-level students and 6th formers. With no safeguarding issues to consider, they can be assigned easily to a room / place in the school to undertake their paired conversations.

Alternatively, tech savvy RE teachers could use GarageBand, Book Creator or i-Tunes U for paired conversations within the classroom that can then be shared with the rest of the class.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The research findings are both indicative and relatable as they are based on a sample of 10 schools that skews towards the lower end of both the socio-economic spectrum and Ofsted ratings. The 65 students who participated are primarily in KS4 and KS5.

Find out more

Luby, A. 2019. Dominican Thomist Pedagogy for a Post-Secular Society: Developing Dialogic Skills in RE for Students in UK Secondary Schools. Unpublished PhD thesis. Glasgow: University of Glasgow.

http://theses.gla.ac.uk/41201/

Research Summary

Setting challenges, tasks or tests boosts learning more effectively than asking learners to re-study or re-read. There is a difference between learning and performance: learning is more independent and longer-term; cues present now may not be present later. This is a presentation of evidence from cognitive psychology, which shows that setting up ‘desirable difficulties’ (e.g. temporarily removing cues such as notes, or varying the context or place of learning, or interweaving learning on one topic with learning on another) can overcome a misleading sense of familiarity and promote mastery.

Researchers

Elizabeth L. Bjork & Robert Bjork

Research Institution

University of California, Los Angeles

What is this about?

What kinds of teaching and studying practices promote longer-term mastery of content or skills?

What was done?

The researchers surveyed and summarised various evidence pieces from cognitive psychology, including work of their own, to draw out advice on effective learning for both teachers and learners.

Main findings and outputs

• Learning is a more or less permanent change in knowledge or understanding. It’s hard to assess; current performance can be a highly unreliable measure of whether learning has occurred.
• How integrated is learning into the learner’s mind, into related knowledge and skills (‘storage strength’)? How easily can it be brought back to mind, currently (‘retrieval strength’)? Learners shouldn’t confuse these, as they may condition themselves to prefer poorer conditions of learning. The better ones can seem more difficult, moreover. They include:
  Varying the conditions (rooms, places, situations, kinds of task).
  ‘Spacing’ or ‘distributed learning’ (returning to a topic at periodic intervals rather than just cramming for apparently rapid gains).
  Interleaving topics with other topics to develop contrast, comparison and higher-order thinking.
  Using tests for learning not just assessment – they promote recall better than re-reading and promote meta-cognition (awareness of what learners know and need to re-address).
• Generally, learners need to act, interpret and prioritise output over input; they need to manage their own learning.

Relevance to RE

The general principles can be applied to any content including RE. Teachers might try varying learning locations (classroom, faith community centre, large space / small space, outdoor area . . . ) and kinds of task (individual, group, creative, analytic, etc.); revisiting studies on one religion or world-view part way through those of another; introducing comparative, simultaneous or parallel work on studies of more than one religion or world-view; or using unassessed tests.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The research has a very detailed basis. The researchers say that so far its impact on practice has been slight (some of it challenges what might be seen as ‘intuitively’ right) but that the impact of research findings on educational practice is increasing – the article is from 2011. Their findings are supported by large numbers of studies and they say that the finding on the advantages of ‘spacing’ is one of the most robust in the history of research on learning.

Find out more

The article is freely downloadable from https://teaching.yale-nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2016/02/Making-Things-Hard-on-Yourself-but-in-a-Good-Way-2011.pdf

Research Summary

This research looks across work in cognitive science, studies of accomplished teachers and cognitive supports (effective teaching procedures), in order to identify principles of good teaching that all teachers can use and develop. Though the research draws on three kinds of evidence, the principles can be applied without any contradiction between them.

Researcher

Barak Rosenshine

Research Institution

University of Illinois

What is this about?

What are some research-based principles for teaching that can be identified, in order to help all teachers get better at what we do? (If you go to the original article linked below, you will also find some accompanying suggestions for classroom practice.)

What was done?

As was mentioned above, Rosenshine looked across three types of evidence (cognitive science, studies of accomplished teachers and cognitive supports) in order to identify a series of principles on which teachers can base good practice – that is, practice that will support pupils to learn. The 10 principles – perhaps strategies is the more apt of the two words used to classify them – are listed below in Main Findings and Outputs.

Main findings and outputs

1. Daily review / begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning. 5-8 minutes makes learning natural or automatic.
2. Present new material using small steps. Check understanding and re-teach if necessary.
3. Ask questions. Use discussion, involve all pupils, make them talk about how they got their answers.
4. Provide models. Demonstrate or talk through a completed task before giving pupils a related one.
5. Guide student practice. Show them how to process new material before asking them to be independent with it.
6. Check for student understanding. Frequently ask pupils what they are doing, to summarise their progress, to compare their answers with those of others, etc.
7. Obtain a high success rate. 80% is about right (they are learning, and challenged): small steps build success – they should not go on to new content before mastery of current content and the class should move on together.
8. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks. Provide supports (e.g. cue cards) that can help at first and be taken away later.
9. Independent practice. Pupils should ‘overlearn’ and become fluent, though needing proper preparation before they can do so independently. Teacher support should be focused in 30-second contact.
10. Weekly and monthly review. Pupils should read around content and teachers should regularly review or test it, to build up knowledge and memory.

Relevance to RE

The nature of the strategies is to be effective whatever the subject content, though some of them seem to suit particular RE emphases (e.g. 2 when presenting a religious tradition or set of issues previously unknown to pupils, 3 and 6 for dialogical RE learning). It would be good to have examples of specific RE use of the strategies, or better, accounts of how their use has boosted RE pupils’ progress (please email Kevin@cstg.org.uk with these).

Generalisability and potential limitations

Many teachers will recognise the strategies, but also find it helpful to have them spelled out and to read that they are grounded in research. They do need tying to specific content (see Relevance to RE, above), but RE teachers would want to do that in any case.

Find out more

The article is freely downloadable from https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf