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Research Summary

ICT is now embedded in society. The question is no longer whether to use it in education but how to. Studies associate small improvements in pupil achievement with the use of ICT, but there is no causal link. It is probable that more effective schools and teachers are more likely to use digital technologies more effectively than other schools. The issue is to consider how well the technology is used to support teaching and learning. ICT has to be effectively aligned with what is to be learned. There is no general evidence that ICT improves learning as such.

Researchers

Steven Higgins, ZhiMin Xiao & Maria Katsipataki

Research Institution

Durham University

What is this about?

• Teachers inevitably face questions about how to use ICT to boost learning – it is no longer whether to.
• But there is no general evidence that ICT improves learning, in general.
• It is likely that the most effective use happens because ICT resources are matched well to particular learning or subject demands.
• What do we know about how to do that?

What was done?

• A meta-analysis was undertaken as follows – * A systematic literature search search revealed 48 studies which synthesised primary research studies of the impact of technology on the attainment of school age learners (5-18 year olds).
• These studies were analysed and key findings and recommendations identified.

Main findings and outputs

• Small group or pair use of ICT is usually more effective than individual use.
• ICT use can be effective as a short-term, focused learning boost, e.g. in catch-up or remedial learning situations; sustained use over longer periods is less effective.
• ICT should be a supplement to teaching, not a replacement for it.
• ICT-related CPD should focus on successful pedagogical use.
• Questions need to be considered –
  Will learners work more efficiently, more effectively, more intensively? Will the technology help them to learn for longer, in more depth, more productively? Or will the teacher be able to support learners more efficiently or more effectively? Will the technology help learners gain access to learning content, to teachers or to peers? Will the technology itself provide feedback or will it support more effective feedback from others, or better self-management by learners themselves? What will we stop doing, when we use ICT – what will it replace, and how will it be additional?

Relevance to RE

The research is not subject-specific, but refers to school learning in general. RE teachers and departments might reflect on its findings when developing policies for ICT use or lessons that make use of digital technology resources, asking questions such as: how will this particular ICT resource improve RE-specific learning in this case? The key message from the research is to use ICT judiciously and not through a sense that we ‘should’, or ‘because it is there’, though pupils can undoubtedly be motivated by it.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The research draws on a large number of existing international studies and analyses. Rather than offering recipes it underlines the need for teacher professional judgement and careful planning, but this is to be weclomed, and it does offer sound underlying principles.

Find out more

The report is freely downloadable from https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/evidence-reviews/digital-technology/

Research Summary

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast is an audio learning tool which provides content aimed at students to help improve their knowledge outside of the classroom. The podcast offers discussions and analysis dedicated to the topics set by the OCR Religious Studies specification studied in the UK. It also provides content which has the potential for synoptic links across modules and possibly other subjects the students are learning. The research project aimed to gauge how classroom teachers and their students perceived the usefulness of the podcast when using it as a flipped-learning tool.

Researchers

Andrew Horton, Jack Symes, Amy Houghton-Barnes & Anu Tester

Research Institution

The Panpsycast

What is this about?

Is podcasting, more specifically ‘The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast, a useful tool for flipped-learning?

– How did teachers use the podcast?
– Has the podcast improved the students’ learning?
– Has the podcast improved the quality of teaching?
– What are the limitations of the podcast as a learning tool?
– How much do students enjoy listening to the podcast?

What was done?

Teachers were asked to choose episodes of the podcast and then set their students homework to listen in preparation for a discussion or written task. The staff and students were then required to fill in a feedback questionnaire which they accessed online. Teachers addressed questions relating to their thoughts on how the podcast was best employed as a learning tool and how it benefited their teaching practice, if at all. Students answered questions concerning their enjoyment of the podcast medium and how it compared to their other methods of learning.

Main findings and outputs

The initial data suggest that both teachers and students enjoy The Panpsycast as a method for flipped-learning. However, there are some stipulations, particularly from the student perspective. The podcast appears to work best when there is plenty of time to listen at the pace of the specific student. The podcast should also be used intermittently, perhaps every 2-4 weeks as one of the teachers prescribed. The findings here cannot offer clear quantitative evidence regarding the improvement of students’ learning, but instead, they give an initial insight into how The Panpsycast has been received in the short-term. Further long-term studies will need to be conducted if there is to be a clearer understanding of the benefits.

Relevance to RE

The initial data suggest that The Panpsycast is an effective method for flipped-learning and that both teachers and students enjoy it. The podcast should be used as a flipped-learning tool intermittently, perhaps at the start of a new topic, as one of the teachers prescribed.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The podcast appears to work best when there is plenty of time to listen at the pace of the specific student. The podcast should also be used intermittently, perhaps every 2-4 weeks as one of the teachers prescribed. The findings here cannot offer clear quantitative evidence regarding the improvement of student’s learning, but instead, they give an initial insight into how The Panpsycast has been received in the short-term. Further long-term studies will need to be conducted if there is to be a clearer understanding of the benefits.

Find out more

https://philpapers.org/rec/HORTPF-5

Research Summary

Across Western Europe, people who say they personally know a Muslim are generally more likely than others to have positive opinions of Muslims and their religion, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. However, simply knowing something about Islam is less associated with positive attitudes.

This pattern is evident across several questions asked of Europeans identifying as Christian to gauge attitudes toward Muslims, including whether they think Islam compatible with their country’s culture and values and whether they would be willing to accept a Muslim as a family member .

Researchers

Scott Gardner & Jonathan Evans

Research Institution

Pew Research Center, Washington DC

What is this about?

The research is about attitudes to Islam and Muslims among self-identifying Christians in 15 different countries in Western Europe. The main questions were:

• Is knowing about Islam associated with positive or negative attitudes to Islam and / or Muslims?
• Is knowing Muslims personally associated with positive or negative attitudes to Islam and / or Muslims?

What was done?

The data were gathered through a large questionnaire survey. Follow-up focus group interviews were also carried out in 5 of the 15 countries.

Main findings and outputs

• Western European self-identifying Christians who know Muslims personally are significantly more likely to hold positive attitudes to Islam or Muslims.
• But knowing something ‘about Islam’ is less associated with these positive attitudes.
• For example, the percentage who completely or mostly disagree with the statement that Muslims want to impose their religious law on everyone else in the country is much higher among those who know Muslims personally than those who do not: 85% compared to 48% in the UK and in Switzerland, 81% compared to 47% in Germany.
• By contrast, the percentages of those simply knowing a great deal or something about Islam who completely or mostly disagree with the same statement are 75% in Switzerland, 69% in the UK and 70% in Germany.
• Regardless of their level of knowledge about Islam, similar percentages in most of the countries disagree with the statement that Muslims “want to impose their religious law on everyone else in the country.” Swiss adults who know a great deal or something about Islam, for example, are only 4 percentage points more likely to disagree than those who know less about Islam.
• The patterns are similar for different questions such as whether they think Islam is compatible with their country’s culture and values and whether they would be willing to accept a Muslim as a member of their family.

Relevance to RE

The research gives interesting information. It also backs previous research about how RE teachers should deal with religious prejudice, or help pupils manage media representations of religion. It is evident in the research that personal knowledge of Muslims challenges popular stereotypes. This re-iterates the need for teachers to draw on pupils’ personal knowledge of faith group members when presenting or discussing religious traditions, though this needs to be done sensitively. See https://researchforre.reonline.org.uk/research_report/talking-about-religion-and-diversity/?show_me=&about=&taxes=

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is a major survey by an internationally respected research centre. Care was taken to achieve representative samples and the respondent group was large (24,559). Attempts were made to balance the population of focus groups (the focus group research was contracted to Ipsos MORI).

Find out more

Scott Gardner and Jonathan Evans, In Western Europe, familiarity with Muslims is linked to positive views of Muslims and Islam, online article available at http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/07/24/in-western-europe-familiarity-with-muslims-is-linked-to-positive-views-of-muslims-and-islam/

http://www.pewforum.org/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/

Research Summary

The National Foundation for Educational Research set out to explore evidence-based practice in schools: how teachers use evidence in the classroom, and what they feel are the most effective approaches to engaging with research and using it to inform their practice. Clear benefits were found, including getting teachers thinking about their teaching, giving teachers new ideas, boosting confidence, stimulating professional discussion and breaking down subject barriers.

Researchers

Michelle Judkins, Oliver Stacey, Tami McCrone & Matthew Inniss

Research Institution

National Foundation for Educational Research

What is this about?

The key questions were:

1. What makes for an evidence-informed school?
2. How do teachers use research evidence in the classroom?
3. What do they feel are the most effective approaches to engaging with research and using it to inform their practice?

What was done?

The data were collected through 17 telephone interviews with members of the senior leadership teams (SLT) within a sample of United Learning schools; and 39 face-to-face interviews with teachers from seven case-study schools. United Learning is a group of schools committed to evidence-based practice.

Main findings and outputs

• Overall, engaging in research evidence was perceived to encourage teacher reflection and open-mindedness.
• Teachers’ openness to adopting different approaches was considered to make lessons more engaging for learners, and engaging with research was seen to encourage this: ‘Using research evidence can give you new ideas; it helps to stop you getting stale and using the same teaching strategies over and over again . . .’ .
• Interviewees also believed that teachers benefit from research evidence through its use to inform professional development and through the confidence acquired from implementing new approaches: ‘research provides evidence that a teaching strategy is effective. This in turn gives you more confidence to try out something new in the classroom and to take a risk’.
• SLT members explained the benefits of using research evidence in terms of its ability to drive school improvement initiatives; to substantiate the reasons behind change; and to underpin staff professional development: ‘[Engaging in research evidence] provides a process for thought and examination of practice. It opens minds ….. and prevents teachers becoming compartmentalized within their own subject areas’ .

Recommendations:

•  Be open-minded when drawing on research evidence to shape teaching – teachers need the confidence to fail and try again, learning from the experience.
• Create time e.g. in department meetings to read and discuss research.
• Make research findings accessible.

Relevance to RE

RE teachers might adopt these findings into their practice, as research-based ways to develop teaching and learning. RE-related research has been made accessible via this website, for instance. A department or other group of RE teachers might select one of its research reports as the basis for a meeting, discuss the report in the meeting, devise some follow-up teaching activities aimed at putting the findings into practice and then report back in a future meeting.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researchers say that evidence-based practice in school is in its infancy, and recommend building on their study with further research in schools. The scale of their study is fairly small but does show that within one group of schools, teachers and others are finding that the use of research evidence helps generate improvements to teaching and overall culture.

Find out more

The report is: Teachers’ Use of Research Evidence: A case study of United Learning schools. It can be accessed freely at https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/IMUL01/IMUL01.pdf

Research Summary

Engagement of teachers in research about practice is a feature of professional learning and career development in the United Kingdom. But what are the challenges? This is a small-scale study of the experience of primary and secondary teachers conducting action research as part of a development project promoted by a school alliance with university researchers. Interviews took place about the teachers’ motivations, experience and outcomes. Though the teachers felt reluctant and constrained by management directives, the experience was ultimately beneficial, resulting in improvements to their teaching.

Researchers

Andrew Lambirth & Ana Cabral

Research Institution

University of Greenwich

What is this about?

• What do teachers stand to gain from engagement with research, in the sense of carrying out their own action research projects with the support of university researchers.
• What are the obstacles to such engagement – why might teachers feel reluctant to do it?
• What are the professional advantages to teachers of researching their own work?

What was done?

11 teachers from 6 schools in South-East London designed and implemented an action research project aimed at improving an area of teaching within their classroom and / or school. Regular meetings with university staff were held, where advice on e.g. research methodology was given and the projects’ progress reviewed.
The research draws on 9 semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the teachers conducted by the research team and field notes collected from a total of 9 meetings.

Main findings and outputs

• Teachers were compelled to take part in the project by managers, as part of accountability or ‘box-ticking’ exercises.
• These also affected project choices, e.g. ‘cognitive acceleration’ in Science or ‘data-driven improvement’ in literacy.
• But as the projects developed, the teachers began to develop a sense of their own agency, because they were having to think themselves about the changes produced by their actions and how to learn from them.
• They began to be ‘intrinsically’ motivated to think about what children think, like to do and are interested in. Adapting teaching to children’s responses was a new approach, experienced as just and democratic.
• Teachers who want to be researchers do need scholarship time, and support to publish.
• They also find high value in collaboration with colleagues from the university and other schools.

Relevance to RE

RE teachers might be encouraged by the research to undertake small-scale research studies of their own teaching, on the basis of the evidence that this promises valuable professional development. In line with the conclusions of the research, they should identify research questions arising as important in their own practice, rather than to satisfy managerial demands, press for scholarship time and seek collaborations with university staff and colleagues in other schools. The research underlines the potential of e.g. Farmington scholarships or master’s programmes to generate RE teachers’ professional development and development within RE.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researchers acknowledge that the study is small-scale. The account of the pressures on teachers would be recognised widely, however, and the experience of the few teacher-researchers studied may illustrate possibilities for the profession in general. The findings resemble those of other studies. See e.g.

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/IMUL01/IMUL01.pdf

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

Find out more

The full article is: Andrew Lambirth & Ana Cabral (2017) Issues of agency, discipline and criticality: an interplay of challenges involved in teachers engaging in research in a performative school context, Educational Action Research, 25:4, 650-666.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09650792.2016.1218350

Research Summary

That young people should be competent in research, across disciplines, is very important for their education and the country’s future. But little is known about their experiences of researching in school, or their understanding of what research is or how to do it. This research aimed to address these gaps. Surveys and interviews were carried out with secondary school pupils in East Anglia and the results analysed to account for the current situation and provide practical recommendations to teachers and schools.

Researchers

Kay Yeoman, Elena Nardi, Laura Bowater & Huyen nguyen

Research Institution

University of East Anglia

What is this about?

• What experiences do pupils have of researching, as a part of their school education?
• What are their perceptions of the meaning and uses of research?
• What can teachers and schools do to make pupils more research-competent?

What was done?

A questionnaire survey of 2634 pupils was used to create an initial data set. 100 pupils were then interviewed in groups in order to probe and elaborate the findings.

Main findings and outputs

• Pupils value research as important.
• Their experience of research emphasises fact-finding.
• Their experience of identifying a focus for research and formulating a research question is limited (KS5 and the Extended Project Qualification are exceptions).
• Pupils know that data can be collected in a wide variety of ways.
• They recognise that research is challenging but tend to assume that there must be a ‘right answer’, seeing inconclusiveness as a problem.
• They tend to compartmentalise research within coursework.
• Many pupils (50%) consider that you do research to confirm your own opinion.

Some recommendations follow:

• Schools should offer the EPQ at A-level and extended project at GCSE.
• They should make contact with the Institute for Research in Schools (http://www.researchinschools.org/). It gives opportunities to take part in research projects in physics and biology, allowing pupils at KS4 and KS5 to experience the full research process, and data collected through these projects can also be used for the EPQ.
• Teachers should be trained in the research process.
• If they have research experience themselves, e.g. to master’s level, this is easier. In e.g., Germany, master’s level research experience is mandatory for teachers.

Relevance to RE

The research does not mention RE specifically but the findings and recommendations have relevance to RE:

• RE teachers might ask pupils to carry out a small-scale research project, e.g. an ethnography of a local faith group. Some of the findings could be used as pupil guidelines, e.g. don’t just set out to confirm your own opinion and don’t worry if you don’t find a final answer; do think about the different kinds of evidence you might collect and do try to come up with an interesting question of your own, even if it takes time.
• RE teachers might look at the Extended Project Qualification as a way to boost the subject’s KS5 presence.
• If RE teachers develop research skills themselves, they will be better placed to enable pupils to learn via research, whether at EPQ level or others.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researchers note that pupil experience of research may vary across UK regions and that their recommendations have relevance that may vary across different educational contexts.

Find out more

Kay Yeoman, Elena Nardi, Laura Bowater & Huyen nguyen (2017) ‘Just Google It?’: Pupils’ Perceptions and Experience of Research in the Secondary Classroom, British Journal of Educational Studies, 65:3, 281-305.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00071005.2017.1310179

Research Summary

The Sunday Assembly has a complex relationship with atheism and religion. It holds events which look and feel like religious worship, but uses this format to create a ‘godless congregation’. Described as an ‘atheist church’ by the media, members prefer to talk about inclusive communities. If the Sunday Assembly simultaneously embraces and rejects both atheism and religion, then how do attendees identify and describe themselves? A qualitative study based on interviews with Sunday Assembly attendees is presented. The findings show that a significant number of attendees publicly identify as indifferent towards religion, while privately maintaining a more strongly non-religious identity, thus suggesting that for Sunday Assembly attendees, inclusivity is imperative.

Researchers

Melanie Prideaux & Tim Mortimer

Research Institution

University of Leeds

What is this about?

This research is about the Sunday Assembly, a movement with 80 chapters in 8 countries that focusses on community, service, a lack of doctrine or deity and inclusivity. Meetings resemble Anglican church services but the structure is used to create a godless alternative. The movement began in London in 2013, receiving a considerable amount of media attention as an ‘atheist church’. But the Sunday Assembly publicly rejects an atheist label or concern with related themes. The Sunday Assembly thus presents a good opportunity to study a range of issues related to religion and non-religion.

What was done?

The data were gathered through an online survey, promoted through social media, and semi-structured interviews and participant observation over a six-month period at two different Sunday Assembly meetings in the UK: Leeds and London. Thirty individuals were either interviewed or responded to the survey. The fieldwork was conducted during 2013–2014 in the first year of the Sunday Assembly.

Main findings and outputs

• The expressed identities of Sunday Assembly attendees are complex.
• The three concepts of non-religion, the secular sacred and indifferentism help to explain them.
• The data show that attendees of the Sunday Assembly reject classification, both of the poles of observant religion and overt irreligion, and further of classifying their identity between these poles.
• Sunday Assembly attendees often identify publicly with indifferentism or indifference to issues of religion or belief, though the details of their interview answers often suggest that they are not so indifferent.
• Privately, respondents regularly identify as non-religious.
• Many are reluctant to be identified with the Richard Dawkins style of atheism, which, together with organised religion, is sometimes described as aggressive.
• The public display of indifference is due to a secular sacred boundary around the concept of inclusivity.
• It is non-negotiable for Sunday Assembly members that all should be included without judgement.
• An abrupt distinction between non-religion and the secular is problematic. Sunday Assembly members do not primarily identify as non-religious, but inclusive.

Relevance to RE

Within RE, there is continuing discussion of the nature of non-religious worldviews and how to approach teaching about them. The research provides evidence, insights and discussion on an interesting example. RE teachers might use it to help develop their knowledge base on non-religious worldviews (even though the researchers find that non-religious is not the best way to describe the Sunday Assembly). They could also find the material useful in preparing to teach about the Sunday Assembly, e.g. as preparation for hosting visitors in lessons and thinking about the questions pupils could ask and explore with them.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researchers discuss some limitations of the research. The scale is quite small and the study took place when the Sunday Assembly was in its infancy. They suggest, however, that the study raises questions that would repay more detailed, updated studies.

Find out more

The full article is: Tim Mortimer & Melanie Prideaux (2018) Exploring identities between the religious and the secular through the attendees of an ostensibly ‘Atheist Church’, Religion, 48:1, 64-82.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0048721X.2017.1386135

Research Summary

This research argues that the teaching of religion in state-funded schools, in liberal democracies, should be based on the child’s acquiring critical, rational, and cognitive understanding rather than seeking to nurture her or him in a specific faith tradition. Drawing on one religious education classroom scenario, it is shown how treating truth-claims equally and neutrally leads to critical thinking, autonomy, and the child’s right to an open future (not predetermined by adults). It is shown how the teaching of religion could put into practice the liberal aims of education as articulated in educational theory and philosophy.

Researcher

Oduntan Jawoniyi

Research Institution

Queen’s University, Belfast

What is this about?

This research is about how children should be educated as future citizens of liberal democracies and the contribution of RE. It argues and shows how if, in RE, different truth-claims are treated equally and neutrally by teachers, children can develop critical thinking and autonomy. In this way, the subject contributes to their right to an open future, meaning that it contributes to their right to develop in ways that lead to their future autonomy as adults.

What was done?

This is a scholarly research essay, analysing and evaluating different perspectives on the role of RE and the place of critical thinking within it. It draws out recommendations for professional practice and illustrates these with a thought-experiment.

Main findings and outputs

• The fact that every curriculum subject (including RE), should enable children to develop critical thinking and become rationally autonomous individuals is not in question.
• What is in question is whether or not religion could be taught according to these aims.
• The following scenario suggests yes. Ms.Smith is personally religious, but a teacher committed to the idea that RE should not proselytise. She teaches a Y8 group about the origins of the universe. In teaching them about various religious beliefs, creation myths and scientific theories, she side-steps any issues of truth, refusing to adjudicate. She also does not ridicule any material presented. Finally the pupils hold their own animated debate.
• This avoids indoctrination, and presenting any views as superior, and the hostility that may result if religious beliefs are presented as truth-claims in the classroom.
• It prepares children to exercise democratic citizenship, able to follow the plans and principles which they have independently chosen.

Relevance to RE

The research is directly relevant to RE, presenting a possible way of teaching based on a clear theory that emphasises democratic citizenship and children’s rights. Teachers may want to discuss the ideas and try out the practice model. The research could, thus, be the basis of a useful CPD session.

Generalisability and potential limitations

This research is not based on empirical data that could be viewed as more or less generalisable – rather, it presents a scholarly argument for readers to assess, whose teaching ideas can be trialled and evaluated in their own classrooms.

Find out more

The full article is: Oduntan Jawoniyi (2015) Religious Education, Critical Thinking, Rational Autonomy, and the Child’s Right to an Open Future, Religion & Education, 42:1, 34-53.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15507394.2013.859960?journalCode=urel20

Research Summary

Existing GCSE and A-level syllabuses include modules on religion and the media, but these have not been widely or well studied. The modules may be difficult to teach well, and teachers have few good resources to use. The newly launched specifications for RS GCSE and A-level examinations have eliminated, almost entirely, any study of religion and the media. The absence of this theme is troubling. Critical appreciation of the ways media depicts religion is especially important for forming responsible, educated citizens in modern Britain. Key principles and questions that might help equip teachers to tackle critically and intelligently issues about religion in the media are offered. The approach is illustrated by considering media responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Researchers

David G. Horrell, Karen O’Donnell & David Tollerton

Research Institution

University of Exeter, University of Durham

What is this about?

• For RS students to learn about how the media shape views of religion is important, but often not well done.
• Religion and the media is troublingly absent from the new generation of exam specifications.
• However, teachers can still do something about this.
• The researchers offer a framework of principles and questions that will help teachers to tackle the issues critically and intelligently.

What was done?

This research is partly a survey and commentary on GCSE and A level RS specifications and examiner’s reports past and present, focusing on religion and the media; partly a document analysis of different newspapers’ coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks; and partly a set of suggestions on how teachers might engage students with issues of media representation of religions in a balanced, critical and intelligent way.

Main findings and outputs

• Examiner’s reports show how in the former generation of exam specifications, options on religion and the media were neither favoured by teachers nor answered well by students. This may be because the area is difficult, media angles on religion shifting constantly.
• It is nevertheless found regrettable that coverage of the media and religion is more or less absent from the new specifications.
• In order to be responsible citizens and often without ‘insider’ knowledge of religion, young people will have to learn to manage the depiction of religion in the media in a critically informed way – sometimes, media portrayals of religion can be simplistic and misleading.
• Firstly, religions should not be studied in isolation from their wider social contexts.
• Secondly, wider societies should also be studied from a ‘religious’ perspective, asking about what is held to be sacred, what is worshipped and so on.
• Thirdly, there are different questions to ask –
  Where does this material come from?
  Who created this material, and why?
  How do different media reports reflect particular interpretations of events with religious significance and what meanings are constructed in these depictions?
  How does media coverage reveal competing value systems and convictions concerning what is sacred?
  For example, in different English newspapers’ coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, there were different outlooks on religious minorities, blasphemy and what the core values of Western civilisation are.

Relevance to RE

The research is directly relevant to RE teaching, demonstrating the necessity of analysing media representations of religion as part of the subject and offering teachers a suggested framework and set of questions to use to do so.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The RE teaching framework and questions have wide generalisability – they could be applied in a very wide range of cases. Some of the language of the questions may need to be adapted to the learning needs of pupils of different ages and abilities, e.g. rather than ‘How do different media reports reflect particular interpretations of events with religious significance and what meanings are constructed in these depictions?’, it might be asked ‘How do different media reports show different attitudes to religions or events involving religions? What messages are passed on?’.

Find out more

The full article is: David G. Horrell, Karen O’Donnell & David Tollerton (2018) Religion and the media in GCSE and A-level syllabuses: a regrettable gap and proposals to fill it, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:2, 114-123.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2016.1190686?journalCode=cbre20

Research Summary

Critical Religious Education (CRE) is a pedagogy of religious education developed by Andrew Wright and various colleagues over the past two decades. Increasingly commentators have called for examples of it in practice. Over the past seven years a writing group associated with The Forum of Religious and Spiritual Education (FORASE) at King’s College London has been developing practical materials aimed at supporting teachers. An introductory scheme of work, aimed at year 7 students, has been trialled in a number of schools in and around London. In 2013, focus group interviews took place in four of these schools in order to ascertain the reception that the materials had received. The data suggest a very positive response to the introductory scheme of work and the CRE approach in general.

Researcher

Angela Goodman

Research Institution

King’s College, London

What is this about?

• Critical RE, as developed by Andrew Wright and others, has been a strong influence on RE curriculum and pedagogy.
• However, some commentators have offered criticisms of it, including a lack of practice examples.
• The Forum of Religious and Spiritual Education (King’s College, London) has addressed this concern, developing materials including an introductory scheme of work for year 7.
• This report is of the trial of the introductory scheme of work in schools in and around London.

What was done?

• An introductory scheme of work, based on Critical RE, was developed and then trialled in schools in and around London.
• In 2013, focus group interviews the took place in four of these schools, in order to ascertain the reception that the materials had received.
• The interview data were then analysed to bring out key findings and recommendations.

Main findings and outputs

• FORASE and the investigation of practice have developed Critical RE significantly
• Teachers support the approach of Critical RE.
• Further materials are needed in order to embed Critical RE further into teachers’ practice.
• Initial teacher education providers should consider incorporating Critical RE into their programmes.
• Students enjoy the approach and are able to meet the intellectual challenges involved.

Relevance to RE

The research suggests that the Critical RE approach could be investigated by teachers as a way to bring intellectual rigour to RE teaching, challenging students to debate different truth-claims and investigate and analyse different worldviews. A particular emphasis is that rather than any expressed viewpoint being held up as worthy or right, in the classroom, all should be subject to justification, evidence, argument and debate.

Generalisability and potential limitations

The researcher makes the following statement:

. . . it must be acknowledged that any conclusions from this study are contingent as a result of the sample used. It is also important to highlight the fact that the study did not include any direct access to the students’ actual learning and thus conclusions are based on teacher perceptions alone. The author is currently undertaking further research into the actual impact of the approach on student learning.

Find out more

The full article is: Angela Goodman (2018) Critical Religious Education (CRE) in practice: evaluating the reception of an introductory scheme of work, British Journal of Religious Education, 40:2, 232-241.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01416200.2016.1256265