Engaging Religious Education


Book Description

This book is the first to bring together a number of essays which deal directly with the crucial topic of ‘engagement’ in Religious Education. But it also breaks new ground by creating a dialogue with the world of ethics. Here readers will find fresh insights relevant to the 21st century. Contributors, all committed to excellence in Religious Education, include school teachers, sixth form tutors and those working in higher education. Addressing central issues in the debate from a range of theoretical and methodological positions, the book raises important questions about how we might understand and promote positive ‘engagement’ at the present time. Primarily, it has one aim in view: to make Religious Education a more stimulating and enjoyable experience for all those involved.




Teaching Religious Education Creatively


Book Description

Teaching Religious Education Creatively offers a brand new approach for the primary classroom and is crammed full of innovative ideas for bringing the teaching of RE to life. It helps teachers understand what constitutes a healthy curriculum that will encourage children to appreciate and understand different belief systems. Perhaps most importantly, it also challenges teachers to understand RE as a transformatory subject that offers children the tools to be discerning, to work out their own beliefs and answer puzzling questions. Underpinned by the latest research and theory and with contemporary, cutting-edge practice at the forefront, expert authors emphasise creative thinking strategies and teaching creatively. Key topics explored include: What is creative teaching and learning? Why is it important to teach creatively and teach for creativity? What is Religious Education? Why is it important for children to learn ‘about’ and ‘from’ religion? How can you teach non-biased RE creatively as a discrete subject and integrate it with other curriculum areas? Teaching Religious Education Creatively is for all teachers who want to learn more about innovative teaching and learning in RE in order to improve understanding and enjoyment and transform their own as well as their pupil’s lives.




Teaching Religious Education


Book Description

Many trainee primary teachers are uncertain as to the place and purpose of RE in primary schools. This book is designed to alleviate such fears and give trainees the security and confidence to teach RE effectively. Trainees are encouraged to recognise their own religious position and understand how they handle their own beliefs and commitments in the classroom. In addition, they will learn how to be sensitive to children′s religious viewpoints, allowing children to share their beliefs in a secure and supportive environment. A range of strategies help readers to provide engaging and appropriate RE across the primary age phase.




Teaching Religious Education


Book Description

An updated, expanded, edition of the popular textbook for student and practising teachers of religious education. It is a book for and about teaching and learning religious education in schools, which is a lively and open-ended subject, ideal for those wanting to explore how people understand the world, and how they live their lives. A wide range of religious and non-religious ways of life are explored. New to this edition are descriptions of more recent research on teaching and learning religious education from the UK, Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Also included are personal accounts written by pupils, teachers and researchers, giving voice to those learning and researching religious education in practice. As well as revising and extending every chapter of the first edition, there are brand-new chapters on: - the real lives of teachers and pupils in religious education - religious education around the world - spirituality - thinking about philosophy, truth, and religious education - ethics, rights, values and virtues - creativity and religious education. A key feature of the book is the 33 classroom activities for learners aged 7 to 18, which are also designed for use by student and practising teachers. These activities enable those studying and teaching religious education to be active researchers.




Making Every RE Lesson Count


Book Description

Writing in the practical, engaging style of the award-winning Making Every Lesson Count, Louise and Dawn provide teachers of religious education with the means to help their pupils unpick the big questions of religious belief and practice, and of morality and philosophy - the things that make us human. Making Every RE Lesson Count is underpinned by six pedagogical principles - challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback and questioning - and shares simple, realistic strategies that RE teachers can use to develop the teaching and learning in their classrooms. Each chapter explores a different principle in theory as well as in practice, and concludes with a series of questions that will inspire reflective thought and help teachers relate the content to their own work in the classroom. Furthermore, the book brings together two key strands in RE teaching - namely, what RE teachers teach and how they teach it - and the authors consider these strands through the disciplinary lenses of theology, philosophy and the social sciences. And, in doing so, Louise and Dawn place these disciplines at the heart of teaching and learning in the RE classroom. Written for new and experienced practitioners alike, Making Every RE Lesson Count will enable teachers to improve their students' conceptual and contextual understanding of the topics and themes explored across the breadth of the RE curriculum. Suitable for RE teachers of pupils aged 11 to 18.







Teaching Religious Education in Catholic Schools


Book Description

In an era characterised by diversity, uncertainty, and numerous education reforms, Catholic school educators are faced with many challenges and also new opportunities. Teaching Religious Education in Catholic Schools has been written to address many of these challenges, as well as offering a fresh perspective and helpful guide which is informed by scholarly research and practical insights. This book models solutions for religious education teachers -- and pre-service teachers -- and will assist in planning and implementing a contemporary religious education program for students.




Engaged Teaching in Theology and Religion


Book Description

This book guides scholars and teachers of theology and religion through a process of self-reflection that leads to intentional, transformative teaching, dialogue, and reform in theological education and religious studies.




Inquiry into Philosophical and Religious Issues


Book Description

Inquiry into Religious and Philosophical Issues provides an educational experience of both wonder and discovery. The text's focus on epistemology applies this inquisitive discipline to an array of topics, including religious faith, ethics, personal meaning and happiness. Sources from philosophy, theology, and psychology interact with debates, role-playing, essays, and other student-centered activities to encourage meaningful thinking and engagement. Students are taught skills to develop personal awareness and resilience in order to help them flourish. Complex subjects such as religion and philosophy often lead to difficult questions and ideas that, for many students, go unheard. With Inquiry into Religious and Philosophical Issues, these questions and ideas will now have a voice.




Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education


Book Description

Theology and religious studies co-exist in the majority of departments in higher education institutions within the UK, yet there has been very little debate or discussion on how these two disciplines relate to one another in this context and on a more general level. This new collection of essays aims to redress the balance and to add to fruitful discussion in this area Including essays by some of today's leading academics on the sometimes contentious relationship between religious studies - or the study of religions - and theology, this volume is international in scope, with contributions from scholars from the UK, USA, South Africa, Netherlands, Sweden and Iran. Many of the essays offer a contextualised account of the evolving relationship between the disciplines. The contributors address such issues as the place of theology within today's universities; the problem of clashing methodologies in theology and religious studies; the possibility for a 'theological religious studies'; approaching the study of religions without theology; interdisciplinary approaches for bridging the theology/religious studies divide; and the place of biblical studies in the theology/religious studies debate.