Metacognition, Worldviews and Religious Education


Book Description

Religious Education (RE) holds a unique place within the state education system. Yet, the teaching of RE has often been criticised for its tendency to present simplified and stereotypical representations of religions. Bringing together the theory of metacognition with RE curriculum content, this book offers a coherent and theoretically supported approach to RE and beyond that is applicable to a range of subjects and students of various age groups. Metacognition, Worldviews and Religious Education seeks to support teachers in creating a new and exciting classroom approach. With a focus on putting children and teachers’ worldviews back on the RE agenda and developing awareness of these through metacognitive processes, it includes • Tables, frameworks and checklists to make it easy for teachers to adapt the approach to their own context • Concrete examples of how the approach can work in the classroom, including case studies from teachers • Call-out boxes for teachers and others to reflect on their own practice and to consider their own beliefs and values in relation to teaching and learning Co-authored by three researchers from Exeter University and one experienced advanced skills RE primary school teacher, this book explains in a jargon-free way the theories of metacognition and worldviews which underpin the creation of a unique learning environment, making it an essential read for students, experienced teachers, researchers in RE and anyone interested in taking a thinking skills approach to pedagogy.




Metacognition, Worldviews and Religious Education


Book Description

Religious Education (RE) holds a unique place within the state education system. Yet, the teaching of RE has often been criticised for its tendency to present simplified and stereotypical representations of religions. Bringing together the theory of metacognition with RE curriculum content, this book offers a coherent and theoretically supported approach to RE and beyond that is applicable to a range of subjects and students of various age groups. Metacognition, Worldviews and Religious Education seeks to support teachers in creating a new and exciting classroom approach. With a focus on putting children and teachers’ worldviews back on the RE agenda and developing awareness of these through metacognitive processes, it includes • Tables, frameworks and checklists to make it easy for teachers to adapt the approach to their own context • Concrete examples of how the approach can work in the classroom, including case studies from teachers • Call-out boxes for teachers and others to reflect on their own practice and to consider their own beliefs and values in relation to teaching and learning Co-authored by three researchers from Exeter University and one experienced advanced skills RE primary school teacher, this book explains in a jargon-free way the theories of metacognition and worldviews which underpin the creation of a unique learning environment, making it an essential read for students, experienced teachers, researchers in RE and anyone interested in taking a thinking skills approach to pedagogy.




Teaching Religious and Worldviews Education Creatively


Book Description

Teaching Religious and Worldviews Education Creatively offers a fresh perspective on the Religious Education (RE) curriculum. This second edition is crammed full of practical lesson ideas underpinned by cutting edge research authored by specialists in the field. It helps teachers understand what constitutes an effective and creative Religion and Worldviews Education (RWE) curriculum, and challenges teachers to view RWE as a transformatory subject that offers learners the tools to be discerning, to work out their own beliefs and to answer puzzling questions. This second edition of Teaching Religious and Worldviews Education Creatively includes fully updated chapters from the first edition with 11 new contributors and 5 brand new chapters. New topics include: - Visits, visitors and persona dolls - The RE Searchers approach - New ideas about policy, practice and assessment - Insights into RE in the UK and around the world - Anti-discriminatory RE - New and updated practical classroom ideas from practicing teachers Teaching Religious and Worldviews Education Creatively is for all teachers who want to learn more about innovative teaching and learning in RWE in order to improve understanding, knowledge and enjoyment, while at the same time transforming their own as well as their pupils’ lives.




Religious Education 5-11


Book Description

Religious Education has returned in the limelight of education. Religious Education 5-11 deals with present-day debates and issues at the heart of this important subject. It provides a systematic, holistic and unified guidance on teaching RE in primary school. The guide features vignettes, case studies, extracts and viewpoints from experts for deeper engagement. Religious Education 5-11 offers ample guidance and suggestions for the classroom. The main areas covered include: Historical, legal and contemporary perspectives What is RE about? Aims, purposes and the field of enquiry RE in the Early Years, Key Stages 1 and 2 Knowledge in RE Concepts, attitudes, skills, dispositions and SMSC Planning and structuring the curriculum Theories, classical and contemporary pedagogies and multidisciplinary approaches Assessment and progression Subject leadership and the thriving community Research and lifelong learning in RE This book is an indispensable resource for all student educators, early career teachers and classroom practitioners interested in teaching Religious Education in an ambitious, contemporary and challenging way.




Conceptualising Religion and Worldviews for the School


Book Description

This timely volume addresses current debates surrounding the transition from the teaching of religious education (RE) to the more holistic subject of Religion and Worldviews (R&W) in England, and posits criteria for best practice among educators in varied settings and in a broader international context. By examining empirical sources, governmental reports, and in particular the 2018 final report from the Commission on Religious Education (CORE), the volume suggests key principles needed to guide the transition and ensure that R&W is effectively integrated into curricula, pedagogy, and teaching resources to meet the needs of all student groups. By effectively conceptualising R&W, the volume gives particular attention to the intersections of the subject with democratic citizenship education, intercultural competence, and religious literacy. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in religious education and teacher education as well as the philosophy and sociology of education more broadly. Those interested in education policy and politics, as well as citizenship and schooling in the UK, will also benefit from this volume.




Metacognition and Education: Future Trends


Book Description

Metacognition is crucial to education in a changing world. The role of mobile applications, AI and global issues such as climate change make the need for developing learners with the ability to monitor and control their own thinking increasingly necessary. Metacognitive learners are learners who can draw on their own knowledge of their own thinking processes to optimise the conditions under which they learn best. Metacognitive learners are self-regulating and pro-active in motivating themselves to learn new skills. Metacognitive learners are strategic in terms of managing their own resources to get the best from every learning opportunity and to transfer that knowledge to new areas of work. This book is timely in demonstrating how metacognition research is addressing issues of importance in future education. The chapters are authored by an international group of scholars from four continents, who are experts in the field of metacognition and self regulation research. Drawing on their years of experience they look to the future to suggest the future trends in metacognition research. At the same time chapters are rooted in practical application and suggest ways in which the research can be translated into educational environments. The book addresses some new areas of metacognition research such as mind wandering as well as established areas such as teacher metacognition. We are also reminded to consider the social interactions between students and others and the role that relationships play in developing metacognition. Both researchers and educators of all types will find something of interest here. The book sets the trend for future trends in metacognition research.




Contemporary Challenges for Religious and Spiritual Education


Book Description

From being on the margins of scholarly debate for much of the past century and a half, religion is being recognized once again as an area of concern for scholars, politicians, and public policy makers, and thus, the role of religious and spiritual education has taken on a new importance. Apart from its socio-political ramifications, the place of religiousness and spirituality in the make-up of individuals has been given renewed prominence through updated brain science, and neuroscientists regularly refer to elements of this brain science in terms such as spiritual intelligence and even mystical consciousness. This book explores many of the new directions being taken in the field of religious and spiritual education, as new developments challenge the priorities of formal education, and open up new avenues for incorporating religion and spirituality into the modern curriculum. It asks whether the educational aims of teachers should be focused on specifically personal development, or whether religious education should be used to develop understanding of more global and social issues such as citizenship, conflict, and ethics. The book also addresses neuroscientific insights, which suggest a need to engage with cognition and emotion in order to create a rich learning environment, something to which a particularly contested subject area like religion and spirituality is well-placed to contribute. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Beliefs & Values.




Reforming Religious Education: Power and Knowledge in a Worldviews Curriculum


Book Description

Mark Chater's brilliant new book diagnoses the reasons why RE urgently needs radical reform, and looks ahead to a time when the subject will have a new identity based on a clear democratic purpose. The book shines a light on how key leaders can make this happen, and how the new good practice is already breaking through. It is edited and authored by experts and leading change agents in RE, who offer a well-informed and provocative vision and programme for change.




Powerful Knowledge in Religious Education


Book Description

This book unites and explores different approaches to understand and develop knowledge-based religious education. While the importance of methodological issues in RE is understood and acknowledged, the editors and contributors interrogate what kind of knowledge should be explored, how this knowledge is defined and what the consequences would be. Subsequently, the book focuses on the concept of powerful knowledge which transcends students' everyday experiences, and how it can be incorporated into the RE curriculum. Drawing together international research from RE teaching and learning, the book explores various paths to integrate a truly knowledge-based religious education. The book will appeal to students and scholars of religious education, sociology of education and the philosophy of religion.




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.