RE – realising the potential Alan Brine HMI National Adviser for RE AREIAC Nov 12 September 12

Enquiry: how are we getting on? The focus on enquiry is having impact:  More agreed syllabuses are focusing on enquiry  More teachers are using the language of enquiry But:  Rarely embedded in practice in schools  Not yet embedded in subject rationale  More thinking needs to happen to clarify what we mean by.. Add presentation title to master slide | 2

Effective enquiry …… Add presentation title to master slide | 3 Engagement and Asking questions Investigation Drawing conclusions Evaluation Reflection and Expression

Successful enquiry……..  is not age limited  requires sustained learning  allows enough time for pupils to gather information draw conclusions before asking them to reflect on or apply their learning  regularly invites pupils to reconsider their initial thinking and extend their enquiry as they begin to see new levels of possibility  places the emphasis on ‘impersonal evaluation’ Add presentation title to master slide | 4

Enquiry – barriers to success  Not capitalising on a good start  Rushing too quickly to ‘learn from’ religion  Not taking risks or looking for ‘happy ending’  Losing the focus of the enquiry  Not giving pupils enough time to process their findings and extend their enquiry  Focusing too much on the product of the enquiry rather than the process Add presentation title to master slide | 5

Quote: the popular rationale for RE ‘If students learn more about religions they will become more empathetic to others with different belief and cultural systems and recognise the importance of, and enrichment that follows from, living in a diverse society and this will result in them developing further the capacity for empathy and recognising the need for community cohesion’ Add presentation title to master slide | 6

And the problem is…..  This argument is simply wrong – but don’t tell anybody!! These defences of RE do not in any way: ‘identify the intrinsic skills or capacities that the subject promotes nor do they highlight the intrinsic academic value that the discipline brings to the overall project of education’  Subject still too driven by its extrinsic value Add presentation title to master slide | 7

and………………………….. ‘ most teachers … interpret it as meaning becoming more empathetic towards the subject of study, religions, and exhibiting something equivalent to the values teachers present within religions and correlating those with the values within students’ own lives. Pedagogically this is totally insufficient and confused.’ It means teachers in practice ‘suppress any critical thinking’………………… and……it is not real enquiry!! Add presentation title to master slide | 8

and……………. ‘The classroom practice of teachers of RE can be excellent …………. however excellent classroom practice, if dependent upon incomplete or blurred understandings of rationale and progress, can still be highly problematic for learners and the subject; a chain (of pedagogy) is only as strong as its weakest link.’ Add presentation title to master slide | 9

Confession – state your sources!!! Does RE have a future? Mark Chater and Clive Erricker (David Fulton 2012) Add presentation title to master slide | 10

Where do we need to take enquiry?  Establishing a clearer rationale for the place of enquiry in RE pedagogy  Resolving the critical enquiry/respect and empathy tension  Clarifying the breadth and balance of enquiries  Establishing an appropriate repertoire of approaches to learning and teaching strategies  Clarifying how to sequence enquiries to achieve continuity and progression  Building the focus on enquiry more securely into the way we define pupil progress Add presentation title to master slide | 11