1. ‘Thinking about thinking’
Thinking about thinking with Year 8 in PRE
‘Thinking about thinking’
Studying what this really means, and how

2. Emma Williams’ book ‘The Ways We think’
Literature
Emma Williams’ book ‘The Ways We think’
‘Rationalistic Conception in schools’
Is this true?
Williams, 2015

3. What do Year 8s think thinking is?
Research Questions:
What do Year 8s think thinking is?
How do year 8s conceptualise knowledge?

4. Why is this important?
P.R.E. deals with competing truth claims. (It is therefore ‘critically real’).
The are always epistemological assumptions within the classroom (prior assumptions from both the teacher and the pupil about the knowledge being learned)
3. Understanding the pupils’ conceptualisation of thought and knowledge helps when trying to get students to understand different philosophical frameworks.

5. Interpretivist Paradigm
Action Research
Four Tasks
Interpretivist Paradigm
Questionnaire
Triangulation
Pupil Work as Data
Group Interview
Observation

6. Findings, Conclusions and Implications
Rationalistic conception very much how pupils conceptualise thinking.
Pupils are open to knowledge being multifaceted.
Conclusions:
Looking at different types of truth helps pupils to understand things ‘religiously’ or ‘morally’.
Being able to view knowledge and truth in different ways allows for a more dialogic and metacognitive approach to learning in PRE.
Main implication:
Awareness of different types of knowledge is hugely important in developing understanding of Religious Knowledge in PRE.