How students view the boundaries between their science and religious education concerning the origins of life and the universe

Internationally in secondary schools, lessons are typically taught by subject specialists, raising the question of how to accommodate teaching which bridges the sciences and humanities. This is the first study to look at how students make sense of the teaching they receive in two subjects (science and religious education) when one subject’s curriculum explicitly refers to cross-disciplinary study and the other does not. Interviews with 61 students in seven schools in England suggested that students perceive a permeable boundary between science and their learning in science lessons and also a permeable boundary between religion and their learning in RE lessons, yet perceive a firm boundary between science lessons and RE lessons. We concluded that it is unreasonable to expect students to transfer instruction about cross-disciplinary perspectives across such impermeable subject boundaries. Finally we consider the implications of these findings for the successful management of cross-disciplinary education.

Teaching or preaching — Max Charlesworth and religious education

In this essay I elaborate on the theoretical framework – that of Millian liberalism – that Max Charlesworth brought to many public issues, including that of the relation between education and religion. I will then apply this framework to a debate in which I have been recently involved myself: a debate around the provision of religious instruction in public schools. In the first section I expound Charlesworth’s rejection of secularism in education in a liberal pluralist state and his defence of faith-based schooling. In the second section I uncover the religious motivations behind the Victorian government’s 1950 amendments to the apparently secularist Victorian Education Act of 1872. In section three, I explore the notion of secularism more fully and suggest that the struggle between those who espouse religious instruction in state schools and those who oppose it while advocating a more general form of education about religion is a symptom of a deeper tension between liberalism and communitarianism within the culture of modernist, liberal states.

Scientific and Religious Mindsets: A Candid Look at the Perils of a Panglossian President

Through Voltaire’s novella Candide, this essay examines the differences between a scientific and a religious mindset and the consequences of poor decision-making when a political leader has a religious mindset that he misapplies to fundamentally scientific questions. By analyzing various decisions that President Bush has made, it is argued that he has a religious mindset that has resulted in several fallacious choices of extreme import, yielding considerable losses. As such, a decision-maker with power should be able to distinguish questions best answered with a scientific mindset from those that are in the realm of philosophy or religion and apply a scientific mindset to the former. A scientific mindset formulates a theory that yields testable propositions, it acquires data and uses that to evaluate the verity of the theory. As the data contradict the theory’s predictions, the theory is adjusted. The religious mindset proffers certain explanations but then holds steadfastly to them. It ignores contrary evidence, does not adjust its tenets, or alter its prescribed behaviors, attacks the integrity of those who espouse contrarian viewpoints, and commits logical falla- cies, such as inverting the causative relationship.

A complete view of Baltimore, with a statistical sketch, of all the commercial, mercantile, manufacturing, literary, scientific, and religious institutions and establishments, in the same, and in its vicinity ... derived from personal observation and research ... To which is added, a detailed statement of an excursion on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road to the Point of Rocks ... and an advertising directory.

Mode of access: Internet.

Sunday schools and religious education; sermons and addresses,

Mode of access: Internet.

The fireside friend : or Female student : being advice to young ladies on the important subject of education, with an appendix on Moral and religious education, from the French of Madame de Saussure.

Mode of access: Internet.

The principles of physical, intellectual, moral, and religious education.

Mode of access: Internet.

From the cathedral to the classroom : the emergence of new discourses on religious education

In 2009, Religious Education is a designated key learning area in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Brisbane and, indeed, across Australia. Over the years, though, different conceptualisations of the nature and purpose of religious education have led to the construction of different approaches to the classroom teaching of religion. By investigating the development of religious education policy in the Archdiocese of Brisbane from 1984 to 2003, the study seeks to trace the emergence of new discourses on religious education. The study understands religious education to refer to a lifelong process that occurs through a variety of forms (Moran, 1989). In Catholic schools, it refers both to co-curricula activities, such as retreats and school liturgies, and the classroom teaching of religion. It is the policy framework for the classroom teaching of religion that this study explores. The research was undertaken using a policy case study approach to gain a detailed understanding of how new conceptualisations of religious education emerged at a particular site of policy production, in this case, the Archdiocese of Brisbane. The study draws upon Yeatman’s (1998) description of policy as occurring “when social actors think about what they are doing and why in relation to different and alternative possible futures” (p. 19) and views policy as consisting of more than texts themselves. Policy texts result from struggles over meaning (Taylor, 2004) in which specific discourses are mobilised to support particular views. The study has a particular interest in the analysis of Brisbane religious education policy texts, the discursive practices that surrounded them, and the contexts in which they arose. Policy texts are conceptualised in the study as representing “temporary settlements” (Gale, 1999). Such settlements are asymmetrical, temporary and dependent on context: asymmetrical in that dominant actors are favoured; temporary because dominant actors are always under challenge by other actors in the policy arena; and context - dependent because new situations require new settlements. To investigate the official policy documents, the study used Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter referred to as CDA) as a research tool that affords the opportunity for researchers to map and chart the emergence of new discourses within the policy arena. As developed by Fairclough (2001), CDA is a three-dimensional application of critical analysis to language. In the Brisbane religious education arena, policy texts formed a genre chain (Fairclough, 2004; Taylor, 2004) which was a focus of the study. There are two features of texts that form genre chains: texts are systematically linked to one another; and, systematic relations of recontextualisation exist between the texts. Fairclough’s (2005) concepts of “imaginary space” and “frameworks for action” (p. 65) within the policy arena were applied to the Brisbane policy arena to investigate the relationship between policy statements and subsequent guidelines documents. Five key findings emerged from the study. First, application of CDA to policy documents revealed that a fundamental reconceptualisation of the nature and purpose of classroom religious education in Catholic schools occurred in the Brisbane policy arena over the last twenty-five years. Second, a disjuncture existed between catechetical discourses that continued to shape religious education policy statements, and educational discourses that increasingly shaped guidelines documents. Third, recontextualisation between policy documents was evident and dependent on the particular context in which religious education occurred. Fourth, at subsequent links in the chain, actors created their own “imaginary space”, thereby altering orders of discourse within the policy arena, with different actors being either foregrounded or marginalised. Fifth, intertextuality was more evident in the later links in the genre chain (i.e. 1994 policy statement and 1997 guidelines document) than in earlier documents. On the basis of the findings of the study, six recommendations are made. First, the institutional Church should carefully consider the contribution that the Catholic school can make to the overall pastoral mission of the diocese in twenty-first century Australia. Second, policymakers should articulate a nuanced understanding of the relationship between catechesis and education with regard to the religion classroom. Third, there should be greater awareness of the connections among policies relating to Catholic schools – especially the connection between enrolment policy and religious education policy. Fourth, there should be greater consistency between policy documents. Fifth, policy documents should be helpful for those to whom they are directed (i.e. Catholic schools, teachers). Sixth, “imaginary space” (Fairclough, 2005) in policy documents needs to be constructed in a way that allows for multiple “frameworks for action” (Fairclough, 2005) through recontextualisation. The findings of this study are significant in a number of ways. For religious educators, the study highlights the need to develop a shared understanding of the nature and purpose of classroom religious education. It argues that this understanding must take into account the multifaith nature of Australian society and the changing social composition of Catholic schools themselves. Greater recognition should be given to the contribution that religious studies courses such as Study of Religion make to the overall religious development of a person. In view of the social composition of Catholic schools, there is also an issue of ecclesiological significance concerning the conceptualisation of the relationship between the institutional Catholic Church and Catholic schools. Finally, the study is of significance because of its application of CDA to religious education policy documents. Use of CDA reveals the foregrounding, marginalising, or excluding of various actors in the policy arena.

EDUCAÇÃO E A ASSEMBLEIA DE DEUS NO BRASIL: COMPARAÇÕES, RESULTADOS, TENDENCIAS

O ensino teológico nas assembleias de Deus começou em meio à divisão de grupos, dos que defendiam o ensino formal e os do que não concordavam com a aplicação desta modalidade de ensino. No ano de 2011 a Assembleia de Deus fez 100 anos de existência, e na década de 2000 houve uma procura acentuada em cursos de teologia, por ser uma ferramenta necessária e obrigatória para o desenvolvimento do fiel dentro da instituição como ministro do evangelho, o que traduzindo seria o mesmo que a promoção dentro de uma empresa, subindo na hierarquia. A Assembleia de Deus despertou o interesse de pesquisadores, havendo muitos trabalhos desenvolvidos sobre a instituição. Mas falta acúmulo sobre como tem se dado a educação nas Assembleias de Deus. Um dos métodos de pesquisa foi o da pesquisa bibliográfica e as referências utilizadas na pesquisa são bem conhecidas no meio acadêmico como: Max Weber, Peter Berger, Paul Freston, Antônio Gouveia de Mendonça, entre outros. O levantamento desses trabalhos, relacionados à educação e a Assembleia de Deus no Brasil, possibilita comparações, oferecendo resultados e divisando tendências. Este trabalho apresenta, assim, uma breve história da Assembleia de Deus, fundação, implantação e desenvolvimento, propondo por onde realmente começou essa instituição eclesiástica e principalmente a classe social que teve maior participação em sua gênese na história brasileira. Após o levantamento histórico, destacamos a análise das pesquisas que correspondem às exigências desse trabalho. Procura-se, assim, encontrar subsídios para uma contribuição à Instituição, compreendendo os diferentes aspectos da educação na Assembleia de Deus, como também para uma melhor compreensão dessa instituição religiosa no contexto da sociedade brasileira.

One approach to finding evidence for the effectiveness of scientific visualisations in high school physics and chemistry education

Enormous amounts of money and energy are being devoted to the development, use and organisation of computer-based scientific visualisations (e.g. animations and simulations) in science education. It seems plausible that visualisations that enable students to gain visual access to scientific phenomena that are too large, too small or occur too quickly or too slowly to be seen by the naked eye, or to scientific concepts and models, would yield enhanced conceptual learning. When the literature is searched, however, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a dearth of quantitative evidence for the effectiveness of scientific visualisations in enhancing students’ learning of science concepts. This paper outlines an Australian project that is using innovative research methodology to gather evidence on this question in physics and chemistry classrooms.

Paranormal, superstitious, magical, and religious beliefs

A lack of conceptual clarity and multivariate studies has impeded research on paranormal, superstitious, and magical beliefs. In this series of studies a new conceptual framework of these beliefs was presented. A general belief in the paranormal was shown to lead to specific paranormal, superstitious, and magical beliefs. The beliefs were defined equally as category mistakes where the core attributes of psychological, physical, and biological phenomena are confused with each other. This definition was supported by an empirical examination: Paranormal believers confused more core knowledge than skeptics. A multivariate study revealed that the best predictors of paranormal beliefs were intuitive thinking and a humanistic world view, while low analytical thinking was a less important predictor. Another study showed that women s greater belief in the paranormal compared to men was partially explained by women s higher intuitive and lower analytical thinking. Additionally, it was shown that university students were originally more skeptical than vocational school students, but university studies did not increase skepticism. The finding that paranormal beliefs mainly arise from an intuitive system, instead of a malfunctioning analytical system, explains why the beliefs do not vanish with the increase of education, scientific knowledge, and rational thinking. Religious and paranormal beliefs share important qualities and generally, they were positively related. The most religious people, however, abandoned paranormal beliefs. Religious people and paranormal believers differed from the skeptics similarly by being more intuitive, having experienced more mystical phenomena, and having peers and parents with more positive attitudes toward the supernatural. Religious people had, however, higher conservation and benevolence values than paranormal believers. The new conceptual framework presented in this series of studies integrates research on paranormal, superstitious, magical, and religious beliefs. Hopefully it will enable researchers to develop more elaborated hypotheses and theoretical statements about paranormal beliefs in the future.

Variation in the Understanding of Lutheranism and Its Implications for Religious Education : Meaning Discernment of Students and Teachers in Finnish Upper Secondary Schools

The study investigated variation in the ways in which a group of students and teachers of Evangelical Lutheran religious education in Finnish upper secondary schools understand Lutheranism and searched for educational implications for learning in religious education. The aim of understanding the qualitative variation in understanding Lutheranism was explored through the relationship between the following questions, which correspond to the results reported in the following original refereed publications: 1) How do Finnish students understand Lutheranism? 2) How do Finnish teachers of religious education constitute the meaning of Lutheranism? 3) How could phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning contribute to learning about and from religion in the context of Finnish Lutheran Religious Education as compared to religious education in the UK? Two empirical studies (Hella, 2007; Hella, 2008) were undertaken from a phenomenographic research perspective (e.g., Marton, 1981) and the Variation Theory of Learning (e.g., Marton & Tsui et al. 2004) that developed from it. Data was collected from 63 upper secondary students and 40 teachers of religious education through written tasks with open questions and complementary interviews with 11 students and 20 teachers for clarification of meanings. The two studies focused on the content and structure of meaning discernment in students and teachers expressed understandings of Lutheranism. Differences in understandings are due to differences in the meanings that are discerned and focused on. The key differences between the ways students understand varied from understanding Lutheranism as a religion to personal faith with its core in mercy. The logical relationships between the categories that describe variation in understanding express a hierarchy of ascending complexity, according to which more developed understandings are inclusive of less developed ones. The ways the teachers understand relate to student s understandings in a sequential manner. Phenomenography and Variation Theory were discussed in the context of religious education in Finland and the UK in relation to the theoretical notion of learning about and from religion (Hella & Wright, 2008). The thesis suggests that variation theory enables religious educators to recognise the unity of learning about and from religion, as learning is always learning about something and involves simultaneous engagement with the object of learning and development as a person. The study also suggests that phenomenography and variation theory offer a means by which it is possible for academics, policy makers, curriculum designers, teachers and students to learn to discern different ways of understanding the contested nature of religions. Keywords: Lutheranism, understanding, variation, teaching, learning, phenomenography, religious education