ALL the RE Blogs

Image courtesy of Alice Walker

A few months back, after some frustration at some aspects of Twitter and Save RE (on Facebook), I set up #BlogSyncRE. This consisted of a website and a Twitter account which shared RE blogs. Since May, this has seen many first time RE bloggers, sharing some really good and insightful stuff. See more here: www.BlogSyncRE.org.uk and www.twitter.com/BlogSyncRE

There was some concerns... someone told me they didn't think it was a good idea as there would be a whole load of rubbish, another told me of their hatred of any kind of blogsync as everyone just writes the same thing. Thankfully, to date, neither of these have been the case.  

Now Andrew Old has begun setting up subject specific Echo Chamber's and I have been given the task of managing the RE & Philosophy one: https://thereandphilosophyechochamber.wordpress.com/

My task is now this... how do we bring the two together?

I thought about "REflections (on RE)" (too cheesy?) with a Facebook page and Twitter publishing all the blogs from the Echo Chamber and perhaps rebranding the BlogSyncRE site to something to match.

I am conscious that updating the current BlogSyncRE site is slightly laborious and time consuming and whether it worth maintaining with the Echo Chamber?

I welcome thoughts, questions, ideas and comments from the RE community who will obviously be the main users of these! But equally feel free to chip in...

#BLOGSYNC: Knowledge vs Skills [RE]

Image courtesy of Pixabay

"What do you view as the relative roles of knowledge and skills in education?”

Some may be thinking, this again? While others will never have even considered their view, or approach, on the great "Knowledge vs Skills" debate. 

Tom Bennett hit the nail on the head for me in a recent RE:Online interview:

I want an RE that is less about ‘how do you feel about this?’ and more about ‘what have people thought and why, and what do you think of their beliefs?’ Before we can do the ‘why’, first we have to make sure the ‘what’ is secure. [See <here>]

This is absolutely crucial. I absolutely believe that until you have sound knowledge you can't meaningfully begin to master any skills. Perhaps this is distinct in RE, but I suspect not. I can't have my students passing judgement, analysing or drawing conclusions without sufficient information to make those activities meaningful. 

It is absolutely wrong to undertake endless activity-based lessons (as OFSTED seemed to want at one stage, and SLT in some places still demand). There needs to be considerable input of knowledge and this will not be the 'fun' or 'all singing and dancing' lessons many produce for observations. I've been guilty of this in the past, but there should also be a great joy in a lesson where students successfully absorb and learn significant new knowledge. 

I am forced, painfully, to recall an OFSTED observation on a Year 7 lesson. It was not Outstanding, only Good, because I defined the term 'Messiah' for my students. This was a new topic, and there was no prior knowledge of this concept. None of my students speak Hebrew, however the one piece of advice to have achieved a Grade 1 was to have allowed students to have discussed in pairs and 'work out for themselves' what 'Messiah' meant to them [Read more <here>].

Additionally, when considering this debate while recently marking A-Level essays, it was brutally clear that the best essays were the ones where students have learnt the material, they had knowledge. This allowed them in turn to display understanding in the Part A and then analyse and evaluate in Part B [Edexcel RS]. These skills are impossible for the students who simply haven't learnt the material.

Recently, I have introduced some cognitive psychology to student to help them appreciate the value and importance of learning key information. It really is the fundamental part to everything else. Any meaningful skill is based upon having sound existing knowledge, even the ability 'to Google' needs a sound knowledge base to assess the validity and usefulness of knowledge found.

However, not for one minute am I suggesting that we spend our whole time rote learning. This is not education, this is not how I teach. Yet, I do reject the idea in RE that 'you can't be wrong'; I frequently correct parents on this on open evenings. There are some things that are absolutely wrong, and even a limited amount of knowledge should allow you to reach that conclusion. 

This creates a need for teachers to plan their time carefully. You need to provide sufficient knowledge, but then allow adequate time for young minds to develop the necessary skills. You need a clear vision of what you want your students to achieve... and then work back. If I want my A-Level students to produce a clear conclusion on the usefulness of the Ontological Argument, I need to carefully work back to work out what core knowledge they need in order to reach that conclusion, then unleash their brains on it in a carefully structured way.

Blooms, SOLO and pretty much every other taxonomy of learning suggests that learning (and remembering) knowledge is core to any further progress. Students that have a vast bank of knowledge are often able to develop the necessary skills far quicker and more efficiently; this is no coincidence. Any activities, based on skills, must be deepening and widening knowledge. After all, the oft-quoted Dan Willingham tells us "memory is the residue of thought"; it is easier to remember when we have done some deep thinking about the subject.

Yet, is this really a debate in the first place? Just like 'Science vs Religion', it is perhaps misleading. There can be few, if any teachers, who would for a minute suggest that it needs to be one or the other in the most absolute sense. My lessons feature both: one day you would come in and see me drilling some key words, or dates, or scholars; on another we'd be doing a silent debate, speed dating or cracking on writing an essay! To do one without the other would be absurd; you'd have a pretty poor debate or essay with no knowledge, and there would be little point in simply learning knowledge to no end.

For me, there is a real joy in a well-crafted A-Level philosophy essay. It features clear understanding of the complexities of  the topic, careful analysis of scholars contributions before a confident conclusion showing the evaluative skills of the writer. Knowledge AND skills, totally inseparable in the final piece of work.

Read more on the 'Knowldge vs Skills' blogsync <here> 

#BLOGSYNC - Testing 'Something Else'

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

JUNE TOPIC: What is the best place for testing in schools?

There is much written on testing and in a general sense I would feel unqualified to add much to the debate. However as an RE teacher, I thought I would take just one aspect: the "something else" of RE.

Testing knowledge can be essentially relatively straight forward. A series of questions can quite quickly establish what a student does or doesn't know. The application of knowledge and skills associated with it can also be tested through a series of tasks, although this can be less straight forward. However here, essentially, you have two reasonably narrow bands of testing. Using these methods will demonstrate progress, keep SLT and OFSTED happy. Job done? 

Both knowledge and skills are a fundamental part of RE. However the 'knowledge versus skills' debate is potentially taken further... you have knowledge versus skills versus 'something else'. Some would say this 'something else' is the spiritual dimension, or perhaps reflection element, maybe even the morality? It can certainly be hard to define and therefore even harder to test.

The RE Review (published in October 2013 and available <here>) suggested an approach to RE that involves 3 strands that move on from the traditional: AT1: Learning about Religion and AT 2: Learning from Religion:

   A. Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews (Know About and Understand)
   B. Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and 
worldviews (Express and Communicate)
   C. Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews (Gain and Deploy Skills)

The review and debate about Levels will continue and at some point a set of criteria will be used to measure students progress either on the AT1 and AT2 ladder or on the new ABC strands. I'm in a Catholic School and we are sticking with AT1 and AT2 and Levels for the time being.

However regardless of what else we are doing with assessment and testing, there is always a sense of morality and a dimension of spirituality that remains present in the RE classroom. Indeed OFSTED must ensure that SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) education is taking place throughout the school, yet often it is simply left to the RE teacher to demonstrate it. If it's not taking place in RE, then it is unlikely to be taking place elsewhere!

Good RE needs to be objective, and while working in a Catholic school, I always strive to do this. Those that claim that all faith-schools are simply confessional should perhaps visit one or two. If I simply taught the Catholic view on topics such as abortion, euthanasia and contraception and refused debate on any other view, I'd have a hard life! I also know, I'd be well and truly selling my students short.

Therefore I need to help my students develop an informed, critical sense of morality and conscience. Where is the level criteria for that? Is that Learning From (AT2) or 'Deploying Skills' (Strand C)? How will I measure it? (Against Catholic teaching? Against my own view?) Can I test it? Should I be putting their morality to the test?!? (In short, I think we'd all agree, no!)

The Religious Education Curriculum Directory (3-19) for Catholic Schools and Colleges still has a 'Reflection and Contemplation' strand (download full document <here>):

It is clearly stated here that these are not for assessment but can help students growth in reflection and contemplation. It is a contribution to the pupils ability 'to reflect spiritually and think ethically and theologically'. I do like the extract from TS Elliot poem:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploration

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

I think it can sum up the 'something else' of RE. We can increase the knowledge about religions, practices, rituals, festivals and way of life. We can develop the skills to analysis critically and evaluate both their own and others' faith positions, yet this ability to reflect and contemplate remains vital. It is far harder to establish the right answer to the big questions in life. Also the Y10 GCSE answer to whether euthanasia is right or wrong can be very different to the 40-something's answer in the face of a gravely ill parent.

I will never know the effectiveness of my ability to help my students develop 'something else'. I hope I do it well so that I have at least started them on their way to deal with some of the challenges that life will bring. Life itself has enough testing moments... if I have done something to help them make the right decisions and choices, then I guess that is my success.

Find out more about Edutronic's #BLOGSYNC <here> - Lots more posts on testing this month! WHy not make your own contribution?

#BlogSync: What is the role of the family in young people’s education? (RC Focus)

It's always best to state you are going off on a tangent before you do.

For this month's #blogsync, I've decided to write a short reflection on the distinct and slightly different relationship that faith schools have with the family. I have worked in Catholic schools for eight years, but also have experience in community schools and CoE public schools. Perhaps despite the journey, the conclusions are nevertheless similar.

The traditional relationship for students in a Catholic school is often summarised as being this:

There is an important distinction that must be made at this point, 'the education' and 'the education in the faith'. By parents selecting a Catholic school, they are subscribing to the decision that these will generally take place simultaneously. This is not necessarily the case in all lessons, at all times - you'd be surprised how much that goes on in a Catholic school is very similar to what goes on in other schools. 

Now the Church see parents as the primary educators: 

"The first educators in the faith are parents... By their example in the home and in their participation in the Mass and other sacraments, the foundations of life-long faith and discipleship in their children are laid down." (Statement on Religious Education in Catholic Schools - issued by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, n.2)

How about if this was tweaked, and by that I mean secularised: "The first educators are parents... by their example in the home and in their participation in educational activities, the foundations of life-long development and citizenship in their children are laid down."

Are you buying it?

So what happens, when the family are not the primary educators? In faith? In education? In reading? In basic manners? In being a decent citizen?

"The Option For the Poor"

Concern for the poor, outcasts and the disadvantaged has always been a priority for Christians, and as a result Catholic schools. The bible contains many references to individuals, and on social justice, and God’s deep concern for both. There are clear biblical foundations for service to the poor and how such a service should be an important part in the lives of all Christians:

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.” (Luke 14:12-14)

Indeed, Jesus makes it very clear that he is present in the poor and disadvantaged of this world. Any Catholic school must always remember this core idea when dealing with the outcast, disadvantaged, troublesome or poor: it is here that Christ is truly present:

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Gravissimum Educationis, the Vatican’s first key document on Christian education, made it clear that indeed the Church should be offering its educational service, and offering it to: “…the poor or those who are deprived of family help and affection or those who are far from the faith” (Pope Paul VI, 1965).

The 1970's saw Catholic school enter an era of a 'new poor'. It was not necessarily a provision for migrant families in northern cities, but a widespread need to intervene throughout England and Wales to help a wide range of families.

In  the 21st Century world that many students of Catholic schools are existing in, perhaps ‘the poor’ are those who come from one-parent families, those born to unmarried couples, those struggling with their parents divorce or even coming from violent homes. By no means exclusively, nor necessarily, these children may well come to school being ‘emotionally poor’ suffering a lack of love, hope, trust and stability in their young lives. A final consideration of ‘the poor and disadvantaged’ could also be the ever increasing number of SEN students; individuals with a wide spectrum of needs that succeed with varying degrees within the education system.

So what?

Increasingly the school is becoming the primary educator, not only for the faith, but potentially for a whole range of different things.

Where parents are supportive and encouraging to the vision of the school, we are all working together and great things are being achieved. Where parents and families will not, or cannot, work with our vision, there is tension. Despite the frustrations of the teacher, ultimately it is the child who suffers the most. 

I believe all teachers need to consider 'the poor' in their school, whoever they are, and do all they can to help combat the potential damage caused by home situations. These situations will hopefully pass, and improve, but the moment of education, the potential to achieve GCSE passes aged 16 (the BEST time), the time to master basic numeracy and literacy, will all unfortunately pass.

I think it's also important to remember that most parents do love their child and do want their child to succeed, even if they have very odd ways of showing it. 

Never give up, the troublesome student in front of us, who has come to school for a break, loves being in our company despite being an absolute nightmare. Maybe we just have to go the extra mile to combat the other damaging influences in their life. 

However it always make me feel like a failure when we have to say enough is enough, goodbye. The children I have seen excluded from Catholic schools have always had the most horrific home lives, and we failed. We couldn't manage to keep them with us long enough.

Read more of the BlogSync here: http://blogsync.edutronic.net/

BLOGSYNC: Marking With Impact

I like my Facebook stamp, but it's only real impact is a smile!

It's come to that time of year; the time when I train up my A2 students in peer marking... I do a lot of peer marking with all my classes, but until last year, it was my biggest challenge with 6th formers. How do you do something meaningful with a tough to comprehend mark scheme? How can I ensure marking with impact takes place? What kind of marking has the most impact?

Last year I posted a #TeachTweet video on how I started doing it last year:

This gives an overview of what I started to do. Please excuse the video quality and my slightly dull presentation! I've got better at making videos since then...

I realised that at Key Stage 3, criteria can be simplified to enable structured feedback. This doesn't necessarily give an accurate level, but generally speaking it can be a meaningful exercise and easy to help students go beyond, "I like your work".

At Key Stage 4, I work hard at drilling exam technique. The EdExcel GCSE allows for students who have mastered the formulae of questions to use 'S' and 'D' for simple and developed points, and along with the mark scheme accurately mark questions. Tim Shelton, after seeing my video, tried it out with his GCSE class, see <here>.

However Key Stage 5 was the one that escaped me. I wanted to give students an opportunity to master something of the mark scheme so they didn't go back to Y7s... "I like your work!".

By A2, students are able to write something that constitutes a reasonable essay. However, moving to the next level can often be a challenge. What is the area that lets them down? What precise feedback can be given to enable them to work at improving for next time?

The grid was key to me. To break down the criteria into a table form that students could begin by ticking off. This illustrated what would be a limiting factor on their progression and that, for example, not using enough technical vocabulary, could really limit their final mark. This was hard to do, and I'm not sure it is perfect even now. It did give a clear area to base a target around for next time, i.e. structure, knowledge.

I uploaded copies of the grid so you can see what I am talking about; they are uploaded at TES <here>.

As you can see from the video, last year by March, my A2 class were getting the marks very accurate (I think I said 'spot on' about 48 times in the video). This was through perseverance and getting them to do it for every essay they did. They didn't like it at first, but I noticed over the time they were putting better and better feedback, as well as accurately indicating which level the response fell into.

I still marked the essays and added further comments where necessary. I did ask them one day, which comments did they take the most notice of; they all agreed that it was their friends! Yet they only really looked at my mark and not their peers.

To begin this process with Y13 this year, I have produced some essays from last years' Y13. I told them to get in full mindset of the teacher... some of them were cruel! The essays were literally covered in corrections and improvements.

We then had a frank discussion about whether or not we felt we could do this with one another. There was a slight hesitation; it's far easier to do when they are not your friends in the room. However a few started saying that actually it was all for the best interests of the class and they would try to be as thorough with one another. We shall see.

I am going to try and begin this process with Y12 too. The step from GCSE to AS is huge in RS and a real focus of me this year is working on this transition, especially for the less able. Their first essay is a draft and I will be getting them to redraft before handing in (based on this <this> blog post). I will introduce a grid for their second essay and we will work from there.

So to return to the original question (like any good philosophy essay!), I have found that by using structured collaborative marking I have had a significant impact on the quality of my students essays. They really take on board the comments of their peers, and by using this structured method, the comments can be meaningful and inform targets. I can then add to these if necessary and give a final grade which reflects their progress.

Please make sure you read the rest of the BlogSync-ers here: http://blogsync.edutronic.net/

Maybe join us?