This blog is more of a basic review but I hope it’s useful for people considering what personal knowledge might be in RE. I’m going to try to summarise what personal knowledge is and what it isn’t, using everybody else’s expertise (all sources below). Another blog will explain what it might look like in class.

What personal knowledge is

• It has been described as ‘knower-knowledge’, ‘personal worldview’, ‘reflexivity’, and ‘positionality’.
• An awareness of one’s own presuppositions, assumptions, values, and worldview when studying religious and non-religious traditions.
• It acknowledges that pupils approach RE content from their own position or perspective, influenced by their values, experiences, and sense of identity.
• Understanding how one’s own positionality relates to and is challenged by encountering the “other” (different people, worldviews, or new subject content).
• A reflexive process that goes beyond self-reflection, involving an awareness of self in the act of understanding and how that understanding transforms the self.
• A dynamic relationship between one’s own worldview and those of others, exploring the meeting of worldviews.
• An academic and formational development resulting from dialogue between the pupil and difference.
• A key intellectual capability related to critical pedagogy and self-critical scholarship.
• It’s developed through pupils’ engagement with rich, carefully selected, well sequenced, substantive content that links religious and non-religious traditions to their own developing worldviews. Particularly through topics related to meaning, purpose, human nature, justice, values, community, and self-fulfilment.
• It involves pupils considering how concepts from religious traditions (like ‘forgiveness’ in Christianity or ‘sewa’ in Sikhism) might relate to their own positions.
• It’s one of three types of knowledge in RE: personal knowledge, substantive knowledge, ways of knowing/disciplinary knowledge.

What personal knowledge isn’t

• It’s not the same as individual knowledge – what a person knows
• It’s not simply pupils’ personal opinions. It’s not just about developing a ‘personal worldview’.
• It’s not a revamped version of ‘learning from’ religion (AT2)
• It’s not confessional RE.
• It’s not about learning from religion and worldviews for spiritual or moral development shaped by normative values of ‘respect’ and ‘acceptance’.
• It’s not giving opinion the same credibility as informed, self-aware understanding.
• It’s not just about recognising differences in worldviews without exploring how they interact and challenge each other.
• It doesn’t aim to change pupils’ religious or non-religious identities, but to increase their self-awareness in relation to the subject matter
• It’s not easily assessable – maybe we shouldn’t try? Ofsted say “It may well be that personal knowledge, due to its highly individualised personal, intimate or abstruse nature, might be an aspect of RE that ought to be ‘unencumbered’ by assessment.”

Reading list

Ofsted Research review

Nikki McGee -Some personal reflections on personal knowledge – blog

Shaw, M. and Freeman, K. (2023). What do we really mean by ‘Personal Knowledge’? RE Today, Vol 41. No.1 RE Today Online Library

Cooling, T. (2024). Knowledge in a religion and worldviews approach in English schools. British Journal of Religious Education, 1–10

And to give balance (?!) this article argues why we are Barking Up the Wrong Tree – A critique of targeting ‘personal knowledge’ in Religious Education

This is the 2nd post in my series about curriculum in RE and how I think that there are different components to an effective RE curriculum.

Whilst planning this blog, the brilliant Wayne Buisst shared a blog on hinterland which is an excellent contribution to the knowledge in RE conversation. Other than this, I’m not aware of any other public discussions of core/hinterland in RE. Please do link me to any.

What are core and hinterland knowledge?

Put simply core knowledge is what we want students to learn. The key ideas, terms, facts, beliefs, practices etc They are core to a curriculum because they are the parts that make a wider narrative, which once learnt, makes the whole curriculum. They are the curriculum, broken down. They are organised into schemes or topics or units, each with its own important knowledge.

Hinterland knowledge is a term coined by Christine Counsell. It is knowledge that is used to help access, understand and enrich the core. Christine clarifies “The term ‘hinterland’ is as fertile in curricular thinking as its literal meaning.  It’s not clutter. This is nothing to do with fun stuff to make things more interesting or engaging, nothing to do with extraneous activities to ‘engage’….”.

How this applies in RE

Stories as hinterland

In RE, hinterland can be found in the ways in which we help students to understand key ideas. For example, one of our most powerful tools is using story. Stories can be hinterland because, whilst knowledge of the story itself, may not be core, the story helps students to understand why that knowledge is important.

Humans love a story and in RE, most religions and beliefs have stories that can help students to remember and understand important knowledge. They are a powerful way to explore key concepts (next blog!).

Stories help transform the abstract into something a child may be able to understand. For example if my core knowledge for a lesson is beliefs about forgiveness in Christianity, we might read the Parable of the Prodigal Son. An interpretation is that the ‘Father’ welcomes the son back regardless of how low he has fallen, representing God and sinners. However I will emphasise other important parts of the story that also help understand forgiveness but also other key ideas e.g. the fact the son worked with pigs (representing uncleanliness – both physical and spiritual).

Experiences as hinterland

We know that students experiencing things can help with understanding and remembering more. Visits, visitors and using artefacts can all contribute to the core but especially the hinterland.

For example, this week I showed my students a chauri when teaching about the importance of the Guru Granth Sahib to Sikhs. As usual they are fascinated by it and what it is. However, in this case I want them to remember why the Guru Granth Sahib is important not that a chauri is usually made from horse hair.

Their experience of seeing something ‘in real life’ is an important aspect of RE which can be tricky for teachers. If we don’t include these experiences then religion and belief becomes abstract or intangible. However these experiences can be the things that are least available to us but can have significant impact on learning. (Tip if you’re trying to find places to visit or people to speak then take a look at the REhubs website and if you’re looking for artefacts I’ve collated a list of possible sources here)

The relationship between the core and hinterland

I think that knowledge in itself isn’t core or hinterland. It is decided by the purpose of a unit as to which it is. In one unit some content could be core but in another unit it might be hinterland, and vice versa. The best hinterland (and indeed core) knowledge can be used at multiple times through a curriculum. It saves time whilst repetition and reapplication help with learning.

For example, I might be teaching students about the Christian idea of sin, and will read the story of the adulterous woman, about to be stoned. Jesus said to those about to stone her ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’. We can then discuss what the story tells Christians about sin. They have an example from the Bible and a reference to a source of wisdom and authority that they can use in their work. However, I know that later in the curriculum we will be learning about the death penalty and adultery. This story is a perfect one for multi-use. However, in its initial telling the core is ‘sin’ and the rest is hinterland. When I come to teach the death penalty I can ask students to recall this story and we can discuss what this might mean about Christian attitudes to the death penalty and how to treat those that that committed adultery; the previous hinterland becomes core. I’m not saying that there was any intention from Jesus of these being separate things but for the sake of learning, the emphasis shifts.

When hinterland goes wrong

If students come away from a lesson and all they remember is the hinterland knowledge then there is an issue. The hinterland should act as a support for the core, which whilst should be remembered, is not the key point of learning. We have to be careful in how we present the hinterland to ensure the right things are remembered!

Examples of hinterland gone wrong:

• Students watching a video animation of Jesus and worrying about things the animator has done – ‘why has that person got a blue bag?’
• Having a visitor speak to students about their beliefs but as part of the intro tells them about themselves e.g. ‘I like dogs not cats’, and students then discussing this point more than the beliefs
• Students remember the date of something important because you taught them a fun way to remember it but can’t remember what happened on the date!
• An example of this in my teaching is using Stormzy’s ‘Blinded by your grace’ song to help explain salvation by grace and they just remember Stormzy and not the Christian teaching of grace!

Sometimes we have to have a careful balance of what we allow to be used as hinterland and how we balance it with core. This is the skill of the good RE teacher.

Why does this matter?

It is important because as think about what it is that we want students to learn, we need to be clear on the exact knowledge we want them to learn.

Core and hinterland contribute to the curriculum as part of a bigger narrative. Alongside the other elements of the curriculum, knowledge should build over time. Some of what we teach now should pop up again later on and provide links between topics. This is why ‘lifting’ a scheme from someone else or online without thinking how the knowledge connects is problematic. A curriculum is not a set of individual schemes/topics. It is a series that has connections and links, where knowledge accumulates.

It is possible for an RE curriculum to just be formed of core knowledge or core and hinterland, without any of the other things that my following blogs are going to cover. ‘Just’ getting students to know things is what I think people that criticise ‘knowledge-rich’ approaches. It becomes a collection of pub quiz answers. This is what a lot of RE has done in the past and some schools still do; they don’t dig deeper! The point of this series is to emphasise the importance of knowledge as part of the whole. It cannot stand alone but it is important to consider its part in the curriculum. Hence, this blog series to explore what else makes a good curriculum.

We also know that RE has a high level of teachers with other specialisms. Subject specialists will have the subject knowledge needed to use appropriate hinterland when needed, often spontaneously. However, non-specialists won’t. This is why it is important for schemes of learning to be specific as to the core and the hinterland to be used, and for any CPD time to be used to discuss how these work together.

In my experience, the use of carefully chosen hinterland is a key component of giving students depth of knowledge to apply in different contexts (as illustrated in the story of the adulterous woman above). I think this helps students to be able to synthesise and apply their knowledge much more, for example in GCSE extended writing answers. Students are required to write a short essay using reasoning to support views and to evaluate. I’ve found that the more I give students throughout the course that can be used in these answers, the more they have to select from in their memory to add to the essay. In the past (and I’m sure still, for those that aren’t given enough time) students have been taught ‘set’ answers to questions. I don’t need to do this because I have immersed students in so much knowledge, they have a wide pool to choose from, meaning their answers are much better constructed.

Summary

• We need to be clear what the core and hinterland is for a topic especially for teachers with other specialisms
• We need to ensure that students remember the right stuff
• We need to consider how this knowledge plays its part in our curriculum – when will it be revisited? how do topics link?

Other blogs on core/hinterland

https://thedignityofthethingblog.wordpress.com/2018/04/07/senior-curriculum-leadership-1-the-indirect-manifestation-of-knowledge-a-curriculum-as-narrative/

https://achemicalorthodoxy.co.uk/2019/02/01/core-and-hinterland-whats-what-and-why-it-matters/

https://mrvallanceteach.wordpress.com/2021/05/15/core-and-hinterland-what-are-we-really-talking-about/

https://blog.optimus-education.com/what-you-don’t-know-you-don’t-know

This blog aims to outline some of the current challenges that teachers and leaders are dealing with, for those that don’t know what is happening in schools. I’ve tried to back most points with evidence (varying sources) but some of it is anecdotal. It is in no way supposed to be critical of schools and their staff. It’s an overview of where I think we are and why. You may well disagree but unless you spend a significant time in schools then you may not be aware of these things. I come from a secondary background however I suspect these issues are across phases.

The original title of the blog was going to be ‘COVID kids – the impact on schools and children’ which reflects my thoughts on one of the biggest causes of the issues below. They always existed but I believe that the lock-downs of 2020 and 2021 were hugely impactful to children, their parents and ultimately to schools.

Attendance

Attendance of students is at a stage that I have never experienced in my career. A significant number of students are not coming to school; some coming in less and some not coming in at all.

The evidence of what we can do to deal with this is sparse. We are all trying to come up with things that might make a difference. But it is huge. For many schools, relying on tutors or heads of year to deal with absenteeism is now unmanageable. Schools need to make roles for colleagues to work specifically (and only) with these students and families. But this isn’t enough, reports show that adverts for these sorts of jobs are increasing, but are vacancies being filled? I’ve seen people share threads on X/Twitter of what they’re doing which is lovely to share but I think we should be clear that this isn’t a case of a few ‘hacks’. This needs a coherent strategy at a national level, fully funded and with shared resourcing in what might work. We need people to see this job as rewarding, valued, fully supported with continuous training and do-able. At the moment there is evidence that these jobs are not retaining staff due to “the “emotional intensity” of the work, high workload and frustration with the approach and scope of the work”.

Upping the fine for absence just isn’t going to cut it. Someone that has gone on holiday during term time will have saved multiple times more money than the fine, by avoiding school holiday hiked up prices. And for those whose absence is linked to school refusal, a fine isn’t going to do anything to help. Parents won’t be helped in getting their child to school, by paying an £80 fine.

Parents need help with parenting. They need support in dealing their child that is refusing to get out of bed in the morning or refuses to go into school. However this has fallen onto schools and we don’t have the capacity to do so. We have become an emergency service, social services and pseudo-parents and we just don’t have the knowledge, skills, time or capacity to fulfil these roles. The government needs to deal with this at the root; with current and new parents. I don’t know much about Sure Start but I hear that this sort of programme can have impact (and lo! the evidence for this has appeared today). The government needs huge investment into these sorts of programmes to ensure that future parents can be supported and schools can get back to fulfilling their usual role in society (mainly education).

Behaviour

How people in society behave has changed since the lockdowns. Reports of 50% increase in violence towards shop workers and data showing that violence towards teachers in school has increased, shows that boundaries have shifted.

What training have teachers had for dealing with deep rooted behaviour issues? I feel that dealing with students with more complex issues are way beyond our capabilities. Schools need to be able to support these students where possible but also, where necessary, find students an alternative to their current context, ideally to more specialist provision. There has been funding for more EBD schools however these are way behind their estimated opening time of September 2026.

Persistent disruptive behaviour has increased and schools are having to make the ultimate decision to suspend students. Despite what some think, this isn’t an overnight decision and takes a lot of time and resources to try to resolve before suspension.

The Mental Health crisis

I don’t think we will ever fully know the impact that COVID has had on the nation and the world’s mental health. And when we start to realise the long term impact, it will be too late for intervention for some people.

As already mentioned, teachers and school staff are not trained to deal with the levels of mental health issues we are facing. Coming up with a code for school registers might help in identifying the numbers we face however it’s not a solution. Schools need specific, targeted support for these students because the current systems aren’t coping. CAMHS referrals have significantly increased and the system doesn’t have the capacity to deal with them. Stories are being shared of having to wait weeks for referrals to be processed. This falls back onto school staff that aren’t equipped to deal with the level and complexity of need.

Value of schooling

Unfortunately, during the lockdowns some people broke the law and people in authority have since been found to have not followed the rules that they were enforcing. People’s view of authority figures have been affected by this, this includes schools and school staff. The value of schools has therefore changed in some people’s eyes.

Let’s be brutal, there are students that were told to leave school in March 2020, that now have qualifications that they weren’t fully assessed for. In some cases, students left with grades which may not correlate with what they would have got if they had been assessed in the normal way. They did not experience the end of school rites of passage. They missed out on important life skills and social interactions. These students may become parents themselves soon and I think this will impact their perception of schools and schooling, and consequently their own children.

Some have said that the ‘social contract’ between schools and parents has shifted. Ex-Ofsted Chief inspector Amanda Spielman has said:

“And in education we have seen a troubling shift in attitudes since the pandemic. The social contract that has long bound parents and schools together has been damaged. This unwritten agreement sees parents get their children to school every day and respect the school’s policies and approach. In return, schools give children a good education and help prepare them for their next steps in life. It took years to build and consolidate, from when schooling first became compulsory.

Unfortunately, there is ample evidence that this contract has been fractured, both in absenteeism and in behaviour. Restoring this contract is vital to sustaining post-pandemic progress, but is likely to take years to rebuild fully.”

This links to socialisation.

Socialisation

I’m not an expert but I can see the impact that lock downs have had on students’ socialisation. Surveys seem to support the impact that they had on social and emotional development. For some children, in their formative years, they didn’t have to deal with people they didn’t like or do what they didn’t want to do, for several months. I think that some students haven’t developed the skills of dealing with these important aspects of life. Some are using ‘fight or flight’ when encountering things they don’t like. Flight includes not coming to school and internal truancy. Fight includes refusing to go to class and arguing with staff.

Starting secondary school is a hugely important time for deciding who you are, how you are going to be and who you are going to hang about with. School provides children with the space to be with other people. People their own age, people that are younger and then some people that are a lot older! Part of being in school is learning to get on with people you may like but also people you may not like. Also, it’s doing some things you might like but also doing things you might not like. Many students missed out on these important stepping stones in life. (I believe that current year 10 have had the worst of this. They missed their year 6 SATs, end of primary school rites of passage and couldn’t have the same induction to secondary school as normal. They then went into lock down again in term 2 and had barely found their feet in year 7.)

The medical profession is also noticing this and its impact on relationships:

“The COVID-19 crisis highlights that school fulfils not only an educational mission of knowledge acquisition, but it also satisfies the socialisation needs of young people. With students at home, the school community is absent and despite the virtual interactions and learning opportunities provided by the internet and social networks, a barrier is created in the educational relationship between pupils and teachers.“

Parents

It’s impossible to fully quantify what parents went through during lockdowns. Some parents went from being mum/dad to also being learning mentor or even teacher. They were handed responsibility for ensuring their child did things that they wouldn’t usually have to do. Many found maintaining discipline and keeping their child/ren motivated, hard.

Schools are now reporting an increase in parents challenging school rules. Whilst people will always debate which rules should/shouldn’t be challenged it’s the impact that these challenges have on teacher and school leaders that goes unrecorded. Receiving abusive emails from parents, parents shouting at teachers at the school gate or posting hateful posts on social media about staff, have an impact. Some have forgotten they are dealing with human beings and that schools aren’t the enemy.

Sadly, parents questioning authority of the school has an impact on students. If they’re hearing ‘I’ll go up the school and tell them…..’ then this is giving a message to children about who is ‘in charge’. Students then openly question teachers when they are told things they don’t want to do/hear. They are copying what their parents are saying at home. Whilst students are in school they are required to follow school rules for their own and others’ safety. This crossing of boundaries was not helped when school was home, and parents became their authority on school work. The boundaries of authority became blurred.

Both schools and Ofsted have received significantly more complaints post COVID. These are taking up Headteachers’ time. Some aren’t warranted so are wasting time that could be spent on supporting students. It’s also not good for Headteacher well being. All credit to Headteachers that deal with these on a daily basis however it is a huge time-consumer and I can’t help feeling it is also changing the nature of the job.

Cost of living, poverty and disadvantage

Reports show that there is an increase in poverty. What does this mean for schools?

Disadvantage is often highlighted in education data regarding the issues above. For example, the new fine system will likely affect the disadvantaged at secondary more. Similarly for attendance, the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged has increased.

The pressure then falls upon teachers to try to ‘close’ the gap. This is now becoming a complete nonsensical thing to expect from teachers. The issues of disadvantage are far more complex than an engaging lesson or after school class can resolve. Amongst other things, the Education Policy Institute recommend a cross-party child poverty strategy.

Teachers, teaching and learning

Anecdotally, more and more discussions about education are about the above issues and less about teaching and learning. Teachers don’t have time to talk about curriculum matters if they’re dealing with behaviour matters. Form tutors won’t have time to talk to students about learning if they’re talking about attendance. We’re losing the time and energy to talk about the stuff that matters to deal with things that will probably make a limited difference.

Even back when the lock downs were happening, teachers could see that COVID was going to cause issues with learning. If it didn’t, we’d have some big questions to ask about the role of schools!

More recent research suggests the impact of lock-downs on learning. One report found there were less children who achieved a ​‘Good Level of Development’ and the perception from parents and schools is that children (EYFS/KS1) have been disadvantaged in their socio-emotional wellbeing, language and numeracy skills.

The Dfe summarised suggestions of what aspects of learning have had the most losses:

Teachers aren’t as happy as they have been. They’re now dealing with everything above. Teachers are increasingly stressed and their wellbeing has hit a 5 year low. Whilst the government has promised a “£1.5 million of new investment to deliver a three-year mental health and wellbeing support package for school and college leaders; providing professional supervision and counselling to at least 2,500 leaders”. However this doesn’t help with teacher retention.

Teachers are now less inclined to recommend teaching as a career to others and this has significantly changed over the past three years.

To top this all off, education is having a recruitment and retention crisis. So even if we get children into schools it is becoming less and less likely they’ll have a specialist or even a regular member of staff teaching them. The quality of education cannot be the same with non-specialist or supply staff, than with regular, subject specialists. There is also a shortage of supply teachers so internal staff are having to increasingly cover for colleagues. This is not good for teacher wellbeing and will clearly impact retention. Why bother going to school if school isn’t fully functioning as it should?

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The reality is that four years ago, schools stopped functioning in the way they had been, for the majority of students. Whilst there may be doubts over correlation or causation, I believe that the impact of the pandemic, in particular the lockdowns have significantly affected schools, children and parents. Is COVID’s impact on education the canary in the mine? As these children grow up, what further impact will there be on society? The data is piling up but it seems the solutions (or at least possible strategies to try) are not so forthcoming, at least at a governmental level. Society has changed, never to be the same again. As a new government is on the horizon, I hope they take on board all these issues. We need new direction and support. Schools need help with this ‘new normal’.

(NB I never usually write anything political and expect I will delete soon after publishing.)

The DfE data on absence isn’t a happy read. With persistent absence at 20% for the academic year so far, it’s clear that we are dealing with an issue that there are no silver bullets for. It’s a long term issue for schools which is a consequence of lock downs and the resulting increase in anxiety and depression. So what can we do at a lesson/teacher level to try to help students that are affected. We need to do something!

I’m proposing three strategies that might help. However, these ideas are not really for school refusers, these are for those students that we see once in a while. They’re in for one lesson and then you don’t see them again for a few weeks. Also, they may be subject appropriate strategies. For RE, when we see them so infrequently this has led to a huge improvement in engagement for these students.

Lesson division

I see many people plan their schemes by lesson. So each lesson covers a topic within a scheme. For example when teaching the five pillars of Islam, they might do one lesson on each pillar so five lessons in total. The problem with this is if I’ve missed the first two pillars and I’m in lesson three, I won’t have any idea about those pillars (except through the starter – see below). So I don’t teach ‘by lesson’, I teach by topic across lessons.

Here are some simple illustrations to help visualise my point….

The diagram above shows how many teachers teach. Each lesson covers a topic or area and then the content is ‘done’ (aside from retrieval/revision etc). A student that attends two lessons in six will only have exposure to two topics.

This diagram shows how if you split topics across lessons, a student will be exposed to four different topics. This is a simplistic version of what I actually do (topics don’t all fit neatly into two half lessons!) but hopefully illustrates the point.

You could argue that the four topics they experience won’t be in-depth but I’d rather these students hear some of the content and hearing the key terms being used than two ‘whole’. They will end up with some notes on four topics rather than full notes on two.

When I start the lesson we always do a re-cap of the last lesson so all students can get back into things. This places the learning into context for the absent student and they can see last lesson’s notes on the screen via my visualiser.

Repeated content in starters

I use starter quizzes for a multitude of reasons. In this context they’re used to expose students to previous content. They won’t know the answers when they’re back in lesson but we repeat the quiz questions every lesson, so even if they missed the content teaching, they can pick up on things.

For example, at the start of the topic on Hindus teachings on life after death we talk about the story of Krishna and Arjuna being on a battlefield when discussing issues of life and death. This is important contextual information for the teachings. For the following lessons, I ask the starter question ‘Where were Arjuna and Krishna when they had the conversation?’ After a few lessons, students that weren’t in the initial lesson know it was on a battlefield because we repeatedly reference it. Also, because I don’t just go through the answers but repeat the content (showing the appropriate images/text that I used when I initially taught it) when we mark the starters, the students get exposure to more previous (missed) content. It takes longer than just reeling off the answers but the starter isn’t a pub quiz; it’s retrieval and foundations for the coming lesson. I’ve written before how my starter quizzes take a while. This is why!

Long term enquiry questions

This solution is probably more for humanities subjects where a topic can take longer than one lesson, but might be doable for a topic that has component parts in other subjects i.e. is not cumulative.

We have an overarching enquiry question that lasts any time from half a term or longer which has many different approaches to the answer. Every lesson covers one or more elements, contributing to the answer. A student can pick up where we are in any lesson because there is new material which is linked to past material but doesn’t necessarily rely on it. We have to repeat/summarise previous content to link it with the new, so essential content is presented to them. Whilst this won’t be as in depth as the previous teaching, it gives them a basis to pin new learning.

This really comes into play when we answer the enquiry question. A student can have missed a few lessons but can still answer the question from the two lessons they attended because in those two lessons they have two possible answers to the question.

An example for core key stage four is ‘How have people responded to discrimination and was it effective?’. Each lesson looks at case studies of discrimination and the response of those that have been discriminated against. Students that attend all lessons will have 10 case studies to draw from (see below) that have been spread across lessons (not one per lesson).

Even if a student attends the final lesson we will have done at least one case study before they answer it. It’s a limited answer but not a situation of ‘I wasn’t here so I don’t know what to write’. They always have something. This strategy also promotes ‘going deeper’ into a topic rather than rattling through superficially.

These three strategies mean that I don’t have students sitting wasting even more time in class saying ‘ I don’t know about this’ or when it is summative assessment time, not being able to write anything. They’ve made a real difference to my students that I don’t see very often but equally the strategies are good for all students in embedding learning.

One way that I differentiate is to consider challenge in the retrieval questions that I ask students. I start most lessons with a 1-10 of questions. The content of these question is chosen carefully. I take into consideration:

• Curriculum – where we are in the scheme, what we’ve covered
• The students – from what I know about them – are they motivated? cognitive issues? best language to use etc
• Time – when I last saw them (I will pick an easier question if I’ve seen them a long time ago compared to seeing them the previous day), time of day
• Lesson – what I will be teaching them or feeding back on – the choose questions that specifically link in to this
• Forgetting – which content might they be forgetting? Interleaving content from across the topic/course helps to remember in the long term

Same question, but different

Once I’ve considered these general areas I think about the wording of questions. These questions cover the same content but some are easier than others. Which are easier and why?

1. Name one of the Trimurti	2.What are Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva known as?	3.Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva are known as the T_________.
4. How many gods are in the Trimurti?	5.Name the Trimurti	6.Name all three parts of the Trimurti
7. Name at least one of the Trimurti	8.Which god is missing from the Trimurti: Vishnu, Shiva, _________	9.The Trimurti are B_______, V________ and S_________.

• Which would you ask first time after teaching the content? Why?
• Which would you ask after you are confident they know the content?
• Which would you ask if you haven’t seen students for a long time but you think they know the content?
• Which would you ask if there wasn’t a high success rate on this previously?
• What’s the difference between 1 & 7? When would you use each? Why?
• What’s the difference between 5 & 6? When would you use each? Why?
• What do the letter hints do for a student?
• Rank order the questions from easiest to most difficult. What made you decide?¥

Why ask the same question differently?*

• The Goldilocks effect – not too easy, not too difficult. The middle way. This changes as students learn more and confidence develops. This is the skill of a teacher; pitching at the right level!
• Challenge – it allows me to differentiate based on where I think the majority of the class are. Pitching the question at the right level of their understanding is essential for success. Scaffolding in questions includes ‘fill in the blanks’, giving more information, requiring more in an answer etc
• Motivation – students are motivated if they feel success but are also challenged. Making them feel clever can be the biggest motivator. Giving them hints can help. Giving them trickier questions can help students engagement.
• Getting used to multiple formats – if we have to talk about qualifications then this method is good for preparing students to be able answer multiple format questions. If I created the above table for maths, the questions could look significantly different on paper but teaching students that they are the same question builds confidence.

So, when you’re asking students questions think carefully; how should I ask this? It makes a difference.

¥ I’d go:

• 4 – remembering a keyword or what ‘tri’ means
• 3 – remembering one keyword with a letter hint
• 2 – remembering one keyword
• 1 – remembering one but trickier because they have three to choose from
• 7 – remembering at least one – gives option – allows student to be limited or give more
• 9 – remembering all three but with letter hints
• 8 – they have to know Brahma
• 6 – have to know all three but are told there are three
• 5 – have to know what the word Trimurti means and remember all three

*Those of you that like Rosenshine’s principles of instruction I think this probably covers:

• Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning.
• Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step
• Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students.
• Guide student practice.
• Check for student understanding.
• Obtain a high success rate.
• Independent practice
• Engage students in weekly and monthly review

A few people have been discussing online what a religion and worldviews approach to RE might be. If you have been watching/listening to some of the RE community in recent years you may have a flavour but there hasn’t been much simple explanation of what it means.

From what I’ve seen it has always been juxtaposed with a world religions paradigm, which is often criticised. It is also often been debated by lots of clever people that aren’t necessarily designing curriculums or teaching day-to-day. I like to know the practical implications of what it means so I will leave the theorising and problematising to others, and crack on with considering what it means to me and my department.

I’m not going to include arguments for or the criticisms of a world religions approach nor those critiquing a worldviews approach, I just want some clarity on what people are saying it actually means for the classroom, in terms of curriculum and pedagogy (although I think these aren’t clear cut).

I certainly have not been sure what it fully means for my curriculum and teaching and I’m sure that there are other teachers that feel the same so I thought I’d bring a few things together, for me and for you!

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Curriculum focus – in our schemes and in our plans

• Using disciplinary knowledge or ‘ways of knowing’ in your curriculum & teaching (some have gone for theology/philosophy/human/social sciences/history) – simply asking ‘how do we know X to be the case when considering Y?’ then using one of more discipline to answer this e.g. How do we that Christians believe that in God? Using Theology to read the Bible evidence, using philosophy to analyse philosophical arguments for his existence, looking at human/social sciences to see how people behave due to their beliefs. This may include:
  • teaching substantive knowledge (content/facts/stuff) through the disciplines
  • teaching students the multi-disciplinary nature of RE
  • considering if a unit of work uses one or more discipline
    • If you want to see how you already do this use these primary and secondary balanced RE audit tools (from the Church of England education office but applicable to all schools)
    • Watch Nikki McGee discuss a disciplinary approach
• Using academic scholarship – making students aware of the conversations and debates that have been had and are happening in the different disciplines – Read Joe Kinnaird’s thoughts on using scholarship here
• Including non-religious worldviews in your curriculum – Humanism is often mentioned but includes others. This RE:Online blog from Dr Kevin O’Grady may help with this
• (staring with) Looking at the lived experiences of individual perspectives (a person/people) rather than generalisations of institutional groups e.g. ‘Buddhists….’, ‘Christians….’ – Here’s an example for Islam from Dr Kate Christopher and Professor Lynn Revell.
• Considering the terminology we use when talking about religion & belief – an emphasis on presenting religions as worldviews, considering the names of religions (Hinduism/Sanatana dharma, Sikhism/Sikhi) Listen to an example on the RE Podcast with Louisa Jane Smith
• Teaching about diversity within and between worldviews – using similarities and differences – not all people within a religion agree e.g. looking at denominations/schools/traditions within a religion – Here’s an example from Zameer Hussein and Rachel Buckby on primary curriculum
• Teaching students about personal worldviews – not opinions but the things that have lead them to have them and the position that they have on the world. This isn’t AT2. This can be taught be using something tangible like lenses of a magnifying glass or glasses to help students understand the concept of perspective. Read my blog for some suggestions on how you might do this.
• Personal reflexivity – appreciating our own biases in our curriculum and teaching & encouraging students to do the same (thanks to Katie Gooch & Nikki McGee for highlighting) This blog explores our biases

Pedagogical focus – how we teach the curriculum

• Considering the language we use when teaching about beliefs & practices- Using ‘all/many/some/few/one’ rather than ‘Christians believe….’ See here for my blog on this
• Using the tools of our disciplines to create a critical approach to what we teach e.g. using philosophy requires us to consider the logic and reasoning of arguments – some have planned for students to be aware of the tools and have encouraged them to use them independently – some have used the metaphor of lenses (not the same as the personal worldview lenses!) to help students understand how we can apply them to substantive knowledge – See Joe Kinnaird’s example of getting students to write like philosophers
• Using a hermeneutical approach (considering how things might be read and interpreted differently) e.g. examining Genesis 1 from different perspectives – these resources from Jen Jenkins may give some ideas and this RExchange2022 video from Jennifer Jenkins, Shannon Clemo and Debbie Yeomans

Further reading on a worldviews approach
Reforming RE (website with many relevant blogs)

Worldviews in Religious Education – Trevor Cooling, with Bob Bowie and Farid Panjwani

An Ambitious Religion and Worldviews Curriculum for All Kathryn Wright

Worldviews – a new approach for RE RE council