Thinking Through Religious Education

Thinking Through Religious Education is developed and written by practicing teachers.

Its practical strategies with numerous exemplars enable teachers throughout the secondary school to create exciting, memorable and challenging RE lessons A teacher resource, it addresses both the teaching and learning of RE and ways in which teachers can promote effective learning.

The quote from the pupil above is not an isolated example of such a mature response after being in a teaching thinking classroom.

One pupil wrote in her log "just because someone has a different idea doesn't make either of us wrong. Thinking Through Religious Education helps the teacher to: *encourage a wide range of ideas in the classroom *give pupils confidence to express their own ideas, value the opinion of others, evaluate arguments and exercise good judgement *focus on helping pupils know how as well as know what *concentrate on how pupils learn *create exciting lessons underpinned by robust theory *provide stimulation for pupils across a wide range of ability *include a broad range of ideas from different religious traditions *be increasingly flexible and adaptable in their approach to teaching *cover the five thinking skills as set out in the National Curriculum *make links across subjects, particularly with citizenship *enjoy lessons as pupils become better motivated Thinking Through Religious Education aims to provide examples of an approach to teaching and learning in the classroom that is flexible and can be adapted to suit any Agreed Syllabus.

The principles on which these activities are based enable pupils to explore ideas and question what they mean for the people who hold them and what they may mean for themselves. To be effective, careful choices need to made about when, where and how to use the strategies.

The teacher needs to actively plan for their use to ensure that the application is appropriate to the aims of the lesson.

Think about them as another tool in the toolbox of a good RE teacher and not simply as an off the shelf set of work sheets.