EFTRE Workshop Overcoming poverty of experience and developing professional capacity in student teachers in Scotland

Curriculum for Excellence Active learning is learning which engages and challenges children and young people’s thinking using real-life and imaginary situations. It takes full advantage of the opportunities for learning presented by: spontaneous play planned, purposeful play investigating and exploring events and life experiences focused learning and teaching.

Curriculum for Excellence - RME Religious and moral education is a process where children and young people engage in a search for meaning, value and purpose in life. This involves both the exploration of beliefs and values and the study of how such beliefs and values are expressed. Building the Curriculum 1

Research evidence “the approach that trainee teachers take to RME is influenced by their own background, beliefs and personal experiences of religious and spiritual matters” (Leslie, 2010) ‘The need to balance several issues throughout student’s training have also emerged: Content Pedagogy Experiential learning for students’ (Leslie, 2010)

Content ‘Planned inputs for students introduce the historical and current justification for the inclusion of RME in the curriculum. The inputs also deliver content covering the basic beliefs of the main six world religions and the basis for teaching moral education. This reflects the need to give students confidence about content that is unfamiliar to them and value the existing knowledge of others. ‘ (Leslie, 2010)

Pedagogy ‘Different pedagogies are used to deliver inputs in order to demonstrate classroom approaches to students. While these are introduced, direct reference to named pedagogies and the research that underpins them is not covered in detail until the following year. It is very important to instil enjoyment and relevance to early inputs in order to balance any negative feelings and experiences of religious education that students bring with them before introducing an academic approach to teaching RME. (Leslie, 2010),

Experiential learning for students Students own experiences are explored. Activities suitable to the age and stage of development of students (not their pupils) are introduced. Feedback collected; formal and informal.

Impact “I remember you used the mirror in a box idea during our first RME lesson in first year, and I thought the way you delivered the lesson and the whole idea was a great start to making people feel special and creating a positive bond with everyone I used it with a primary 4 class to talk about how we are all special It gives people a warm feeling inside and that is what I wanted to achieve with the children because it makes you feel good and it is nice to hear that you are valued. The children enjoyed the excitement created from the suspense of what was inside my special box and the build up made the revelation even more enjoyable. After I had explained how the mirror in the box worked and that it was the children who were the special thing in my box, I asked the children to say one nice thing about the person they were sitting next to, which was a lovely way of creating positive relationships between pupils.”

Impact “It’s like relating theory to practice when out on placement. Only by having the experiences ourselves can we teach RME to children.”