St John Fisher College
ELEMENT TWO: Curriculum Structure and Organisation for Religious Education
A CATHOLIC VIEW OF LEARNING
At St John Fisher College, a Catholic view about Learning and Teaching is reflected in both dimensions of Religious Education, namely, the classroom teaching and learning of Religion and the Religious life of the College. Teaching and learning in Religious Education is intentionally developed on the foundation of a Catholic theology and philosophy of curriculum as evidenced in the following learning vision statements to be found on the College website:
To love and to learn
The holistic approach to education at St John Fisher College means that the students’ spiritual, social, emotional and physical growth are promoted as well as their academic learning. Because the Pastoral Care program is integrated throughout, the Gospel values of love, justice, peace and forgiveness are taught by example and experience.
To live as Christian People of Faith
The formal teaching of Religious Education is underpinned by the daily lived experience of Gospel values in the community. The values of love, justice, peace and forgiveness are taught by example and experience. The College chapel provides a place for regular liturgies and for private prayer and reflection. Priests from the surrounding community support the College in the regular provision of Eucharist.
The Gospel values lie at the centre of this view about Learning and Teaching, and in developing their religious literacy, students are encouraged to participate critically and authentically in contemporary culture, mindful of these values. Recognising that each person is created in the image of God, the curriculum structure at St John Fisher College is characterized by inclusion, holistic and relational learning and action in the community. The College’s RE Program presupposes that life-long learning in religion and faith development will occur, so that rather than merely the gaining of information, religious education classes and faith experiences offered as part of those, will provide opportunities for our students to deal with critical religious issues and concerns of life, thus ensuring the integration of knowing and living in the Catholic/Christian tradition.
BCE Model for Religious Education
Opportunities for prayer and reflection, often taking place in the College chapel, form an integral part of the program at each year level, and are linked to elements of the Religious Life of the School as well as the mandated text and explicit prayer requirements.
The Vision of Brisbane Catholic Education to Teach, Challenge and Transform is therefore realised at St John Fisher College through everyday witness by both staff and students as our Religious Education program, with its integration of both curriculum content and experiential learning aims to transform the culture and the world in which we live.
OUR MODEL FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION USING THE RECONCEPTUALIST APPROACH
Teachers of Religious Education at St John Fisher College have an understanding of the reconceptualist approach to classroom learning and teaching of religion, involving an educational rather than a catechetical framework. In this way the College’s program and experiences or classroom learning and teaching of religion are responsive to the religious diversity of the College, while being faithful to its Catholic Christian identity. Those who identify as Catholic are affirmed, however presumptions are not made about our students’ faith development or beliefs. In fact on entering the College, all new students are taught Catholic practices, prayers and expectations of behaviour during liturgical celebrations.
Data gained from the BI tool in fact reveals that only 52.4% of students at St John Fisher College identify as Catholic, reflecting a similar fall in BCE statistics as a whole since 2014.
BI Tool Chart: % of Catholic Students
The religious education classroom at St John Fisher College must therefore aim to help learners to explore the meaning of their own religious lives in relation to those who share that life and those who do not,” (Scott, 1984, p.334), by assisting those who are literate in the Catholic Christian tradition to gain an appreciation of their own tradition while having an empathetic understanding of the religious beliefs and practices of others. This approach acknowledges the reality of the lives of an increasing number of our students, the majority of whom have a low level of religious affiliation. An example of this approach occurs when religious education classes are engaged in prayer in the classroom/chapel, where girls of other faith backgrounds are welcomed equally; their individual spiritualities and faiths are respected.
By using a reconceptualist approach to teaching and learning in the Religious Education classroom, teachers at St John Fisher College are thus able to ensure a focus on the individual student that engages the head, the heart and the hands of all learners by means of experience, knowledge, practice and application. This learner-centred approach is visible formally through the curriculum by means of the stimulus/resource material chosen, and informally by means of a person-centred understanding by the teacher, where each student’s own faith story is acknowledged and honoured.
The building of right relationships between teachers and students that occurs in Religious Education classes, and in activities associated with the Religious Life of the School both formally and informally is therefore an important factor in the reconceptualist approach at St John Fisher College.
TEACHING AND LEARNING IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
A pedagogy that stimulates and supports student enquiry and engagement is the basis of the Religious Education program at St John Fisher College with teachers using an enquiry question at each year level as a focus for the mandated learning intentions and success criteria. Focus questions are then derived from this initial enquiry question. (See Sample Units of Work in EVIDENCE.) Such an approach takes account of the capabilities and readiness of individual students, enabling modified and/or extension tasks to be more closely related to the original enquiry question.
An important element in the planning of the Religious Education curriculum is therefore the input provided by the Learning Enhancement staff to ensure equity and accessibility of the curriculum for all students. In the case of one particular student, this has required the development of a completely different approach to the program of study from that of the rest of the year group, and the offering of alternative assessment.
Scope and Sequence Outlines in the St John Fisher College Religious Education program clearly identify content from both the BCE Religion Curriculum P-12 and the Religious Life of the School, and curriculum activities are planned to ensure not only a balance and integration of all four curriculum strands but explicit connections with the Religious Life of the School. Thus the Model for Religious Education shapes the structure and organisation of the program. In assessment tasks such as the Brochure Task in Year 9 Term 1 that is designed to persuade others to involve themselves in the work of Caritas (See EVIDENCE), one can see direct links between teaching and learning about social justice and peace, and opportunities for action.
The RE Dept. Staff Handbook (See EVIDENCE) while requiring updating to reflect an increasing engagement with Visible Learning at the College, provides a starting point for teachers to assist in the planning of their lessons, and to plan for supported students in a classroom that engages and challenges all students. Practices which provide a common language for planning and reflecting on learning and teaching in the religion classroom are necessary to ensure ‘line of sight ‘continuity within and between year levels. This involves focusing on learners and their learning, establishing clear learning intentions and success criteria, activating multiple ways of knowing, interacting and opportunities to construct knowledge, responding with feedback to move learning forward and evaluating learning with students as activators of their own learning and resources for others.
Dates for the submission of Draft Assignment Tasks are conscientiously adhered to at St John Fisher College, in order that learners may be given timely and relevant feedback (See EVIDENCE for examples of Feedback Sheets used as part of this process.) Just as Success Criteria are evident on Assessment Task sheets, so too it is a requirement that Learning Intentions must be made clear to students at the start of each RE lesson. (See the Teacher’s Semester Planner in EVIDENCE.) Teachers are gradually becoming more practised at providing these and this is further evidence of the rigour of St John Fisher College’s approach to learning and teaching in the religious education classroom.
RE Dept. meetings as a whole group occur twice per term, however there are more frequent gatherings of staff at individual year levels several times throughout each term to allow teachers to collaboratively plan strategies, activities and assessment for the coming term, and to reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching within the unit just completed. (See End of Term Unit Reflection in EVIDENCE.) Reflections such as these are used to inform the teaching and assessing of the unit in subsequent years.
TIMETABLING OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AT ST JOHN FISHER COLLEGE
The Sample Teacher Timetable (See EVIDENCE) shows that at St John Fisher College the mandated minimum of 2.5 hours per week of religion teaching from Years 7-12, equating to 92 - 100 hours per year, based on 37 - 40 available teaching weeks per year is met. In fact at the Senior level, the allocated time is 200 minutes per week. Liturgy, prayer, hymn practice and other religious practices are not included in this provision. The timetabling of religious education classes is therefore given high priority within the life of this College.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
In alignment with the content of the Religion Curriculum P-12, Religious Education at St John Fisher College reflects a Catholic Christian worldview that integrates faith, life and culture, where content is responsive to the multi-faith context and reality of the contemporary religion classroom.
At the same time the Religious Education curriculum reflects the philosophy, academic rigour and assessment and reporting modes used in all other learning areas (See sample units and their assessment tasks, and Semester Student Report card in EVIDENCE.)
The pedagogical direction of the curriculum is consistent with the BCE Model of Pedagogy (2012) and draws significantly on John Hattie’s research, Visible Learning (2009), further discussed in Element Three. The Religion Curriculum P-12 promotes inquiry learning and a learner-centred pedagogical approach to learning and teaching that aligns closely with the directions taken in the Australian Curriculum with its inclusion of the General Capabilities and Cross Curriculum Priorities of the Australian Curriculum as part of the planning template for each unit.
There is also a clear focus on the line of sight in year level planning, and the Scope and Sequence for each year level indicates where alignment occurs in each unit of work between the strands and sub-strands of the Religion Curriculum P-12 and the components and elements of the Religious Life of the School P-12.