RE PGCE Method Session

RE and Able,Gifted and Talented

RE PGCE Method Session

What does it mean?

• Gifted = particularly able in one or more areas

• Talented = ability in art, music, PE, performing arts

• 5-10% in the school [relative not objective]

• AGT in RE

– May be good at other things, but may not

– May have poor writing skills

– May have a short attention span

– May have poor social skills

– May be on the SEN register

– May be keen to disguise their ability

– May even be boys!

RE PGCE Method Session

Pupils who are G&T• Show high levels of insight into, and discernment

beyond, the obvious and ordinary;

• Make sense of, and draw meaning from, religious symbols, metaphors, texts and practices;

• Be sensitive to, or aware of, the numinous or the mystery of life, and have a feeling for how these are explored and expressed;

• Understand, apply and transfer ideas and concepts across topics in RE and into other religious and cultural contexts

RE PGCE Method Session

Which of these are G&T in RE?• Need to distinguish between gifted in RE and those who are

devout (you can be both)

Karen has a strong faith commitment, is very willing to talk about her faith, has an excellent knowledge of Christianity; undertakes little analysis about her faith; has a positive attitude towards other religions; uses a limited number of repeated responses; is actively friendly, helpful, courteous and positive

Stephen is critical and sometimes hostile towards religion. He has little interest in the details of religious rituals. He has a comprehensive grasp of religious beliefs and ideas especially in Christianity and Islam. He invents similes, metaphors and analogies. He use rhetorical questions and identifies inconsistencies and refers to arguments to the contrary

RE PGCE Method Session

Which of these are G&T in RE?• Need to distinguish between gifted in RE and those who are

devout (you can be both)

Imram has no connection with any religion. He has an above average knowledge of Christianity and Sikhism he is able to identify social and moral factors, he is often quiet and only volunteers answers when asked. He is always courteous and respectful and often still and reflective. He has a keen sense of his own values and beliefs and is even tempered and has a strong moral sense

Jackie is an active member of her local church and has an excellent knowledge of Christianity. Her understanding of other religions is average. She tends to quote religious authority and writes passionately often using emotive language. She understands and refers to alternative points of view and is a member of the RSPCA, Christian Aid and Amnesty. She has experience of social campaigning.

RE PGCE Method Session

Some Key Principles• Provision for able, gifted and talented should

– Be a whole school issue

– Promote inclusion and equality of opportunity

– Focus on achievement NOT just attainment

– Offer personalized learning opportunities

– Encourage independence and self-assessment

– Offer extension in depth and enrichment in breadth

– Go beyond the school into wider learning communities

– Celebrate the excitement of excellence

From KS3 National Strategy document on G&T

RE PGCE Method Session

What happens in schools?• Selective Schooling (Grammars / Academies / Faith)

• Setting - top sets group able children

• Streaming - child in top groups for all subjects

• Extension Activities

• Extension Projects

• Acceleration - place with older pupils

• Support of TA

• Setting more challenging activities

• Extra-curricular support [philosophy club]

– cogntio ego ingeniosum

RE PGCE Method Session

What strategies should we use?

Adapted from KS3 National Strategy document on G&T

• Effective teaching for the most able is characterized by:

– Building on prior skills, knowledge and understanding

– Open questions to which there is no single correct answer

– Opportunities to question and challenge opinions sensitively

– Modeling a range of activities and skills in thinking and writing

– Opportunities to extend ideas, model and create hypotheses

– Opportunities to develop as independent and collaborative learners

– Encouragement to use complex and advanced subject terminology

– Recognition of pupils’ sense of personal and cultural identity

– Use of a variety of demanding resources that help pupils engage with complex ideas

– Opportunities for the pupil to become the teacher

RE PGCE Method Session

Pedagogic Skills? I• Use a variety of challenging questioning strategies to encourage pupils to explore religious

phenomena and questions (for example 'Why?', 'What if?');

• Set extension tasks that avoid repetition and extra work, but encourage greater depth of understanding or reflection (for example 'What might it mean to a Muslim to miss Hajj?');

• Use authentic materials from a faith, such as liturgical and sacred texts or artefacts, to provide a complex stimulus for learning (for example the Adhan);

• Use carefully planned self-assessment instruments with gifted pupils, to involve them in identifying their own learning needs. This is most useful if it includes a focus on learning from religion, as well as learning about religions (for example pupils analyse their knowledge base, skill at research, ability to explain meaning, skill at application and response to issues);

• Encourage ambitious work by the most able pupils by using target-setting strategies (for example studying a religion as practised in a different culture or community, noting variations in belief and practice);

• Focus on the interpretation of symbol, metaphor, text and story, and the ways in which these stimulate reflection on meaning and discernment (for example the Word of God, the significance of Shabbat);

RE PGCE Method Session

Pedagogic Skills? II• Challenge and develop gifted pupils' use of spoken and written religious language, with both sacred

texts and general literature (for example the Psalms, and the poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins);

• teach pupils the terminology and language that they need to handle sophisticated religious, spiritual, ethical and philosophical questions, ideas and materials, and provide opportunities for them to develop and use that language (for example the use of concept, theory, belief, faith, fact, opinion, proof);

• focus on the application of ideas and learning in new or unfamiliar contexts (for example Christianity in Latin America, Islam in Europe);

• use the ultimate or fundamental questions that lie below the surface of religious practice to open up the ways in which pupils might learn from religion (for example funeral rites and issues of purpose in life);

• provide particular challenges for gifted pupils with regard to learning from religion

• use questions and tasks from later key stages and stimulate responses through difficult tasks (for example involve argument, analysis and prediction);

• Model RE problem-solving/problem-centred activities (for example use inter-faith issues or arguments about the value of prayer, or questions about God);

• Encourage gifted pupils to make connections between their work in RE and other subjects (for example with cosmology in physics, worship in music, ethics in PSHE and inequality in geography).

RE PGCE Method Session

Some classroom techniques I• Odd one out

• What would be missed …– If a Muslim never went on Hajj …

– If a Christian never prayed …

– If the Jews had never escaped from Egypt

– If the Buddha had never reached enlightenment

• What if …– Jesus had never been crucified

– All RE in schools was banned

– The Qu’ran had never been revealed

– Abortion was compulsory for all pregnancies under 16

– All church services has to use rock bands

– Medical science allowed us to live as long as we wanted

RE PGCE Method Session

Some classroom techniques II

• Images to stimulate conversation

• Community of enquiry

• Debating– Jesus was a good man but not the Son of God

– It is better to believe in life after death than not

– Teaching about hell is child abuse

– Religion has brought more peace than war

RE PGCE Method Session

Reasoned ThinkingThese are things that more able students will use and you should model

– Rhetorical questions “Why would God let earthquakes happen”

– Use principles ”It’s wrong to steal as the selfish end up with everything”

– Identify likely consequences ”bring back capital punishment and innocent people will die”

– Support with evidence ”Timothy Evans was hanged but we know he was innocent because of recent testimony”

– Using logical connectives “because, therefore, as, or else, reason is”

– Use analogies to clarify a point “Like a caterpillar has a new life as a butterfly we have a new life after death”

– Introduce ideas to the contrary “On the other hand some Jews believe”

– Use the language of respect “I can understand why Hindus believe that but …”

– Site appropriate authority “The Qur’an says …” “Mother Teresa said …”

RE PGCE Method Session

Emotive Language

Emotive language should be avoided or ameliorated

– Religion is boring

– Abortion is disgusting, vile murder

– The people who saw Jesus after he died were mad

– Believing in miracles is stupid

– Those statues are a bit weird