A recent study of more than
2,500 secondary pupils in 22 co-educational comprehensive schools in England
provided evidence for the dangers of teaching pupils more than four religions.
It showed that pupils who learn more than four religions are apt to confuse
religious terminology more than those who have studied fewer than this number.
Such an outcome must be damaging to the whole educational process in RE and
cannot be a desirable aim.
This same study sounded a
warning about the thematic study of religions.
Pupils who were taught this way
had a less positive attitude to religions than those who had been taught each
religion systematically.
Also of interest is the fact
that studying the non-Christian religions (such as Hinduism, Islam, etc)
appeared to have no effect on the attitudes of pupils studying them. However where pupils were aware of the fact
that they had studied Christianity this had a significantly positive effect
upon their attitude to this faith. It might seem strange to think that pupils
could study Christianity without being aware of the fact. However this is what the study
revealed. Given that the law requires
all pupils to study this faith one must presume that these pupils had studied
Christianity. Thematic teaching had
doubtless used Christian material but had utterly failed to teach Christianity
to these children.
The researchers:
Dr. Linnet Smith, who
carried out this research for her PhD thesis, has co-authored two articles with
her supervisor, Dr. William Kay, recently published in the British Journal of
Religious Education. The references
are as follows:
Kay, William & Smith, D Linnet, Religious Terms and Attitudes in the
Classroom (Part 1), 81- 90, BJRE 22:2, 2000
Smith, D. Linnet & Kay, William, Religious Terms and Attitudes in the
Classroom (Part 2), 181-191, BJRE 22:3, 2000
Linnet Smith may be contacted at: adl.smith@btinternet.com
William Kay may be contacted at: w.kay@trinity-cm.ac.uk
