Cooperative learning - because  we is more than me

Specialised courses

RE through CL

Potential realised.

Originally entitled Islam in RE: Religious Literacy & Controversy through Enquiry this course was first trialled at the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia, in June 2014 to a select group of researchers, teachers, Islam specialists, SACRE and council members.

Since then, it has been continuously developed and improved, and has been presented in many contexts, including the Institute of Education, London. The controversy module of the course has been presented as the Charlie Hebdo twilights in Walsall last year.

This course is for all educators interested in teaching Islam and in the future role of Religious Education in relation to SMSC and Citizenship. Using Islam as a placeholder, it provides an ideal, fully transferrable lesson template to use when teaching about religious thought and practise, and to discuss values and meaning.

“Thanks for giving me a framework on which to build next year's lessons :)”

- David Clarke, Wayland Academy, RE coordinator, on Islam in RE: Religious Literacy & Controversy through Enquiry,

University of East Anglia, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, Norwich, June 26, 2014 

The course is taught through two modules:

Primary objectives of Module A:

1. demonstrate a series of fully transferable and scalable enquiry exercises into a world religion
2. provide teachers with tools to achieve religious literacy through enquiry
3. present relevant high level materials on Islam to allow participating teachers to:
4. experience some of the challenges of enquiry-based fact-finding from a student’s perspective
5. construct individualised reference frameworks to organise their own teaching and materials in relation to Islam specifically
6. quickly and precisely assess potential teaching materials on Islam for relevance and context.

Primary objectives of Module B:

• demonstrate fully transferable and scalable enquiry exercises into personal belief and identity, building on religious literacy
• manage safe enquiry into controversial areas of Islam, such as gender issues and jihad. This specific course uses medie content following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Secondary objectives include collaborative reflections on method and content; on the role and impact of RE and SMSC in schools and society at large; the role of religion in contemporary society; and the role of the teacher in enquiry-based learning.