We reap what we sew: perpetuating biblical illiteracy in new English Religious Studies exams and the proof text binary question

This article draws on three sources of evidence that together indicate hermeneutical weaknesses in exam courses on Christianity in English Religious Education (RE). It scrutinises a single exam paper and an associated text book from a recent authorised course. It conceptually explores features of a...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs: Bowie, Robert A. (Auteur) ; Coles, Richard 1962- (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: [publisher not identified] 2018
Dans: British Journal of religious education
Année: 2018, Volume: 40, Numéro: 3, Pages: 277-287
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B England / Enseignement de la religion / Christianisme / Bibel / Herméneutique
RelBib Classification:HA Bible
KBF Îles britanniques
RF Pédagogie religieuse
VB Herméneutique; philosophie
Sujets non-standardisés:B binary questions
B exams
B Bible
B proof-text
B Christianity
B Hermeneutics
Accès en ligne: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Résumé:This article draws on three sources of evidence that together indicate hermeneutical weaknesses in exam courses on Christianity in English Religious Education (RE). It scrutinises a single exam paper and an associated text book from a recent authorised course. It conceptually explores features of a new style of long Religious Studies (RS) exam question that is commonly set for the majority of students studying for a RS qualification at 15-16 years old. It combines these documentary sources with a focus group interview of teachers in the first year of teaching the new GCSE Religious Studies. The findings from the document analysis, conceptual analysis and focus group interview, together concur that there is a problem related to the use of fragmentary texts and the promotion of a particularly propositional conception of religion. These features are structured in by systemic elements. A small proportion of students follow text-based GCSE routes include a more detailed study of Biblical texts but the majority of 15-16-year-old students do not and so are exposed to this problem. These weaknesses could be "designed out" of exams with smarter questions and mitigated against by curriculum content that specified the study of how texts are interpreted, as well as teacher expertise in the teaching and practise of hermeneutics.
ISSN:1740-7931
Contient:Enthalten in: British Journal of religious education
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2018.1493270