Religious Education Curriculum Directory (3-19) - The Catholic ...

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Religious Education Curriculum DirectoryPart II — Application of General PrinciplesThe aims of Religious Education12345678To present engagingly a comprehensive content which is the basis of knowledge and understandingof the Catholic faith;To enable pupils continually to deepen their religious and theological understanding and beable to communicate this effectively;To present an authentic vision of the Church’s moral and social teaching so that pupils canmake a critique of the underlying trends in contemporary culture and society;To raise pupils’ awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in orderto respect and understand them;To develop the critical faculties of pupils so that they can relate their Catholic faith to dailylife;To stimulate pupils’ imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in thetruth of the Catholic faith;To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understandingof other subjects in the curriculum;To bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture.The outcome of excellent Religious Education is religiously literate and engaged young people whohave the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age and capacity – to reflectspiritually, and think ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religiouscommitment in everyday life.6
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales — Department of Catholic Education and FormationMethodologyLike other disciplines, Religious Education makes use of a repertoire of appropriate teachingmethods, according to the age and ability of pupils. Religious educators must be able to adapta variety of methods to their task. The introduction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quotingthe earlier Roman Catechism of 1566, reminds teachers that they must not imagine a single kindof person has been entrusted to them, nor that it is appropriate to teach everyone through one andthe same method. Rather they ‘must suit their words to the maturity and understanding of theirhearers’. 16 It belongs to the competence of education professionals to discover, develop and shareappropriate methods.Religious Education learns from evangelisation and catechesis that learning and growth involve activeparticipation and response. For this reason, personal experience plays a significant part in theexploration, discovery and assimilation of the saving truth of God’s revelation. Teaching in ReligiousEducation :should help people to be attentive to the meaning of their experiences, illumined by thelight of the Gospel, so that they may respond to God more fully. Experience can also makethe Christian message more intelligible. It ‘serves in the examination and acceptance ofthe truths which are contained in the deposit of Revelation’. 17At the same time, teaching in Religious Education will introduce those formulas which help developpupils’ understanding of Catholic belief. The tradition of the Church ‘in maintaining, practising andprofessing the faith that has been handed on’ 18 values formulas which provide a common languagethat all may use, and form that ‘memory’ of the Church which vividly maintains the presence of theLord among us. 19Such formulas include texts from the Bible, the liturgy, the teaching documents of the Church, theCreeds, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the traditional prayers and devotions of Christianfaith (e.g. Our Father, Angelus, Stations of the Cross). A basic and convenient collection of such formulasmay be found in the widely available Simple Prayer Book 20 and the Compendium of the Catechismof the Catholic Church 21 . They should be presented after sufficient time has been given to explorationand explanation, and those will be chosen which, ‘while expressing faithfully the truth of the Faith’are suited to ‘the capacity of the listeners’. 22Recent developments in the field of special educationhave enabled pupils with disabilities to gaingreater access to an equality of provision in Religious Education. These include advances in methodologiesand interventions, disability and equality legislation, new technologies and an evolving theologyof disability. Efforts to promote authentic belonging and participation for all reflect theexample of Jesus Christ at the heart of the Gospels. St. Paul reminds us that ‘the members of thebody that seem to be the weaker are indispensable.’ 23 It is now evident that the multi-sensory andsymbolic approaches and resources developed to provide enjoyable and appropriate Religious Educationfor children with a range of different needs contribute to enriched Religious Education opportunitiesfor all.Children of all abilities benefit from ways of learning and knowing which are not necessarily relianton cognitive ability, in particular the learning of the heart. To continue the progress made towardsan equity of provision in Religious Education for all children and to ensure that the particular needsof children and young people with learning difficulties and disabilities are taken into account, due7
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