Making a difference in the Religious Education classroom: integrating theory and practice in teachers’ professional learning

Abstract

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the research literature on continuing professional development and School Improvement demonstrate that teachers who have the opportunity to develop ‘knowledge of practice’ by integrating theory and practice have a positive impact on student attainment. It is argued in this article that we have sufficient weight of evidence to indicate that engaging in curriculum development as a participant in a community of inquiry is the optimal context for professional learning to develop knowledge of practice. However, establishing participation in communities of inquiry as integral to teachers’ professional learning remains a challenge and we need better ways of sharing and interrogating what we (think we) know. Examples of ‘experiments in practice’ to promote professional learning and make a difference in the Religious Education classroom, are used to indicate what has worked and what has not and what we might do next.

Keywords:

• professional learning
• community of inquiry
• curriculum development

Notes

1. Michael Bassey used the term ‘Best Estimate of Trustworthiness’ (Bet) in his address at the ESRC Teaching and Learning Programme’s inaugural conference in 2003 to describe how research knowledge can be transformed into effective teaching practice through fuzzy generalisation. www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003143.htm.