Learning is an ontological process: Jarvis and theories of Christian Religious Education in dialogue

Abstract

Both Jarvis and theories of Christian Religious Education (CRE) emphasise that learning develops the whole person, yet they differ in their understandings of how and why this is the case. Jarvis’s experiential learning theory begins ‘from below’ with experience, whereas many approaches of CRE begin with the end result: individuals themselves. By bringing the two into dialogue this paper offers critical insights into Jarvis’s work through an exploration of three conceptualisations of the whole person: biography, ontic self and wisdom. The discussion provokes and engages with questions focusing around the nature of experiential learning, how the whole person might be conceived and what the relationship is between learning and teaching in human becoming. The role of reflection in ‘forming’ people is then considered, together with its spiritual attributes. As a relational process, it also has a spiritual dimension, something which Jarvis, in his role of colleague, supervisor, mentor and friend, has frequently exhibited.

Keywords:

• Learning
• being
• whole person
• Christian Religious Education
• reflection

Notes

1. Tracy defines Practical Theology as ‘the mutually critical correlation of the interpreted theory and praxis of the Christian faith with the interpreted theory and praxis of the contemporary situation’ (1983, p. 76). It is this deliberate interaction between the Christian tradition and human experience which lies at its core.

2. For the purposes of this paper, I emphasise the common root and conceptual thrust between the two rather than focus on the subtle distinctions, and use each as do Groome and Jarvis, respectively.