Yesterday Andrea Craig (Villa Maria), Daryl Shute (Villa Maria), Thomas Newton (St Thomas of Canterbury College), Anita Neilson (Middleton Grange School) and Ruth Velluppillai (Middleton Grange School) met to discuss teaching scripture in Religious Studies.
The purpose of the meeting was to analyse AS 90816 - "Describe the purpose of a sacred text within a religious tradition".
The meeting operated on the "Norms of Collaboration Model" whereby every individual has an equal voice. There is a focus on questioning and challenging each-other in a respectful manner. We expect that through questioning, our own understanding is challenged which will help us grow in our teaching practice.
Appreciative Inquiry Process
Our only focus was on the "Discovery" aspect of the Appreciative Inquiry method where we discussed:
- The best of what is taking place within our schools and what enables this to occur.
We continued to delve deeper and presented our ideas around:
* What aspect of this topic do you and your students enjoy?
* What do you do to make this topic more engaging for your students?
* What questions would you like to ask the other teachers gathered here around their practice?
* What is your "piece of gold" you would like to share and present to us?
Shared Management System
To continue this "Discover" step we have created a shared management system where each school will contribute one lesson and one resource that they think increases learning outcomes for their students. A network system has been created where teachers are able to freely interact and share their learning with each other. We have created this by placing the teachers name on the resource so they can explain the purpose and benefits of using this within your class.
How often do we receive a resource that is not explained and then find it difficult to use?
Presentation
Ruth presented her best practice around assessment and how to instill reverence when teaching scripture. It provides us with some probing questions that we should reflect on.
Dream and Design Process
During Term Four, after senior exams we will meet again to look at what the future for AS 90816 is especially around student engagement and understanding.
The 'design' process will involve the creation of a shared plan involving ideas, resources, tools and assessment features. From here the group can look at the implementation of this plan and sythesise some of these ideas down further to ensure successful implementation in 2017.
Thank you to Andrea, Daryl, Thomas, Anita and Ruth for being committed to the development of Religious Education within their school.
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