Learners and Learning in Religion Classrooms
(From the text - Religious Education - Archdiocese of Brisbane, 2013)
All students are entitled to a rigorous, relevant and engaging learning program in religion, drawn from the Religion Curriculum P-12, that addresses their individual learning needs. The three dimensional design of the Religion Curriculum P-12 comprising specified curriculum content, general capabilities and cross curriculum priorities, provides teachers with the flexibility to cater for the diverse needs of students, including the needs of students with disability, gifted and talented students and students for whom English is an additional language or dialect.
As teachers within a Catholic school we believe:
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Every learner is created in the image and likeness of God and, inspired by the Spirit, responds with passion and creativity to life.
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Every learner seeks to find meaning in life and, in the Catholic Christian Tradition, we find meaning in the person and teachings of Jesus to grown as pilgrim people.
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Every learner is a lifelong learner, with a desire to search for truth and do what is right; accountable for choices and responsible for actions.
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Every learner is in some respect, like all others, like some other, like no other and we respond creatively, flexibly and with a futures orientation to ensure dignity and justice for all.
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Every learner can achieve success in life and learning where diversity is valued and shared wisdom contributes to decision making that enriches and enlivens our world.
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Every learner brings to the learning experience their own richly diverse life journey to contribute to a community in communion, empowered by the Spirit to be at the service of others.
In the early years of schooling, students have a natural curiosity about their world, and their desire to make sense of it provides a platform to construct and review their learning through interactions with others, experimentation, scaffolding, explicit teaching and practice and play in the classroom and beyond. This helps them make sense of a world that is outside their immediate experience, as they connect new knowledge with what they already know or believe. This also provides an opportunity to challenge what they know or believe.
During the upper years of primary schooling, students begin to understand and appreciate different points of view as they more from and identity centred on the family to a wider world of relationships. They draw on their growing experience of family, school and the wider community to develop their understanding of the world and their relationships with others, past and present. Students increasingly look for and value learning they perceive as relevant, consistent with personal goals and leading to important outcomes.
The Religious Education P-12 allows students to learn about Jesus' life as a Jew, his family and friends and his teachings and actions. They learn about God's loving relationship with people and all of creation, and the many ways in which communities of believers nurture their loving relationship with God, others and with all of creation. Students develop their understanding of community and its significance for sharing and developing faith. They learn about the experiences of different communities, past and present and the many ways in which faith is lived out and celebrated in their lives. Students learn about the particular communities for whom the human authors of sacred texts shaped their writings. They learn about the relational nature of God as Trinity and the significance of Jesus' law of love.