Argumentation in religious education in England: an analysis of locally agreed syllabuses

Chan, Jessica; Fancourt, Nigel; Guilfoyle, Liam

doi:10.1080/01416200.2020.1734916

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The work of our research team has elsewhere reported a prominent presence of argumentation-related concepts within RE curriculum documents in England (Chan et al 2020). Insofar as argumentation can be considered the process of engaging with arguments or argument construction, it is evident that RE syllabi in England generally appear to include argumentation as a core skill.…”

Section: Argumentation In Religious Educationmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Within the national science curriculum in England, argumentation is related to the 'Working Scientifically' component, particularly to 'development of scientific thinking' and 'analysis and evaluation' (DfE, 2014). Argumentation is also a component of the various regional RE syllabi in England (LCC 2016) where it is explicitly indicated as a learning outcome, although as mentioned earlier, the use of the word 'argument' is more prevalent in the RE syllabi (Chan et al 2020). Hence, argumentation is either implicitly and explicitly promoted in the curricula, and in this sense, the teachers from both subjects would have had the incentive to participate in the project.…”

Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Science and Religious Education Teachers’ Views of Argumentation and Its Teaching

2020

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Argumentation, the justification of claims with reasons and/or evidence, has emerged as a significant educational goal in science education in recent years. It has also been noted as an important pedagogical approach in numerous school subjects. Yet, there is limited understanding of how teachers’ views of argumentation and its teaching compare in different school subjects. In order to ensure coherence in the implementation of the school curriculum, it is important to understand such views particularly in the context of subjects that are often positioned to be in conflict with each other, for example in the context of science versus religious education. In this paper, we present an empirical study on how science and religious education teachers view argumentation and its teaching. The data are drawn from a survey of secondary school teachers of 11–16-year-old students in England. Twenty-nine teachers were presented with an online survey in order to collect data on various aspects of their views including pedagogical strategies that support argumentation. Qualitative and quantitative results suggest that teachers of both subjects consider argumentation to be a significant aspect of their subject although particular nuances exist in how the teachers interpret argumentation. Furthermore, the data suggest that there are statistically significant differences in terms of the perceived frequency of pedagogical strategies used to support argumentation in lessons.

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Section: Argumentation In Religious Educationmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Context Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Science and Religious Education Teachers’ Views of Argumentation and Its Teaching

2020

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“…In prior research on science and RE teachers' views about the nature of argumentation in these two subjects, differences in the nature and range of acceptable evidence were highlighted Park 2020, 2021). As RE is itself a multidisciplinary subject, there are arguably no clear standards about what counts as evidence for an argument in the subject, or how different evidence is warranted (Chan, Fancourt, and Guilfoyle 2020). This possibility of operating with ill-defined argumentation standards of RE is also indicated in the performances of students in terms of warrants, where the RE performance was again lower than the other two contexts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike the case of science education, argumentation has been less extensively researched in the context of religious education. However, argumentation is a strong feature of many Religious Education curriculum documents in England as students are asked to analyse and evaluate various truth claims about faith and various moral positions, and to generate well-informed and reasoned responses for themselves that draw on a range of sources (Chan, Fancourt, and Guilfoyle 2020). This form of religious education is often intended to contribute to pupils' understanding of and ability to contribute to issues of societal concern -thereby overlapping with SSI.…”

Section: Argumentation In the Disciplinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ argumentation in the contexts of science, religious education, and interdisciplinary science-religious education scenarios

Guilfoyle

Hillier

Fancourt

2021

Research in Science & Technological Education

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Background: Argumentation, that is the coordination of evidence and reasons to support claims, is an important skill for democratic society, developing subject-specific literacies, and can be embedded in multiple school subjects. While argumentation has been extensively researched in science education, interdisciplinary argumentation is less explored, particularly between subjects where collaboration is not the norm, such as science and religious education (RE). Yet everyday issues often involve considering information from multiple sources, such as scientific information or ethical, moral, or religious perspectives. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to better understand students' abilities in argumentation within and across the school subjects of science and RE to inform research and practice of interdisciplinary argumentation. Sample: The participants of this study were 457 students, aged between 11 and 14 years, from 10 secondary schools in England. Following data cleaning, 394 student responses were analysed. Design and Methods: Students completed simultaneous written assessments for argumentation in three tasks which are situated within three different subject contexts: (1) science (2) RE, and (3) an interdisciplinary context which involved argumentation from science and RE. Results: In each of the three contexts, high proportions of students achieve all available marks for identifying claims and evidence. These proportions drop when constructing the link between claim and evidence (warrant) and constructing an evaluative argument. Higher performances were generally noted in the context of science and that students experience particular challenges in argumentation in the RE scenario. Conclusions: This study contributes to our understanding of the challenges and successes of students' argumentation within and across the subjects of science and RE. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

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“…These two strands are both subject-specific and cross-curricular, so their inter-relationship is often complex. We explore this across science and religious education, drawing on data from a wider research project, the Oxford Argumentation in Religious and Science education project ('OARS') (Erduran et al, 2019;Chan et al, 2020;Erduran, 2020;Guilfoyle et al, 2020;Guilfoyle, Hillier & Fancourt 2021). Science and religion can be seen as antithetical (e.g., Dawkins, 2006), and some argue that this also applies educationally (Mahner & Bunge, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interdisciplinary perspective-taking within argumentation: students’ strategies across science and religious education

Fancourt

Guilfoyle

2021

j. relig. educ.

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The importance of developing students’ argumentation skills is well established across the curriculum: students should grasp how claims are made and supported in different disciplines. One challenge is to follow and thereby agree with or critique the arguments of others, which requires perspective-taking, in tracing these other reasons and reasoning. This challenge is increased when disciplines construct argumentation and perspective-taking differently. Here, we consider the role of perspective-taking in argumentation within and between science education and pluralistic religious education, where the former aims at the justification of scientific claims and the latter at both an empathetic understanding of different religions and worldviews, and personal reasoning. We interpretively analyze student data to identify salient features of students’ strategies to perspective-taking within argumentation. Data from 324 pupils across nine schools are explored in relation to students’ challenges in perspective-taking, strategies for perspective-taking within argumentation, and the use of perspective-taking to construct personal argumentation. The analysis shows some barriers to perspective-taking within argumentation, the range of students’ perspective-taking strategies within argumentation, and how personal argumentation could hermeneutically build upon perspective-taking strategies. The importance and implications of perspective-taking within argumentation across the curriculum are considered highlighting challenges in the etic/emic shift, both within the individual subject as well as across them, and some reflections on how this provides a fresh pedagogical perspective on the science/religions debate are made. To end, we conclude with the wider challenges for disciplines and perspective-taking across schooling and university.

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Argumentation in religious education in England: an analysis of locally agreed syllabuses

Cited by 14 publications

References 53 publications

Science and Religious Education Teachers’ Views of Argumentation and Its Teaching

Science and Religious Education Teachers’ Views of Argumentation and Its Teaching

Students’ argumentation in the contexts of science, religious education, and interdisciplinary science-religious education scenarios

Interdisciplinary perspective-taking within argumentation: students’ strategies across science and religious education

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