Collaboration between Science and Religious Education teachers in Scottish Secondary schools

Abstract

The paper reports on quantitative research that examines (1) the current practice in collaboration and (2) potential for collaboration between Science and Religious Education teachers in a large sample of Scottish secondary schools. The authors adopt and adapt three models (conflict; concordat and consonance) to interrogate the relationship between science and religion (and the perceived relation between these two subjects in schools) (Astley and Francis, 2010). The findings indicate that there is evidence of limited collaboration and, in a few cases, a dismissive attitude towards collaboration (conflict and concordat and very weak consonance). There is, however, evidence of a genuine aspiration for greater collaboration among many teachers (moving towards a more robust consonance model). The paper concludes by discussing a number of key factors that must be realized for this greater collaboration to be enacted.

Interdisciplinary Use of Argumentation among Religious Education and Philosophy Teachers-in-Training

“…Many issues people face in their everyday lives require the use of interdisciplinary thinking and complex reasoning abilities where they draw on a variety of specific disciplinebased information sources (Crujeiras-Pérez and Jiménez-Aleixandre 2019). Nevertheless, generally, subjects in schools are presented in disjointed ways that limit incorporation (Billingsley et al 2018) and limit teachers (science and religious education) from multidiscipline subject fields to work together (Hall et al 2014). One important detail to remember is that the metacognition skill levels of teachers-in-training is critical when using the argumentation-based instruction (e.g., being informed in research which investigate elements related to the metacognition levels of teachers-in-training (Scheid 2010)).…”

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

“…Many issues we face in daily life require interdisciplinary thinking and complex reasoning drawing on multiple disciplinary knowledge bases (Crujeiras-Pérez and Jimenez-Aleixandre 2019) or the integration of moral and ethical values (Joshi 2016). However, school subjects can often be presented in fragmented and siloed ways that limit integration (Billingsley et al 2018) and it is unusual for science and RE teachers to collaborate (Hall et al 2014). Focusing on argumentation can be helpful in generating coherence across the curriculum, highlighting the similarities and differences between different subjects.…”

An investigation into secondary teachers’ views of argumentation in science and religious education

“…Although there is some research on how science and RE teachers collaborate (e.g. Hall et al, 2014), there are no accounts of such collaboration in the particular context of argumentation. This is fairly surprising given that professional development opportunities for science teachers to develop skills to support students' higher order thinking skills such as argumentation, particularly in the context of complex problems, are also underpinned by religious and ethical dimensions (e.g.…”

“…Although curriculum standards of school subjects such as science and religious studies include references to argumentation, and teachers are expected to teach to these standards, there is often limited opportunity for teachers of conventionally disparate subjects to express their understanding of how argumentation is broadly conceptualised in school subjects (e.g. Hall & McKinney, 2014). For example, although there is some research on how science teachers perceive argumentation (e.g.…”