A Teacher’s Guide to Science and Religion in the Classroom

Billingsley, Berry; Abedin, Manzoorul; Chappell, Keith

doi:10.4324/9781315451954

2018

DOI: 10.4324/9781315451954

|View full text |Cite

A Teacher’s Guide to Science and Religion in the Classroom

Berry Billingsley¹,

Manzoorul Abedin²,

Keith Chappell

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...

Citation Types

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Year Published

2018

2020

Publication Types

Select...

Article3

Relationship

Self Cite0

Independent3

Authors

Journals

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

A Framework for Teaching Epistemic Insight in Schools

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper gives the rationale and a draft outline for a framework for education to teach epistemic insight into schools in England. The motivation to research and propose a strategy to teach and assess epistemic insight followed research that investigated how students and teachers in primary and secondary schools respond to big questions about the nature of reality and human personhood. The research revealed that there are pressures in schools that dampen students' expressed curiosity in these types of questions and limit their developing epistemic insight into how science, religion and the wider humanities relate. These findings prompted the construction of a framework for education for students aged 5-16 designed to encourage students' expressed interest in big questions and develop their understanding of the ways that science interacts with other ways of knowing. The centrepiece of the framework is a sequence of learning objectives for epistemic insight, organised into three categories. The categories are, firstly, the nature of science in real world contexts and multidisciplinary arenas; secondly, ways of knowing and how they interact; and thirdly, the relationships between science and religion. Our current version of the Framework is constructed to respond to the way that teaching is organised in England. The key principles and many of the activities could be adopted and tailored to work in many other countries.

show abstract

A Framework for Teaching Epistemic Insight in Schools

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Exploring Secondary School Students’ Stances on the Predictive and Explanatory Power of Science

Billingsley

Nassaji

2019

Sci & Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There are widespread calls for school education to put more emphasis on developing students' appreciation of the power and limitations of science. Without effective teaching, there is a risk that sensationalist media claims will unduly influence students' perceptions of the power of science to already explain and predict aspects of our daily lives. Secondly, schools have a role in preparing students for a future in which they are likely to work and play alongside increasingly humanlike machines. The study reported here assessed the feasibility of a survey to discover students' stances on the predictive and explanatory power of science in relation to personality, behaviour and the mind The study forms part of a larger project that seeks to identify ways that schools can develop students' epistemic insight when they consider big questions about the nature of reality and human personhood. Beginning with a broad conceptualisation of personhood designed to pick up on questions in the science-religion dialogue, we drew on interviews and focus groups with students in upper secondary school to formulate a set of statements that seemed to be effective in stimulating discussion about the power and limitations of science. The questionnaire was administered to 311 secondary students. Students' responses indicate that they were engaged by the theme and that they were generally not working with a secure overarching scientistic or nonscientistic framework. When we grouped students according to how they responded to the narrower theme of personality and behaviour, one in five of the cohort was labelled as strongly scientistic. We also found that in their comments at different points in the survey, the majority of students expressed ideas and everyday phrases associated with scientism. The article concludes with implications for future research and further recommendations for teachers.

show abstract

Perceptions of the relationships between science and religion held by upper-secondary school students in Church of England schools

Billingsley

Nassaji

2020

International Journal of Christianity & Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report on a large-scale survey of 1,772 upper-secondary school students in 16 Church of England schools to discover their perceptions of how science and religion relate. We found that students who attend Church schools are pedagogically, socially and cognitively confined to the view that science and religion conflict. The findings are discussed alongside interview studies with students which sought to discover the extent to which they have the epistemic insight they need to access a range of views about the relationships between science and religion.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

customersupport@researchsolutions.com

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

A Teacher’s Guide to Science and Religion in the Classroom

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

A Framework for Teaching Epistemic Insight in Schools

A Framework for Teaching Epistemic Insight in Schools

Exploring Secondary School Students’ Stances on the Predictive and Explanatory Power of Science

Perceptions of the relationships between science and religion held by upper-secondary school students in Church of England schools

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About