Standards Setting in Religious Education: Addressing the Quality of Teaching and Assessment Practices

Abstract

This paper describes a set of educational initiatives in Religious Education (RE). The paper addresses RE as an academic learning area and reserved for Kindergarten to Year 10 classrooms in Catholic schools. The initiatives described in the paper are evidence-based; they are guided by research and student achievement data addressing contemporary assessment reforms within the Australian educational context and considering the implications that the reforms have on the quality of student learning in RE. The reforms include quality assurance measures such as large-scale, standardised assessments (LSAs) and social moderation tools. The purpose of the measures is to establish standards that support the alignment of teaching and assessment practices. Such an alignment in the RE learning area has the potential to strengthen and improve student, as well as teacher, knowledge and understanding of the Catholic Faith Tradition. The paper draws from the Catholic RE school curriculum in Western Australia (WA), assessment principles outlined for schools in WA, an Australian Research Council Linkage project and local research about teacher perceptions of an LSA in RE. The paper supports local and national policy expectations recommending a review of the quality of RE as a learning area. Furthermore, given the prominence of the Catholic Church’s mission of evangelisation and the nature and role of RE in Catholic schools as part of that mission, the paper endorses the Church’s current stance on thoughtful dialogue and renewed efforts to bring a better understanding about Catholic culture and education to the world.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Religious Moderation Values in the Indonesian EFL Classroom: Teachers' Perspective

“…This opens space for dialogue and more profound understanding between beliefs, strengthening social cohesion despite diversity (Muhaemin et al, 2023). To achieve this, education on religious moderation requires support through an inclusive curriculum and balanced instruction (Poncini, 2023). Studies linking education and religious moderation map useful findings, i.e., (1) religious moderation teaches tolerance and respect across individual and community differences (Fauzan, 2023), (2) it prevents the emergence of radical, extremist views weaponizing faith for harm (Kustati et al, 2023), and (3) education can transmit values of religious moderation to foster environments where different faiths are understood without the influence of extreme sentiments or fanaticism (Burhanuddin & Khairuddin, 2022;Mulyana, 2023).…”