The more schools I work with, the more firmly convinced I am the structural approach to Cooperative Learning is that sought-after bridge ...
Charlie Hebdo revisited in Walsall
“Healing Fractures II”#3: philosophizing from subject knowledge
A number of attendees at "Healing Fractures II - Beyond Birmingham?" have requested links to some of the materials used in the investigative unit. This unit allowed a collaborative yet personal approach to the wide scope of Trojan Horse fall-out. Following the mental and emotional lead-in using open questions and imagery discussed in the previous Healing Fractures II... Continue Reading →
Learning Wisely – Living Virtuously: From the mountain to the valley
High-level cohesion, pulling values from the vacuum, or simply "Why Tertiary should pick up on child-centred learning". Yesterday Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at Edinburgh University, presented her talk Learning Wisely, Living Virtuously: the challenge of Modern Education at the Thomas Paine Study Center, University of East Anglia. A big thank you to the... Continue Reading →
Charlie’s Angels or Sympathy for the Devils? A full RE lesson plan on the Paris attacks
The following is a scalable, instantly applicable RE lesson plan related to the Paris murders, replete with differentiated sample materials for secondary. It uses Cooperative Learning to foster tightly controlled discussions of controversial materials in a safe environment and includes strategies for assessment, evidence of learning and SMSC integration in compliance with DfE requirements. Elements of the lesson may... Continue Reading →
Potential realised? Celebrating Ofsted Report’s 1st Birthday…
October's Norwich presentation of Islam in RE took place almost exactly a year after the publication of Realising the Potential As I pointed out from the onset of the course, Islam in RE: Religious Literacy & Controversy Through Enquiry was created to systematically tackle the problems outlined in Ofsted's Realising the Potential report. In that sense, Islam is used as an example religion;... Continue Reading →
Norwich High School for Girls; A tailored workshop lesson plan#2
(continued from previous post this is a detailing of a 60-minute workshop presented at Norwich High School for Girls June 9, 2014). Stage 1: Activating schemata, testing assumptions Time: 10 minutes Level: multiple pairs CLIP: Ladders After making students aware that this workshop would simulates some of the interdependence, individual accountability and the pressure they would be... Continue Reading →
Norwich High School for Girls; A tailored workshop lesson plan
Yesterday, June 9, we successfully presented Norwich High School for Girls with a series of four tailored 60 minute workshops. The aim was to allow students to collaboratively construct a mental framework to help get the most out of the following two-week Connected Curriculum theme "Life in the Global Village" culminating in a staged UN session to resolve the... Continue Reading →
Islamic Education Conference#2; Quotes from the seminar
"We need a paradigm shift," as Ashfaque Chowdhury, Chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools, said in his introduction and indeed what we have outlined in the previous post is a very tall order. In the following posts I want to look at the aims of Islamic education in the UK as outlined by speakers and delegates and share some related paragraphs from... Continue Reading →
Christian-centred, atheism-centred… or just Student-Centred? Making RE relevant #2
Matthew Vince (University of Exeter): Expressing Islam within a Christian centric education system : Lessons from a young British Muslim RE teacher (PART 2)* This is an independent article continuing from Part 1 on RE in a multicultural ethos while picking up the previous thread on the UEA Religious Education conference regarding inquiry-based learning as best practice in RE... Continue Reading →
P4C? No, P4U!
Of relevance to participants in the UEA Realising Potential Religious Education conference, this comment on Lawsons talk on Heidegger and the ‘Quest’ inherent in ‘Questioning’ is hereby reblogged.
“…all great truths must first be constantly renewed by bringing them into the place where they emerge into being for the first time, that is, in response to a deeply felt sense of questioning, the piety of thought. Second-hand truths may be useful, but they are not what make us who we are. This is something many school pupils feel very deeply.”
Notes from BRAIS conference, University of Edinburgh 10-11 April 2014 Panel 5: Education: Theory and Method:
Ibrahim Lawson (Institute of Eduction, London): Questioning builds a way: Heidegger, Islam and education
In my own presentation I point out the connection between the two preceding talks and my theme of schools teaching tools for authentic identity formation through the organised social constructivism of Cooperative Learning.
I want to begin this series of BRAIS posts here, as this talk is best likened to a nuclear submarine roving the dark ocean depths, with all other presentations – for all their merit – being mere air balloons above those deceivingly calm waters, blown hither and dither by the winds of postmodern self-referencing.
This is not mere poetic license. Ibrahim Lawson brings a unique set of experiences and skills to the table: He has read philosophy and linguistics at University of East Anglia, did his PGCE at Cambridge, has MA’s in Action Research and Theology and has…
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