The relationship between psychological health and attitude toward theistic faith: An empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old students

This study explores the relationship between psychological health and attitude toward theistic faith among 2,067 13- to 15-year-old students attending secondary schools across Wales, building upon existing empirical research which examines the association between Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality (a measure of psychological health), and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (a measure of affective religiosity). The participants completed the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith together with the abbreviated Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-A). The data indicated that a positive attitude toward theistic faith was associated with neither higher nor lower neuroticism scores, but was associated with lower psychoticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to link a positive view of theistic faith with poorer levels of psychological health (in terms of higher neuroticism or higher psychoticism) among young people in Wales, and some evidence to associate a positive view of theistic faith with better levels of psychological health (in terms of lower psychoticism).

The contribution of Social Pedagogy and Religious Education to the management of modern conditions of globalization, population movement and multiculturalism

The present study examines the synergy of Social Pedagogy and Religious Education (RE)in Education.The aim of the research is the study of the personal and collective change that Religious Education can cause, and its preventive operation in the management of the new global conditions.It is a blended research. It took place during the school year 2017-18 in a Gymnasium and a Lyceum of Attica with the methodology of critical ethnography. The analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data shows that religious knowledge, developed in Education and aiming religious literacy, as defined in the context of Greek / European cultural identity and multiculturalism, can operate preventively and intrusively, on a personal and collective level in the management of modern conditions of globalization, population movement and multiculturalism, when it is understood as experience and is meaningful with the concepts of understanding, reflection and action. The transformative dynamics of religious knowledge trigger the young person to make small and big changes. This learning procedure strongly influences the person who seems to challenge his environment, his parents. This is done without sacrificing the religious content of the subject, which is not delivered by another subject at school. With this, in fact, it can achieve to a high degree the cultural recognition and acceptance of religious diversity and to a certain extent the change of attitudes towards the foreigner, the immigrant, the refugee. Above all, however, it turns out that it contributes to the development of acquaintance and communication of team members, recognition and to a degree of acceptance of otherness and certainly to the development of relationships, in cases that did not exist before.

“They Like Things That Move”: Exploring Student Preferences for Presentation of Online Textbook Resources in Religious Education in Australian Catholic schools

This paper examines student perceptions on use and delivery of online resources in religious education. It examines student responses to one series of religious education resources widely used in Australian Catholic Schools. Data was collected using school based religious education leaders to ask students about their opinions and preferences on delivery of online material. Major findings include: the need to present text in small manageable sections that clearly identified key concepts; the desirability of interactive and engaging presentations of material; utilizing images and narratives as a way of presenting complex information; the need to make decisions about the amount of material to be presented as text. These results were discussed within a conceptual framework of seeing effective online resources as contributing to reducing cognitive load for students in religious education.

Teaching controversial issues in Religious Education: RE teachers’ attitudes and perceptions

Controversial issues in education have become more and more popular in recent years. Teachers themselves play a key role in their effective teaching, as they are the ones who are called upon to put into practice what the literature suggests in theory. This article explores the attitudes and perceptions of 33 Religious Education teachers on controversial issues, their competence (theological-pedagogical) and their concerns, regarding the teaching of controversial issues. The research was conducted in the context of two training meetings in September and October 2019, through a closed-ended questionnaire, based on the Likert rating scale. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical package (version 25.0). The main conclusion is that teachers, although willing to apply the teaching of controversial issues in the classroom, nevertheless seem reluctant and uncertain about their professional and personal readiness. Therefore, the need to design a training framework for teachers, based on the model proposed by the Council of Europe on the teaching of controversial issues, emerges.