ISRSA
Independent Schools Religious Studies Association
Newsletter and Journal
Summer Term 1999 Volume 3 Issue 2
Contents
Northern
ISRSA Conference
ISRSA Committee
& Council
To qualify or not?
I have just spent the weekend clearing my study. I have written my reports (due in Monday midnight) for boys who are doing GCSE and A Level, polished off some marking and finalised some arrangements for the end of next term.
Why all the frantic energy? On Wednesday I shall be receiving the first of the A Level scripts and then a couple of days later several hundred GCSE scripts. Like most teachers I hate marking and yet every year I voluntarily opt to mark examination scripts on top of all my class marking. It means getting up early and rushing home at odd times to get them done on time.
So why do I do it? In an exam-orientated world it is the only way really to understand how the system work.
The point I am labouring is that qualifications are probably more significant than at any time in the recent history of education. If it can be taught then it should probably have a certificate. I am saddened by this. Probably some of my most satisfying teaching is in the general course that all members of the Lower Sixth take where there is no examination.
But of course, we have to be realistic. Exams do help to concentrate the mind, they motivate our pupils to do research and improve their powers of expression. All this we know. The art is to find an examination system which does not stifle the imagination or squeeze everything into having to get through the syllabus.
There has been considerable discussion how the new AS/A2 will work in practice. I hope that the AS will not be used as an excuse to throw out general studies and general religious studies teaching. I am worried that it will mean an unseemly squabble at the end of the first year in the sixth form to persuade pupils to take A2 in some subjects.
However there are some exciting proposals. The stand alone AS for philosophy of religion and religious ethics are certainly attractive and to be welcomed. The same can be said also of the new RE short courses - if only because they have reverted to KUE assessment criteria and ditched the impossibly nuanced Religious Studies of 'learning about' and 'learning from' criteria.
So, in this edition of the newsletter we have concentrated on some areas of assessment. A chief examiner considers the virtues of the new style GCSE courses and two dons bring us up to date on some of the interesting developments in Theology and Philosophy at university level.
Happy qualification marking. I hope to see you all at the conference on 29th September (see p 11).
Michael Wilcockson Eton College
In mid year we also took advantage of the offer for secretarial help. Members who wish to have access to members data base whether to find out which schools sit which examination boards or who the head of department is of a member school may ring the ISRSA office on: 01600 716912 (see page 15 below for further details).
In this issue I make no apology for some fairly lengthy articles. Eamon Duffy’s address and John Keast’s presentation both warrant full coverage at a time when universities are having to reassess the content and aims of their theology courses whilst the government is implementing reforms concerning the process of assessment in secondary education.
It is for this reason that ISRSA is very keen to establish strong links with universities. Dennis and Catherine Brown have been working hard on behalf of ISRSA not only in the collation of information about Theology and Philosophy courses but more importantly in the development of positive two way communication between schools and higher education. No doubt we can all relate incidents where former pupils have been hugely disappointed by dull conservative theology degree courses by comparison with new and imaginative A Level syllabuses. Perhaps ISRSA can help universities in the reform of their own theology syllabuses.
This edition also contains advice on the teaching of Hinduism and some thoughts on philosophy and ethics.
Finally, although the issue of school worship is not strictly a concern of ISRSA, Mark Steed’s recent research on chapel worship raises some important issues about values in education which should be of considerable interest to all RE teachers.
Michael Wilcockson
Eton College
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