Mentoring Religious Education Teachers in the Secondary School: A Practical Guide

✍ Scribed by Helen Sheehan (editor)

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 271
• Series: Mentoring Trainee and Early Career Teachers
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book helps mentors working with beginning teachers of religious education to develop their own mentoring skills and provides the essential guidance their mentee needs as they navigate the roller coaster of their first years in the classroom. Offering tried-and-tested strategies, it covers the knowledge, skills and understanding every mentor needs. Practical tools offered include approaches for developing subject knowledge and lesson planning, as well as guidance for the effective use of pre- and post-lesson discussion, observations and target setting to support beginning religious education teachers.

Together with analytical tools for self-evaluation, this book is a vital source of support and inspiration for all those involved in developing the next generation of outstanding religious education teachers. Key topics covered include the following:

• Models of mentoring
• Your knowledge, skills and understanding as a mentor
• Developing mentees' religious literacy through classroom practice
• Supporting the planning of effective and creative RE lessons
• Developing mentees' knowledge and skills in the RE curriculum
• Supporting the delivery and evaluation of lessons
• Observations and pre- and post-lesson discussions and regular mentoring meetings
• Helping new religious education teachers develop their professional practice

Filled with the key tools needed for the mentor’s individual development, this book offers an accessible guide to mentoring religious education teachers with ready-to-use strategies that support, inspire and elevate both mentors and beginning teachers alike.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of Tasks
List of contributors
An Introduction to the Series
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Introduction
Section 1: The big picture; Mentoring beginning religious education teachers
Chapter 1: Models of Mentoring
Introduction
Definitions of Mentoring
The Context in which You Are Working which Underpins your Mentoring Practice
Effective Mentoring Models
Summary and Key Points
Further Reading
References
Chapter 2: Subject-specific mentoring in religious education
Introduction
Different contexts
The benefits of RE-Specific mentoring
A shared sense of purpose
Developing subject knowledge
Understanding the curriculum
RE in a broader context
Making conversations RE-Specific
Developing skills for mentoring
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 3: The Changing Nature of the Mentor–Beginning Teacher Relationship: From Modelling to Co-enquirers
Introduction
Mentoring: What Is It, and What Is It Not?
The Development of the Mentoring Relationship: Furlong and Maynard (1996)
The Model
The Coach
The Critical Friend
The Co-Enquirer
Summary and Key Points
Further Resources
References
Chapter 4: Understanding yourself: Positionality and mentoring
Introduction
Worldview and positionality
Understanding your own positionality
The impact of worldview and positionality on beginning teachers
Sharing personal positions with pupils
Benefits of sharing personal positions
Drawbacks of sharing personal positions
Moral issues in the classroom
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 5: A skills audit: Your knowledge, skills and understanding as a mentor
Introduction
Mentoring in RE: An audit
Developing the skills of new mentors
Focusing on religious education
Developing the skills of experienced mentors
Mentoring as professional development
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Section 2: The complex picture; Religious education and worldviews
Chapter 6: What Are We Doing and How Do We Do It?: A Skills and Knowledge Audit for a Multidisciplinary Study
Introduction
Why Start with Aims?
Learning Outcomes
Multidisciplinary Religious Education
A Knowledge and Skills Audit for Multidisciplinary Religious Education
Summary and Key Points
Further Resources
References
Chapter 7: Helping beginning teachers develop religious literacy through their classroom practice
Introduction
Religious literacy – a working definition
Developing religious literacy: Disciplinary knowledge
Developing religious literacy: Selecting and resourcing substantive content
Developing religious literacy: Pedagogical choices
Developing religious literacy: Positionality and reflexivity
How can the beginning teacher develop their own religious literacy?
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 8: Mentoring beginning RE teachers in faith schools
Introduction
Understanding education and faith in a variety of cultural contexts
Faith schools in England
Categories of school by theological stance
The place of RE in the curriculum
Mentoring in faith schools
Varying expectations of mentoring
Why and how might the mentoring of RE teachers in faith schools be distinctive?
Mentoring beginning RE teachers in faith schools
Mentor as coach, counsellor, fellow traveller, guru and guide
Dangerous quicksands in faith school mentoring
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 9: Developing beginning teachers’ understanding of knowledge and skills in the RE curriculum
Introduction
Knowledge
Substantive knowledge
Developing concepts
Ways of knowing
Skills
Personal knowledge
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 10: Supporting beginning teachers to audit and develop their knowledge, skills and understanding in religious education
Introduction
Subject knowledge audit
Part 1: The nature and purpose of RE
Part 2: Pedagogy and RE
Part 3 – Substantive knowledge in RE
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Section 3: The practical picture; Mentoring beginning religious education teachers in practice
Chapter 11: Helping beginning religious education teachers plan effective and creative lessons
Introduction
The importance of a written lesson plan
First steps in lesson planning
Planning part of a lesson
Collaborative planning
The role of the mentor
The lesson planning process
Understanding the context
Aims and objectives
Designing the activities
Structure
Explanations
Questioning
Adaptive teaching
Reviewing aims
A subject-specific approach
Planning using existing resources
Amend, adapt and improve
Developing planning skills
Some challenges?
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 12: Supporting the delivery and evaluation of lessons
Introduction
The prior experiences of beginning RE teachers
The components needed for effective delivery and evaluation of lessons
Subject knowledge
Imparting knowledge
A safe learning space
Managing the classroom
Adapting practice
Teacher identity
Being professional
Central practices to support beginning RE teachers
Supporting beginning RE teachers to reflect on the delivery and evaluation of lessons
The journey
Identifying the objectives
Measuring pupil progress during the lesson delivery
Measuring progress at the end of a lesson
Supporting beginning RE teachers to evaluate their lessons
Avoiding negative talk (or misplaced positives) in post-lesson analysis
The post-lesson discussion
Further ideas to support the evaluation of lessons
Use of assessment and data to support evaluation of lessons
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 13: Observing beginning religious education teachers’ lessons
Introduction
Approaching observations
My role as an observer
Why observe?
How do I observe: Judge or co-constructor?
Observation cycle
Pre-observation activities
The lesson observation
Conducting the observation
Recording your observations
Triangulation and observing with another professional
Post-observation discussion
Practical ‘observational’ tools
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 14: Post-observation discussions and target setting
Introduction
Reflective practice
Avoiding judgementoring
Educative mentoring
ONSIDE mentoring
Practical arrangements
Time and place
Written feedback
Shaping the discussion
RE-specific discussions
Links to research
Don't forget the praise
Considering the broader context
Weekly meetings
Challenging situations
Target setting
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 15: Supporting beginning teachers to teach GCSE and A level religious studies
Introduction
Initial conversations: Teaching examination specifications
Exploring the content of an examination course
Organising the content
Planning lessons for the GCSE and the A level
Teaching RS at A level
Summary and key points
Further resources
Support for teaching GCSE
Support for teaching A level
References
Chapter 16: Supporting beginning religious education teachers in approaching controversial issues in the classroom
Introduction
What makes something controversial?
The behavioural criterion
The epistemic criterion
The diversity criterion
The ‘politically authentic’ criterion
The social criterion
The psychological criterion
Why do we teach controversial issues?
Supporting beginning teachers
Addressing practical questions
Dealing with personal questions
Considering pedagogical questions
Summary and key points
Further resources
References
Chapter 17: Helping beginning religious education teachers develop their professional practice
Introduction: Mentoring for professional understanding
Bringing new knowledge from research and the curriculum
Showing the connection between theory and practice
Helping others learn how to reflect on teaching and learning
Connecting with the world of teaching
Debating RE policy
The wider world of teaching, performativity and the neoliberal system
Summary and key points
Further resources
Podcasts
References
Index