As per course,
"Pedagogical Practices within Catholic Education –Key Concepts
developing an understanding of the Religious Education program in Catholic links to the curriculum for other subjects
developing an understanding of government policies, guidelines and new approaches in education, as well as the policies and documents of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario and the Catholic district school boards
developing a critical approach to the selection and use of instructional resources and practices to support Catholic education
exploring various forms of prayer in professional practice
exploring processes for the creation of collaborative, positive, equitable, accepting, and safe learning communities that nurture holistic formation
exploring a range of approaches, methods, strategies, instructional resources and information and communication technologies to support student learning and formation in religious education
exploring pedagogical practices that respond to the individual needs and developmental levels of all students
critically exploring how faith is a personally lived reality that is intimately linked to one’s own culture
reflecting on personal teaching practice and engaging in dialogue on the relationship of theory and practice in the teaching of Religious Education
fostering a learning and living environment that nourishes knowledge, skills and interpersonal qualities through the light of the Gospel values
exploring fair and equitable assessment and evaluation methods that promote student learning and support the dignity, emotional wellness and development of all students in religious education and across the curriculum
integrating the theoretical understanding and knowledge necessary to design and assess programs and practices within the context of Catholic schools
understanding the importance of questioning, innovation and collaboration to enhance teaching practice
understanding the stages and processes associated with personal development and formation within faith education
understanding pedagogies that reflect the professional identity of educators as described in the ethical standards, the standards of practice and in the Foundations of Professional Practice
becoming familiar with the principles of adult education and group facilitation.
Resources:
HCDSB: School Effectiveness Framework (2013)
http://www.hcdsb.org/Board/bip/Documents/2013%20School%20Effectiveness%20Framework.pdf
ICE: Ontario Catholic Elementary Religious Education Policy Document Grades 1-8 (2012)
Ontario Catholic Secondary Religious Education Curriculum Policy Document (2006) http://www.iceont.ca/ice-publications.aspx
EOCCC: Eastern Ontario Catholic Curriculum Cooperative, (2005).
Practical Tips
and
Three Entry Points - http://www.eoccc.org/content/csfcs/additional.html
Pedagogical Practices within Catholic Education
The Assembly of Catholic Bishops states a primary role of the Catholic Teacher is to:
provide opportunities for students to relate their knowledge and skills to everyday life, they encourage them to take a critical look at the world around them and to make a commitment to witness with their lives to the kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, peace and joy.
The Assembly also states:
Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. The development of critical thinking skills is central to a well-planned religious education program. Students are frequently asked to
critically analyze Sacred Scripture for what it might mean to them in their personal lives, to examine and make judgements regarding social and environmental issues in light of Church teaching, to explore all sides of a situation to make moral decisions, or to critically examine media and its message. They are asked to look for bias, compare and contrast different viewpoints, find contradictions or determine next steps.
(ICE, Ontario Catholic Elementary Curriculum Policy Document for Religious Education, Grades 1-8, 2012, pp. 11, 51).
Two documents that will help teachers in a Catholic school are the Curriculum Policy documents for religious education. Both of these can be found in the Resources section. Ontario Catholic Elementary Religious Education Policy Document Grades 1-8 (2012)
Ontario Catholic Secondary Religious Education Curriculum Policy Document (2006)
These documents provide a foundation upon which our students base their beliefs and understanding. All expectations build on the expectations from the previous year, in order to slowly develop student’s faith and belief based on cognitive levels. The curriculum challenges the students to move from concrete to abstract concepts, from a simple acquisition of religious knowledge (the “what”), to a consideration of its meaning (the “so what”) to an appropriation of that meaning into their lives (the “now what”). In this way, we will better prepare them to meet the challenges of today’s society and to bear witness to the gospel as they incorporate their faith into all aspects of their lives.
Teaching through a Catholic lens requires the teacher to integrate, extend, and infuse the Catholic faith throughout the curriculum. It will allow the teacher to foster a learning and living environment that nourishes knowledge, skills and interpersonal qualities through the light of the Gospel values.
Integration: Incorporate Catholic faith throughout Curriculum.
Sample Prompt: I will use a literary device in the creation of my prayer.
Extension: Relate Curriculum to Catholic faith.
Sample Prompt: I will consider the value of human life as I examine the main idea.
Infusion: Infuse Catholic faith into teaching strategies throughout Curriculum.
Sample Prompt: I will analyze the data through the idea of stewardship.
Catholic Virtues and Literacy / Numeracy - Sample Prompts:
Examine how love of God and neighbor in this piece is presented in this piece?
How does your art work show the importance of peace and justice (fairness)?
Evaluate how the hero includes others?
Tell how your media shows the idea of making right choices and cautious
behavior?
How does the article display the importance of fairness and mercy towards our
neighbour?
Compare and contrast how the main characters stay away from unrestrained
behavior.
Where in the game do you show the importance of doing good and being just?
How does the data show fairness in the availability of resources?
How do the figures indicate a control in spending?
The Resources titled Some Practical Tips for Using Curriculum Support for Catholic Schools: Enhancing the Religious Dimension of Catholic Education and
Curriculum Support for Catholic Schools: Enhancing the Religious Dimension of Catholic Education Three Entry Points will help Catholic educators develop and plan lessons and activities which announce the Gospel of Jesus in every aspect of school life, in all subject areas
Tasks:
Review the Ontario Catholic School Graduate Expectations and the file below entitled Pedagogical Practices within Catholic Education
Complete the task and post your response in your discussion group. Also read and respond to at least 2 of your classmates’ posts.
The OCSGE can be found on the ICE website and both of these documents can be found in the Resources section.
a. Which two do you feel are the most important specific expectations and which two are the least important? Give a brief rationale for your choice of the two most important expectations. "
As per discussion, "
In the faith community, we come together for communion (prayer and worship), that is our faith community, however as a Catholic we may also believe that we also pray and worship in solitude. The Catholic faith holds many values that we grant our own importance to according to how we live our life. If one looks at the Catholic Social Teachings as core values, we may change the way we consider the importance of different OCSGE as introduced by the ICE.
Therefore considering my practicum in the close reading and accumulation of learning resources in FNMI perspective, I look at the two most important Ontario Catholic Student Graduate Expectations as #3 A Reflective, Creative and Holistic Thinker and #4 A Self-Directed, Responsible, Lifelong Learner. From the Medicine wheel framework, a teacher can make an immediate connection to the qualities it is characterizing and the OCGSE as a reflective, creative and holistic thinker.
The provided article here is from Ed Can Network, written by Nicole Bell, 2014. Discusses her observations and studies of the Medicine Wheel Framework in use at a school as a school framework. Before getting to that point of the experience, she describes her understandings from Anishnaabe guides that allow her to make the connections and transference of Anishnaabe traditional healing/learning into a coexistence with traditional educational philosophy.
https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teaching-by-the-medicine-wheel/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrZOXBhACEiwA0EoRD-KQmbd_I866eOyJElGAVaR3KhkSGPjvBE6TIaOtvS2-dof3pR--zxoCpIYQAvD_BwE
I you are not interested in reading that article in too much depth, or can't access it, I have attached it, but another consideration are the generic "First Nations Principles of Learning"
As a lot of these principles are represented on different medicine wheel models in different settings, the idea here is that learning occurring is holistic as well. See image below of simplified "Medicine Wheel Framework"
In regards to self-directed, the idea of listening refers not only to the elders, and teachers but to the land as well. This calls the regulation of oneself physically and mentally as to be of the land (physically and/or metaphorically) one needs to consider the four R's Responsibility, Reciprocity, Respect and Relationship.
I have included the link to Bell's paper below regarding "Anishinaabe Bimaadiziwin" in which she describes living in spirituality. You can access it with your Lakehead University account (presumably), if not let me know and I can send a copy of my resource portfolio that I working on for my practicum (assignment 4)
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6209-293-8_6
If you don't have time or interest enough to read it in full, feel free to check out my "cole's notes"
Respect, relationship, reciprocity, and responsibility play an integral role in creating a spiritual connection to the environment to ensure both its survival and ours. (Bell, 2013)
Indigenous education is rooted in holistic practices that encompass all aspects of a child’s life, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual (Bell, 2013). Learning begins at conception, teaching was primarily done orally and through role modelling, through repetition (Bell, 2013). “Anyone and anything has the potential to be a teacher, including children, youth, adults, the elderly, plants, animals, and spirits. All teachers may have the ability to teach perspective of harmony, thus all can help individuals develop their balance. Also, just as everything and everyone is a teacher, they are also all students. As we journey through our life stages we are in a continuous process of learning, with the help of many potential teachers”. (Hart, 1996) The land communicates as a teacher and is a receptacle of knowledge and wisdom (Bell, 2013). “Fundamental to Anishinaabe worldview is the link between individual responsibility and community well-being. One must be responsible for their own actions in relation to their community and ultimately the world” (Bell, 2013)
A group of Elders has described a learner of traditional times as having the following characteristics: • The foundation for the ‘good life’ or health and capacity for learning is modeled through the structure and behavior at home during the early years. As a child develops in age they can be asked to take on practical responsibilities relevant to their age. These responsibilities go beyond tasks to values, gathering experience, understanding it and expressing it in behavior. This changes developmentally as a child ages. Learning is a life-long process but each stage has different qualities. Learning involved mind, body, and spirit simultaneously not separately.
• Experience is the foundation for learning. Understanding experience is developed over time through dialogue. Experience is neither good nor bad but a natural result of exploration.
• Children should be allowed to make choices and to gather unique and individual experience within the framework of modeled values, discussion and community good. Each individual has something unique to offer as a result of who they are and their accumulated experience.
• Learning is a process that is accomplished through interaction with others; it is always a shared, cooperative venture.
• The foundation for interaction with others is expressed through respect, feeling, a good heart, good intentions, kindness, sharing and knowledge of self.
• Each individual is unique yet a part of a whole community. The community and the individual have reciprocal responsibilities. In one sense the individual and the community and the world are the same entity, interdependent. What affects one, affects the others.
• Learning begins with vision – of self, of goals, of the whole, of the direction a task is to go in. It is a process that goes through the stages of ‘seeing’ (vision), ‘relating’ to what it is, ‘figuring it out’ with heart and mind, and ‘acting’ on findings in some way (behavior).
• The old and the young need each other: One to provide the understanding of experience from their own experiences; the other to frame that discussion in terms of current and changing needs. The child’s world may be different from that of the adult as it reflects a changing world.
• Everyone has a responsibility to give back and to consider their actions in the light of their effect on generations to come. (Stigelbauer, 1992, p. 14) (Bell, 2013)
“The gifts of the four directions teach that respect is achieved when one uses spirit and their gift of vision to see inter-connections or how one is connected spiritually to everything else. Relationship is achieved when one takes the time to relate to the natural world by connecting with their heart and thus feelings. Reciprocity is achieved by using one’s mind to think, reason, and thus figure out how one exists only because one’s needs are met by everything else around them in the natural world. Responsibility is achieved when one uses their body and ability to move to do actions which ensure sustainability of the natural world. The northern direction teaches that true wisdom can only be attained when the awareness, understanding, and knowledge achieved is enacted in behaviors. It is not enough to know; one must do. Ways of living in nature are therefore action-oriented (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011). Indigenous “epistemology is participatory, experiential, process-oriented, and ultimately spiritual” (Michell, 2005, p. 36), (Bell, 2013).
“Responsibility can be understood as ‘response -ability’ meaning that one is expected to use their abilities to respond. Anishinaabe teachings articulate that every child is born with gifts and the education process entails ‘teachers’, family and community members watching for the child’s gifts and providing opportunities for him/her to foster and develop those gifts once they are identified,” (Bell, 2013).
All my relations: “All is one circle … The acknowledgement of everything in creation as having spirit and is therefore sacred is manifested in ceremony when ‘all my relations’ is spoken after prayers are said. “The expression ‘all my relations’ proclaims a profound reality: As we make our way through life we travel in a relational existence. Because all parts of life are interrelated, these relationships provide wholeness to existence” (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011, p. 78). “A reciprocal relationship with the natural world includes an understanding that “if you hurt Spirit in other beings in nature, you hurt the very essence of your own spirit; much like poisoning the water systems is identical to poisoning humankind” (Aikenhead & Michell, 2011, p. 93)"
Medicine Wheel - “There is an overwhelming emphasis on the mental and the physical in environmental education when there should be a balance between the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects of being. Effective and meaningful environmental education would address all four aspects in balance. This would result in an ongoing interconnected relationship between the student and his/her world. Such a holistic environmental education teaches a student that they do not exist without the trees. The scaffolding of holistic education is therefore the teaching of interconnections,” (Bell, 2013).
“Balance implies that each part of the whole requires attention such that one part is not focused on to the detriment of any of the other parts (Manitowabi, 1992). “Balance occurs when a person is at peace and harmony within their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual humanness; with others in their family, community, and the nation; and with all other living things, including the earth and natural world” (Hart, 2002, p. 41). While balance may be achieved, it is only temporary as the constant changing of reality and the environment makes it so. Ongoing readjustment, and thus focus on other parts to achieve balance, is required for harmony. “Harmony requires people to live within the natural cycles that move life and to find a fit between the components of life through collaboration, sharing of what is available, cooperation and respect for all elements of life” (Hart, 2002, p. 43).
Finally the least important of the expectations I feel are firstly "A Discerning Believer Formed" in the Catholic Faith Community and then, "Effective Communicator". Again, this being from the perspective of a FNMI subject area lens, because as a subject teacher however much we would like to say that we utilize the entirety of the expectations, it goes to say as with planning a lesson, one cannot expect to meaningfully focus on all expectations at one time. Given the little time to meaningful arouse our students' interest and commitment to different lessons, however much I can respect these expectations I admit these hold the least water for me. As much as it is important to promote the heralding of faith, the expectations are specific in that they are mentioning Catholic and/or Christian faith. Not only from an FNMI lens would I feel I struggle with this, but even as a teacher of international or culturally diverse students, I cannot say that I'd expect every single one of my students to meet this expectation to its fullest as some of them are different faith followers. I appreciate how much of it is worded as "God" because this is a term that can resonate with many different faiths, however to say that they can speak to the Catholic story of faith is a task and avenue in itself. As for "Effective Communicator", as much as communication is important and relevant to many/much of our day-to-day life and from an FNMI, communication skills are not only necessary to keep one's oral story-telling traditions alive that is used to pass knowledge through, but requires the ability to listen as this is crucial for a learner to hear, listen and not underestimate the wisdom of elders, teachers and guides of the community.
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