Developmental Psychology and Young Children’s Religious Education PDF
Preview Developmental Psychology and Young Children’s Religious Education
Developmental Psychology and Young Children’s Religious Education Developmental Psychology and Young Children’s Religious Education sets out to identify the conceptual pre-requisites for young children’s religious education learning and clearly highlights the challenges that children and their teachers encounter in the RE educational process. Based on a study with 431 children aged 5 to 7 years from different schools, faith and non-faith, and 47 teachers from the same schools as the children, this book offers an insightful look into younger children’s religious education, providing statistical evidence to dismantle the belief that young children lack the ability to conceptualise God in abstract terms. The information obtained from these children and their teachers reveals a major discrepancy between the teachers’ perceptions of young children’s conceptual abilities for RE learning, on the one hand, and children’s actual abilities revealed in their responses throughout the study, on the other. Based on the evidence described in the volume, Petrovich argues that teacher-training courses for primary RE need to be designed to include a substantial component of contemporary developmental research that is of direct relevance to children’s conceptual abilities and understanding of abstract concepts. Developmental Psychology and Young Children’s Religious Education is essential reading for students and researchers in developmental psychology, religious education, teacher education, education studies and cultural anthropology. Olivera Petrovich is a developmental psychologist in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, UK. Her research deals with the development of religious understanding in children and adults from different cultures. Developmental Psychology and Young Children’s Religious Education Olivera Petrovich Cover image: My First Sermon by John Everett Millais, 1863 © City of London Corporation First published 2022 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Olivera Petrovich The right of Olivera Petrovich to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-367-43619-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-43620-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-00463-9 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003004639 Typeset in Times New Roman by MPS Limited, Dehradun Contents List of figures vii List of tables ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Research design and fieldwork: Rationale and method 15 3 Children’s perceptions of and attitudes to school RE: Interview findings 21 4 Everyday religious understanding: The natural- theological reasoning test 41 5 Children’s concepts of God: Everyday and RE-based 59 6 Teachers’ perceptions of young children’s abilities for RE learning 77 7 Religious understanding in the early years: What can RE learn from young children? 91 8 Conclusion 97 References 109 Author Index 117 Subject Index 119 Figures 3.1 Percentages of children from different school denomina- tions according to the amount of RE story recall. 23 3.2 Percentages of 5-, 6- and 7-year olds recalling RE story to the level corresponding with No recall, Limited recall and Detailed recall. 24 3.3 Percentages of children from different school denomina- tions responding to the question whether a recalled story is about God. 25 3.4 Percentages of children from different school denominations answering the question about the meaning of religious words encountered in school RE. 27 3.5 Percentages of children from different school denominations and their attitudes to school assemblies. 31 3.6 Percentages of children from different school denominations and their judgements of RE as Both hard and easy, Hard and Easy. 33 4.1 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the four conditions of the Origin Task according to children’s age. 44 4.2 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the four conditions of the Origin Task according to children’s schools. 45 4.3.1 Reproduced with permission from Petrovich (2019). 46 4.4.1 Reproduced with permission from Petrovich (2019). 47 4.3 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the Animacy Task according to children’s schools. 50 4.4 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the Origin and Animacy Tasks according to children’s age. 51 4.5 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the Origin and Animacy Tasks according to children’s schools. 51 4.6 Origin of matter: Percentages of children in each age group selecting Eternal, Created and Neither options in response to the first cosmological question. 55 viii Figures 4.7 Origin of matter: Percentages of children from different schools selecting Eternal, Created and Neither options in response to the first cosmological question. 55 4.8 God’s role in the origin of matter: Percentages of children in each age group selecting “Matter first” and “God first” in response to the follow-up cosmological question. 56 4.9 God’s role in the origin of matter: Percentages of children from different schools selecting “Matter first” and “God first” in response to the follow-up cosmological question. 57 5.1 Mean scores (out of two) on abstractness of children’s Image of God, Image justification and Question about God responses according to age. 63 5.2 Mean scores (out of two) on abstractness of children’s Image of God, Image justification and Question about God responses according to school denomination. 64 8.1 Millais’s 1864 painting “My second sermon” © Guildhall Art Gallery (City of London Corporation). 104 Tables 3.1 Frequencies and percentages of children’s RE story recall according to school denomination. 23 3.2 Frequencies and percentages of children’s responses to the question about the meaning of uttered religious words according to school denomination. 27 4.1 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) and standard deviations (in parentheses) in the four conditions of the Origin Task according to age. 44 4.2 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) and standard deviations (in parentheses) in the two conditions of the Animacy Task according to age. 49 5.1 Mean scores (out of two) with standard deviations (in parentheses) on abstractness of Image of God, Image justification and Question about God responses according to age. 63 5.2 Mean scores (out of two) with standard deviations (in parentheses) on abstractness of Image of God, Image justification, and Question about God according to school denomination. 64 5.3 Frequencies and percentages (in parentheses) of children’s justifications for not having a question of interest about God. 66
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