This article explores how arts-based learning can facilitate understandings of Jewish religious texts. Through practical examples drawn from our own research, from the worlds of dance, drama, and the visual arts in education, we demonstrate the ways in which arts can allow for the transmission of information and knowledge, as well as offer a…

Discusses the nature of Jewish educational research. Addresses four questions: (1) what makes Jewish educational research unique; (2) what issues does it address; (3) what methods should it employ; and (4) what sort of institutions should it study? Concludes that it combines educational research and Judaic studies emphasizing transmission of…

Secular pluralism in contemporary culture and current theological divisions within churches have important implications for Christian education. This paper addresses the question of how religious commitments can be made and convictions held outside of polarizing and exclusionary understandings of truth, and without the presence of uncontested…

"What is Jewish education [?] I have been trying for 32 years to find out what it is, but I am still looking." In 1931 these were humble words from the mouth of Samson Benderly, one of the leading thinkers and actors in American Jewish education of his time and of the twentieth century overall--someone whom one might presume had all of…

The relation between Christian practical theology and religious education is discussed from a contextual perspective, commencing with a number of distinctions between various teaching processes which are then applied to the teaching of religion. The implications for a Christian philosophy of education are considered, and it is suggested that the…

The voucher system in Denmark combines unrestricted generous subsidies with substantial autonomy of private schools as to schedule and teaching methods. This has produced a private school sector with a wide variety of school types. This paper uses data on eight cohorts of students (over 510,000 individuals) to compare educational attainment in…

Computer games as an important part of youth culture can, from a certain perspective, be highly relevant for religious education. I will review the role of computer games, and then give a brief overview, suggesting a specific phenomenological approach for research on computer games and religious education. After presenting one example of such…

Whilst it is acknowledged that there is a case for giving pupils a say in what affects them most--the content and methodology of what and how they learn, such practice is not widespread. This paper discusses the rationale behind giving pupils a genuine say in determining their methods of learning and suggests how this approach is entirely within…

This article aims to examine how media and computers can serve as a vehicle for the enhancement of spiritual and religious identity and socialization. An innovative typological model (RSTM) for assessing secularity and religiosity and its implications on the need to utilize advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) are discussed.…

Virginia's Upper Shenandoah Valley, with its Bible-Belt values and flourishing churches, illustrates the challenges of religious-instruction release time for educators. Local schools accommodate Weekday Religious Education, a weekly, privately funded program popular in southern states. Using "public access" tables, permission slips, and…

This article examines the question of whether one ought to hold religious experience as a Jewish educational goal and, more fundamentally, to ask what this might mean. The objective is to begin to probe what an education toward (Jewish) religious experience would entail and what some of the theoretical, moral and practical obstacles might be. The…

This article examines the writing of Pentecostal history and in particular, the biases and presuppositions associated with it. The problem of sources and the neglect of the important role of indigenous ("native") workers in the historiography of Pentecostalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America is the main focus. It refutes the idea of an…

The article sets out to discern the aims and objectives of the proposed National Framework for RE and finds them biased towards the study of other people's religious traditions. It observes the differences between religious studies and religious education and the consequences of confining the latter to the former, notably that moral and…

The primary objective of the research was to find out whether the use of Philosophy for Children (P4C) could improve learning within Attainment Target 2 (AT2) of Religious Education. A variety of techniques were used to investigate the effects of using a P4C methodology on children's learning in AT2 and children's perceptions of RE over the course…

Rosenak has shown that contemporary Jewish education must negotiate the tension between relevance and authenticity. For those who embrace authenticity as a goal, education is often mediated through heroes--who are ideal cultural types. Such education is hampered by the diminution of heroes in contemporary culture: The hero has been replaced by the…