Teaching and Learning > DOCUMENTS
Tablula rasa or talented performer?
Mary Hayward
What are the appropriate starting points with and for new students, and with new students in TRS in particular? Each institution has its own answer to such questions, but does 2002 present a new challenge? What are the implications of new GCE Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced qualifications for future planning? How do the expectations of Religious Studies subject criteria and 'specifications' (formerly 'syllabuses') mesh with the expectations of the QAA's Benchmarking document for Theology and Religious Studies? Should we look primarily to students' knowledge base as foundation courses are prepared, or to the capacities and skills they bring with them?
A concern for breadth and depth lies at the heart of new A level structures. The possibility of broadening studies at the tertiary level through the Advanced Subsidiary qualification (a three module qualification normally achievable in one year and constituting half of an Advanced GCE) and the availability of a wide range of subject modules in TRS at AS and A level suggests that in planning we should look first to the skills to which potential students aspire. There may be little commonality of content and, of course, not all TRS departments require a prior qualification in Religious Studies; but transferable skills - acquired in Religious Studies and other AS/A subjects - contributing to and recognised in the new Key Skills Qualification, may both change the face of teaching and learning at AS/A level and provide a platform from which first year teaching in Higher Education reviews its own teaching and learning strategies. For the mature entrant returning to formal education the Key Skills Qualification might offer a framework for self-evaluation and affirmation.
The new Key Skills Qualification, available from 2000, offers the opportunity for students to demonstrate their competencies in six areas:
- Communication
- IT
- Application of number
- Improving their own learning performance
- Problem solving
- Working with others
Students following an A level route should as far as possible develop these skills and demonstrate their level of achievement in the course of their AS/A studies; generic skills are thus contextualised. AS/A level specifications for Religious Studies must meet the requirements for the key skill of Communication. A survey of the specifications and related guidance indicates that the Boards go further than this and demonstrate in some detail how some or all of the other key skills (with the exception of Application of number) may substantially be met through AS/A level studies in Religious Studies. (It is interesting that subject specific skills to be assessed in the examination are not similarly demonstrated in new Religious Studies specifications). It is too soon to gauge the extent to which the Key Skills Qualification will change the face of AS/A learning and teaching strategies; but its potential is arguably the 'exciting' element in the new specifications. Students who, through their studies at AS/A level, have had the opportunity to become 'talented performers' will evaluate the learning and teaching experience in Part 1 studies with increasing acuity; we are at risk if we ignore this.
Full details of the Key Skills Qualification may be found at http://www.qca.org.uk/keyskills
An overview of the new Religious Studies Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Specifications for Religious Studies will shortly appear on the LTSN-TRS site.
This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.
