COLLEGE OF EDUCATION OPEN DISTANT AND E-LEARNING

NAME OWOMUGISHA ASINGURA

REG. NUMBER 2019-08-08888

COURSE BAE

COURSE UNIT METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
COURSE CODE EDF2206

YEAR 2

SEMESTER 2

LECTURER Fr. BIRUNGI BENEDICT

QUESTION:
Discuss the methods of teaching Religious Education and give the
advantages and the disadvantages of each method.
Teaching refers to the act of imparting knowledge and skills to specific group of people
mainly by trained person in this specific cause known as a teacher
Religious Education is an education in school which places a strong emphasis nf the
beliefs associated with a particular religion.
There are very many methods which help in the teaching of Religious Education and
each of them has got advantages and disadvantages in the following ways indicated
below;
Question and answer: This are the delivery of lessons by asking questions and
students gives answers.
It helps to prepare learners for a task ahead if the questions are posed at the beginning
of the lecture.
It helps in evaluation. It gives a picture to the teacher in order to know how far the
learners have understood the concept.
It helps in the development of the capacity of the learners to express themselves.
It involves the learners’ participation towards the subject matter and in the teaching
acts.
It helps in achieving cognitive objectives and bringing knowledge at conscious level.
While asking questions, the teacher keeps in mind the abilities, needs and interests of
learners.
Disadvantages.
It requires a lot of skills on the part of the teacher to make a proper use of this method.
this method is quietly embracing for timid students.
It is time coming especially when the students are lazy and cannot do a lot of reading
before coming to class.
Some learners can pose questions that can annoy the teacher and therefore get off.
When the learners are undisciplined, they opt not to answer any question on a particular
day.
It is prone to attention span of the learners and long hours of teaching leads learners to
lose track.
Group work: This method of teaching recognizes the fact and therefore learning can be
more effective in groups.
Advantages
It is extremely child centered, several learners will be participating at the same time in
the task assigned to them.
The weak learners are helped by bright students and they get collective motivated.
The shy and timid learners will get the confidence to make contributions.
The learners are trained in leadership skills especially the chairperson and secretary of
the group.
The method cultivates in learners the spirit of collective responsibility.
There is cooperation and competition. Cooperation between group members and
competition between the groups.
The learners can get opportunity to discuss political and social issues.
Time is not wasted when it is raining learning will continue.
Disadvantages.
The learners can over concentrate on other matters than what you have assigned them
to do.
At the stage of the group, where care is not taken, the bright learners can end up in one
group and vice versa.
It is simply abuse by teachers who after giving group work just walk away.
It requires adequate training to teachers because it is tedious and tiresome.
It needs a big conclusive environment.
It cannot be used in lower classes. Therefore, it can only be applied in higher classes.
Bright students may end up dominating the discussion especially when the group
chairperson does not grant chance to every student.
Debate: This is the formal approach which consists of speeches and exchange of
ideas. Therefore, many topics in Religious Education which can use this method.
Advantages.
The teachers and the learners are able to get differing viewpoints.
It can be used to review the covered units or topics.
The participants learn to accommodate other people’s views and opinions.
It leads to critical thinking as learners take time to reason and think through.
It helps individuals to participate.
It trains the learners to speak in public and with confidence.
 Disadvantages.
It is time consuming as it needs a lot of preparation.
The bright vocal students may dominate the debate thus the weak students lag behind.
It facilitates the teaching of few people hence neglecting other learners.
It does not cater for individual differences due to the fact that it caters for few who have
got potential to express themselves.
It may lead to difficult class control.
Some learners may not take the lesson seriously hence miss the point.
Some shy learners will remain passive therefore active learning will not take place.
Storytelling: Teaching by storytelling involves telling stories to learners which relate to
learning therefore a suitable story for the lesson should be chosen.
Advantages.
The follow up of discussions allows generation of views other than the teacher had
planned.
It helps the learners to develop listening skills.
Learners can imitate the characters implying behavioral change.
It brings into focus the real experiences of the characters driving the points home.
It is easy for learners to learn since students enjoy more of the story telling.
It is time saving in preparation and lesson conduction.
It carries the intended message across effectively.
Disadvantages.
It requires preparation to make it succeed.
It may not be taken seriously by the audience for example Jesus’ narratives and the
pharisees.
The learners may end up enjoying the study and miss out the intended message.
If the story is long and mastered by the one narrating it can be disastrous and time
consuming.
Demonstration method:
Advantages
Learners are able to grasp the content easily since it involves practical part of the
learning
Partiality interest is drawn to the procedures of performing a specific skill.
Once successfully done, learners gain more knowledge than being told.
Learning aids are necessary for learners to internalize the message.
Disadvantages
It is more effective with small groups of learners. It does not work among a large
number of members in class.
Learners may focus on demonstrating and fail to pick up the message communicated.
It is expensive since it involves many teaching and learning aids to be used for the
successful of the lesson.
Chalk and talk method: This method involves a teacher organizing a substantial
amount of content to be presented systematically to a group of learners.
Advantages
It is teacher centered and therefore it enables a teacher to deliver the full content to the
learners.
It engages all learners as it caters for all of them.
It helps students to make connection to different ideas.
It encourages problem solving.
It exposes students to different ideas and perspectives.
Disadvantages.
It is teacher centered and therefore does not involve the participation of the learners.
The success of this method depends on the attention span of the learners.
Classroom control and management can be hard if the class is too big.
If it is noisy environment, the method cannot work.
It lacks an inbuilt mechanism of evaluation.
Students with hearing problems can get into problems.
It limits learner’s expression in public.
Critical thinking abilities of learners are not developed.
The life experience approach.
This is the teaching method which aims at introducing the pupils to God’s message in a
way which will sound familiar to them.
Advantages
It allows the learners to participate actively in the lesson being taught.
It helps the learners draw lessons from experiences of others.
It guides the teacher to maintain relevance in his or her approach to the lesson.
It gives the teacher to understand different views from the learners.
It helps the learners to explore their own experience so that they may truly accept the
message of the bible.
It raises curiosity and imagination within the learners in the desire to gain more
knowledge on the subject.
Disadvantages.
There is difficulty in identifying relevant Life situations when teaching some subjects.
Inability to use life approach throughout the lesson.
Life approach method is time consuming. It requires teachers and learners to have a
discussion.
Lack of creativity in the choice of relevant human experiences. Some teachers do not
spend adequate time in identifying relevant life experiences.
In conclusion therefore, the above are the methods of teaching Religious Education in
addition to dramatization and role play.
REFERENCES
"Religious Education — collective worship and the right to withdraw". Teachernet. Department
for Children, Schools and Families. Archived from the original on 2008-06-30. Retrieved 2008-
02-07.
Department for Children, Schools and Families (2005). "Collective worship". Teachernet.
Department for Children, Schools and Families. Archived from the original on 2008-01-12.
Retrieved 2008-02-07.
Lucy Wilkins (2005-07-24). "School worship: from sports to death". BBC News website. BBC.
Retrieved 2008-02-07.
Hannah Goff (2008-03-24). "Call to offer faith class choice". BBC News website. British
Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-03-27.