Religious Education Competencies, Piaget Stages & Assessment

Religious Education Competencies 11–20

11. Linguistic Competence

Linguistic competence constitutes the very essence of competence in a belief-based curriculum for religion. It uses language as the primary element for understanding reality and for organizing knowledge.

12. The Four PISA Competencies

In 1997 the OECD launched the PISA project to produce indicators of student performance. PISA assesses students' preparedness to face life. The four assessed domains are:

1. Mathematics
2. Reading
3. Science
4. Problem solving

13. New Profile of Teaching Religion

The new profile of teaching religion includes ten characteristics:

1. Active nature
2. Reality of the environment
3. Role concepts
4. Curriculum objectives
5. Active methodology
6. Real situations and environmental problems
7. Shared learning
8. Universal level
9. Exchange and contrast
10. Project methodology

14. Beliefs

Key beliefs presented include:

1. God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus Christ: true God and true man.
3. The Church and the role of the Holy Spirit.

15. Main Prayers and Key Signs of the Liturgy

The liturgy is a symbolic language with four key signs:

1. Words — prayers and formulas.
2. Objects — the temple and liturgical items.
3. Time — liturgical cycles and days of worship.
4. Actions — ritual actions and rites.

16. Second Stage (Piaget)

The second stage in Piaget's framework enables students to perceive homogeneous sets and relationships among their elements, and to organize actions and objects coherently.

17. Third Cycle (Piaget)

The third cycle corresponds to the formal operations stage: students develop mental operations on abstract ideas and concepts and are able to formulate definitions and hypotheses.

18. Competence in Religious Beliefs

This competence refers to the ability to accurately formulate understanding and empathy for the beliefs of the Christian faith and for other religious groups in the environment. It includes recognizing and interpreting beliefs through one’s own identity and by understanding the beliefs of others.

19. Local Core Competencies

Local core competencies include:

1. Linguistic communication
2. Mathematics
3. Knowledge and interaction with the physical world
4. Technology and information
5. Social and civic life
6. Cultural and artistic
7. Learning to learn
8. Personal initiative

20. Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation criteria serve to check learning outcomes and support criterial evaluation and regulation. Assessment of competences is an ultimate goal of school learning; evaluation criteria focus on knowledge, skills, and attitudes. As formulated:

1. A short descriptive statement.
2. Specification of something the student can do or knows how to do.
3. Context — a situation in which the student should demonstrate the competency.