World Religions other than Christianity

What is Belief?

Learning Intentions

In this unit pupils are learning to define ‘belief’, explore where beliefs come from, examine the beliefs of God/gods/none within a world religion, investigate how beliefs influence people’s lifestyle and appreciate the belief in afterlife within world religions.

Links with Key Elements

Personal Understanding – exploring issues of personal identity (belief)
Spiritual Awareness – exploring and responding to the key questions that arise through discussions on the purpose of life.

Skills and Capabilities

Cross Curricular Skills:

Communication

Contribute comments, ask questions and respond to others' points of view.

Using ICT

Create, develop, present and publish ideas and information using a range of digital media.

Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities:

Managing Information

Ask focused questions;
Select, classify, compare and evaluate information.

Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision Making;

Self-Management.

Learning Outcomes

Research and manage information effectively to investigate religious, moral and ethical issues, using ICT where appropriate;
Communicate effectively in oral, visual, written and ICT formats showing clear awareness of audience, purpose and attention to accuracy.

Key Questions

1. What is belief? (Introductory)

Learning intentions
Pupils are learning to: Define belief.

Introductory Activity: Teaching Activity 1

Teacher preparation:

Post-Its or paper for brain storming activity. Decide how you want to display the results of the brain storming activity (whiteboard/flip-chart/interactive board). Examples of Key Words you may want to look out for: trust, faith, opinion, fact, inherited, personal.

Individual work - write down a word they associate with “Belief” on a post-it/piece of paper.

Group work - feedback to small group explaining the key word that they have come up with and why they associate it with “Belief”. Teacher displays the key words linked with “Belief” and discusses these words with the class. As a class decide on the best key words that can be used in putting together a definition of the term “Belief”. Record the class definition.

Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision Making

Sequence, order, classify, and make comparisons.

2. Where do beliefs come from?

Learning intentions
Pupils are learning to: Explore where beliefs come from.

Introductory Activity: Teaching Activity 1

Teacher preparation:

Guidance questions about importance of belief and where beliefs come from for pairs to discuss. This could be done on handouts/whiteboard/interactive board.

Paired work - discussion could centre round the following questions: What beliefs are important to you? How did you form these beliefs? Where do beliefs come from? How do beliefs become more developed? How can beliefs be made personal by individuals? Pupils discuss these issues with a partner and feed back to whole class or group discussion.

Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision Making

Justify methods, opinions and conclusions.

3. What do ... believe about God?

Learning intentions
Pupils are learning to: Examine the beliefs in God/gods/or none within a world religion.

Core Activity: Teaching Activity 1

Teacher Preparation:

Produce relevant statements with key information concerning the beliefs about God/Gods/none within the world religion being studied to be used by pupils - one statement each. Ideally all statements should be different or pupils could be placed in groups each person with a different statement.

Individual work - pupils assess the information they have been given about the beliefs within a world religion and ask for clarification if necessary.

Group work - pupils share their statements with each other and explain their fact with as many people as possible (Each one Teach one – ‘Active Learning and Teaching Methods’ page 29).

Group work - pupils could classify the information they have been given in the statements using their own classification categories.

Communication

Contribute comments, ask questions and respond to others' points of view.

Managing Information

Select, classify, compare and evaluate information.

Reinforcing Activity: Teaching Activity 2

Teacher Preparation:

Organize use of ICT facilities for pupils to carry out individual research on this topic. List of web-sites for research.

Following research time – Individual work - using Microsoft PowerPoint create a Radial Diagram showing some of the teachings about God/Gods/none within the world religion being studied.

Using ICT

Create, develop, present and publish ideas and information using a range of digital media.

4. How do beliefs influence people’s lifestyle?

Learning intentions
Pupils are learning to: Investigate how beliefs influence people’s lifestyles.

Introductory Activity: Teaching Activity 1

Group Work - using information from Radial diagram that each pupil has produced work in a group to consider ways in which an individual’s lifestyle may be influenced by belief in the particular world religion being studied.

Managing Information

Select, classify, compare and evaluate information.

Core Activity: Teaching Activity 2

Teacher Preparation:

Produce a relevant fact card/s about the way key beliefs in the world religion being studied can have an effect on lifestyle choices. (see relevant web sites)
Decide what KEY ISSUES the pupils will focus on in the CAF activity:
eg: dress, food, marriage, socializing, jobs, alcohol, medical ethics such as organ donation (these are only suggestions and can be replaced by any other topics by teachers).

Paired work - use the fact card/s and focus on one KEY ISSUE (decided by the teacher – each pair could be given a different Key Issue to focus on). Ask pupils to examine how certain everyday life situations maybe affected by religious beliefs.

A CAF template may be used to help this activity. (CAF - ‘Active Learning and Teaching Methods’ pages 9 &10).

Pairs can feedback to the class what their findings were on the key issue they had been given.

Managing Information

Select, classify, compare and evaluate information.

5. What do … believe about the afterlife?

Learning intentions
Pupils are learning to: Appreciate the belief in the afterlife within a world religion.

Core Activity: Teaching Activity 1

Teacher Preparation:

Prepare a KWL grid for the pupils focusing on belief in the afterlife within a world religion as an introduction to the topic. (Know/Want to Know/Learned – ‘Active Learning and Teaching Methods’ page 44)
Provide pupils with an overview of what the world religion believes about death and life after death. This could be done in written or multi-media format.
Research web sites/books given to pupils. (see relevant web sites)

Individual work - complete the K column on the KWL grid. Feedback will then be given to the class.

Group work - As a group the pupils will discuss what should be put into the W column in the KWL grid. A consensus of opinion should be reached through negotiation before feedback is given to the teacher. As a class decide on three things they would like to know about death and eternal life within the world faith being studied.

Pupils will then study the overview distributed by the teacher and research (using suitable web sites and books) the answers to the questions.

As individuals the pupils will then complete the L column on the KWL grid, showing what they have learned about this topic.

Managing Information

Ask focused questions.

6. What is belief? (Summarising)

End Activity: Teaching Activity 1

Individual work - using the Key Question ‘What is Belief?’ pupils produce a Mind Map summarising what they have learnt about their own beliefs and the beliefs of others. (Mind Maps – ‘Active Learning and Teaching Methods’ page 48)

Self-evaluation task - Pupils will complete a self-evaluation activity (e.g. Traffic Lights - ‘Active Learning and Teaching Methods’ page72) – focus on aspects of Managing Information.

Managing Information