Publications

There is a gap in the research on the relationship between secondary school subject departments, particularly where, as in the case of science and religious education (RE), there is not the traditional relationship that may be seen in science and maths or across humanities subjects. More awareness of content taught in other departments is important for pupils' coherent experience of curriculum and schooling. This article reports on data from 10 focus groups with 50 participants from six universities, where student teachers of science and RE revealed a complex picture of relationships between the two departments in their placement schools. Furthermore, this article reports findings from a survey where 244 teachers and student teachers of science and RE shared their perspectives on the relationship between the two school departments. The measure was adapted from Barbour's typology, a classification describing the nature of the relationship between science and religion in a range of literature. The terms ‘conflict’, ‘independence’, ‘dialogue’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘integration’ were presented to teachers of both subjects. Little evidence was found of conflict between science and RE departments, but more ‘independence’ than ‘dialogue’ between the two departments was reported. In the light of these findings, the benefits of boundary crossing are explored alongside the role teachers should play in boundary crossing.

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This study advances a concept of science religion encounter (SRE), with preliminary theorisation and shares findings on the extent and nature of such encounters reported by secondary religious education and science teachers. SREs are interdisciplinary engagements in classrooms involving subject knowledge from more than one subject. The researchers hypothesised they may arise unexpectedly, when a pupil asks a question, or be teacher-planned and intended. This article further elaborates the concept of SRE with reference to the concepts of ‘epistemic trespassing’ (ET), epistemic neighbourliness, and overlapping domains, introducing these to the field of education. The study is contextualised in the school classroom with quantitative data gathered among beginning and experienced teachers measuring whether this ET in SRE topics enter the classroom via ‘spontaneity’ or via a ‘deliberateness’. This clarifies the different roles a teacher may play and offers considerations for teacher development when navigating an SRE in ways that potentially reduce lost learning.

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The rural church primary school exists in a nexus of connections between school, home, and the institutional Church (parochial, diocesan, and national). This article applies Walker’s model of belonging to God through church to the sense of belonging expressed by families whose children attend a rural Church of England primary school. The data drawn from the Faith in the Nexus project undertaken at Canterbury Christ Church University, consists of 24 semi-structured focus group interviews, and 8 individual interviews with school and church leaders from parents, school staff, clergy, and governors across five rural Church of England primary schools. The findings highlight how rural church school families develop and sustain a sense of belonging through events, people, place, and activities. The discussion considers the value of Walker’s model of belonging, the fragility of the rural nexus and a need to acknowledge the relational nature of belonginess expressed by parents and pupils.

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Attention to the spiritual flourishing of young children contributes to their well-being, both their being and their becoming, but much-needed research in this area poses many challenges. The National Institute for Christian Education Research is undertaking a funded research project investigating the spiritual flourishing of young children in church toddler groups in England. This article reports on a scoping study which investigated the feasibility of a major research study in this area. The study was multifaceted, it involved clarifying terminology, evaluating previous research studies and early years research methods, and led to the development of a potential research framework. The article defines spiritual flourishing as a dynamic state of being, revealed in nurturing the right relationship with self, others, creation, and the transcendent. The findings propose an understanding of children’s spirituality as relational, based in the here and now, and shaped by the environment. Secondly, an exploration of midweek church toddler groups, a common feature across the denominations, through the lens of belonging, behaving, and believing reveals a potential critical contribution to young children’s spiritual flourishing or faith development. Thirdly, following an evaluation of potential effective research methods, the discussion highlights the value of an interdisciplinary study, the potential challenges and proposes a research framework. The article draws attention to the urgent need for more research to understand what contributes to young children’s spiritual flourishing within a Christian context.

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The place of Church school headteachers as spiritual leaders of the school community is rarely highlighted. This article investigates how 13 Church primary school headteachers (Catholic Church of England, and Methodist) interpret this role. It draws on the Faith in the Nexus research which investigated how church primary schools nurtured pupils’ spiritual development and facilitated faith activity in the home. The head teacher interviews revealed several recurring themes, such as empowering children, collective worship, relationships with church and parents, and the visibility of faith in school. This research brings together a comparison of leadership approaches from Catholic and Anglican headteachers. Evidence of differences emerged; Catholic headteachers tended to use ‘overtly religious’ language while many Anglican headteachers employed a more ‘secular’ language to express their vision of spiritual leadership. A comparison with Shaw’s (2015, 2017) model of ‘ethotic leadership’, highlighted much in common. The headteachers’ ethos was pupil-centric and shaped by a focus on the spiritual development of the child. An adaptation of Shaw’s model is offered which places the child at the centre.

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Misinformation is accidentally wrong and disinformation is deliberately incorrect (i.e., deception). This article uses the Pedagogy Analysis Framework (paf) to investigate how information, misinformation, and disinformation influence classroom pedagogy. 95 people participated (i.e., one lesson with 7-year-olds, another with 10-year-olds, and three with a class of 13-year-olds). The authors used four video-based methods (lesson video analysis, teacher verbal protocols, pupil group verbal protocols, and teacher interviews). 35 hours of video data (recorded 2013–2020) were analysed using Grounded Theory Methods by the researchers, the class teachers, and groups of pupils (three girls and three boys). The methodology was Straussian Grounded Theory. The authors present how often participants used information, misinformation, and disinformation. They illustrate how the paf helps understand and explain information, misinformation, and disinformation in the classroom by analysing video data transcripts. In addition, the authors discuss participant perceptions of the status of information; overlapping information, misinformation, and disinformation; and information communication difficulties.

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Renewed interest in curriculum in English schooling over the past decade has emanated from a particular focus on the place and role of knowledge in the classroom. Significant changes in policy and examination specifications have led to changes in religious education (RE). However, little is known about teachers' perspectives on the purpose of RE. We asked teachers of science and RE what they understood as the purpose of RE on the school curriculum. Data from 10 focus groups and a survey with 276 secondary teachers demonstrated that many secondary teachers of science have a different understanding to RE teachers of the purpose of RE on the school curriculum. Findings also show a lack of consensus from RE teachers on the purpose of RE, suggesting the impact of the knowledge turn in RE is not as strong as the Ofsted Research Review implies. Findings are significant as little is known about how knowledge works across disciplinary boundaries in schools. If students are to come to a full understanding of how knowledge works, teachers need to have some understanding of how knowledge is being constructed and utilised in other curriculum subjects. Knowledge of the intended purpose of RE is important for respectful co-existence of subjects on the curriculum and essential when RE is declining as a subject in secondary schools.

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This research article explores how two English universities with Anglican foundations responded to UK government requirements to counter radicalization on campus. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with student union representatives, senior staff in the universities responsible for implementing the legal requirements and also those with special responsibility for religion. Christian foundation education institutions are required to implement government policy in response to visible radical and religious extremism. The UK higher education context is post-Christian (with lower levels of religious adherence) and post-secular (with greater plurality and greater prominence of controversial religious-related issues). It presents challenges for Christian university identity when meeting the complex concerns about dangers to students, university independence and free speech, and common values and public accountability. The research found that key to universities being able to respond effectively to the challenge of legal compliance and student welfare, was staff expertise in religion, but they have doubts about their capacity to respond effectively, and both staff and students have fears about this policy.

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"School involvement in government initiatives to combat radicalisation is an international phenomena, in the UK government has focused on the role of the teacher in detecting radicalisation through the Teachers’ Standards of 2012, the Counter Terrorism Act 2015 and the activation of Prevent in 2011. The Prevent Duty has been described as a geographical pre-crime space characterised by surveillance, risk, fear and the notion of the pre-criminal. This article explores the way teachers understand their practice in this pre-crime space. The data discussed in this study is part of a larger study that interrogates the way teachers approach the teaching of Islam in schools. This article reports on a series of dialogical interviews and analyses the way 57 teachers with a particular responsibility for Religious Education have negotiated this new role. It argues that teachers commonly situate their practice in relation to Prevent in the context of a safeguarding agenda and that most legitimise their role through the employment of a discourse of vulnerability. The research suggests that the ways teachers approach issues of extremism in the classroom is in part informed by their existing views on racism, social class and political ideologies."

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"Introduction: Nearly all community-based dementia care studies employ either qualitative methods or use a combination of self-report questionnaire within mixed-methods research designs. Physiological measures, however, are rarely used in community-based studies with this population yet could provide valuable biological information for specific activities across the course of the dementias. Method: The study employed a within-subjects design to assess the feasibility of obtaining physiological measures (salivary cortisol and Heart Rate Variability (HRV)) alongside subjective measures of wellbeing and stress using Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) during two community-based activiti of choral singing and art viewing, respectively, for People With Dementia (PWD) in the early to middle stages of impairment and their caregivers. Results: As anticipated, pre-post subjective wellbeing measures were relatively easy to complete by PWD and caregivers with no substantive difficulties observed or reported; significant increases in composite wellbeing, happiness and optimism were found. Continuous measurement of physiological data of HRV through a sensor-based device (Empatica® E4) was also found to be neither non-intrusive to participants nor disruptive to the interventions. Preliminary indications showed, for example, HRV significantly increased for PWD during choral singing, which may be associated with an increase in wellbeing. Measuring stress hormones through pre-post saliva samples, however, encountered several difficulties. Conclusions: The findings provide support for the feasibility of using non-intrusive sensor-based physiological measures alongside subjective measures for this population. Subjective measures may also give more confidence in interpreting directionality of physiological measures. A full pilot study is warranted to further investigate interactions of physiological and psychological variables in choral singing and viewing art activities but it is uncertain whether measuring stress hormones through saliva collection is feasible for this population and raised doubts about their use in a large scale trial. Holding particular promise is the use of sensor-based technology across different stages of dementia as well as across different activities."

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This chapter argues that it is a positivist knowledge paradigm that is the main threat to learning in Christian Education. An alternative in the form of critical realism is offered.

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An exploration of the significance of the use of the term worldview in the recent report from the Commission on Religious Education (England)

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A reflection on the notion of worldview as introduced in the Commission on RE Report published in September 2018.

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"Drawing on data from a survey conducted among 9,810 young people in England, Scotland, and Wales, this study examines parental and peer influence on church attendance among 2146 13- to 15-year-old students who identified themselves as Catholics. The data suggested that young Catholics who practise their Catholic identity by attending church do so largely because their parents are Catholic churchgoers. Moreover, young Catholic churchgoers are most likely to keep going if both mother and father are Catholic churchgoers. Among this age group of young Catholics both peer support and attending a church school are also significant, but account for little additional variance after taking parental church-going into account. The implication from these findings for a Catholic Church strategy for ministry among children and young people within England, Scotland and Wales is that it may be wise to invest in the education and formation of Catholic parents"

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"Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales functions within a post-secular culture. In the last fifty years, approaches characterised by academic rigour, impartiality, and professionalism have been prioritised. In this post-secular culture, the notion of bricolage aptly describes how some young people seek meaning, explore the spiritual dimension of life, with fragmented understandings of, experiences and encounters with the religious traditions. his paper draws on data from an empirical research project involving 350 students, to explore why students in ten Christian-ethos secondary schools in England and Wales recognised Religious Education (RE) as a significant contributor to their spiritual development. The analysis is illuminated by employing Roebben's (2009) concept of a narthical learning space (NLS) as the lens with which to examine young people’s experiences. Three aspects of RE are explored: the debating of existential questions; opportunities to theologise and reflect; and encounters with the beliefs, practices, and opinions of others. This article argues that the concept of RE as a narthical learning space alongside the notion of young people as spiritual bricoleurs illuminates how the students in this study interpret the contribution of RE to their spiritual development."

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This chapter is derived from research prompted by the development of counter terrorist legislation in the UK designed to prevent radicalisation and extremism that requires teachers and schools to act in new and different ways. The data discussed in this chapter is part of a larger research project that is exploring the ways schools are responding to the duties placed upon them by the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (HMO 2015). Data generated through the research suggests that student teachers’ induction experiences are highly varied in relation to the Prevent Duty. This has significant implications for the ways in which student teachers conceptualise their role in relation to their students, and the ways in which student teachers conceptualise their relationship with subject knowledge relating to radicalisation and extremism. It also has significant implications for student teachers’ opportunity to observe."

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This article attempts to do three things: the first is an exploration of the ways in which Islam is presented in an essentialist way (with a focus on Religious Education (RE) in England and Wales), leading to stereotypes and unsubstantiated generalisations. Secondly, it provides a critique of essentialism, and finally a case is made for the role of hermeneutics in the teaching and learning of Islam

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" Disagreements about how Christianity should be taught in state-funded school RE have a long history. In this article we take England as a case study and examine the debates that have arisen about the legitimacy of a theologically-based pedagogy following the publication of Understanding Christianity, a resource inspired by recent developments in academic theological hermeneutics. We particularly focus on the question whether or not pupils should be treated as insiders or outsiders. Drawing on Anthony Thiselton’s notion of responsible hermeneutics, we argue that this offers a robust model for an academically rigorous approach to teaching Christianity in schools that enables pupils to be both insiders and outsiders in the hermeneutical process. We then illustrate how Understanding Christianity has attempted to embody this aspiration."

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This study argues that it is the collective worldview of the students which is crucial in reflecting and shaping the ethos of schools. In order to understand the potential distinctiveness of Christian ethos schools two analyses were undertaken. The collective worldview of 2,942 students attending ten Christian ethos schools was compared with the collective worldview of 13,861 students attending 71 schools without a religious character. Then the collective worldview of 194 students attending an Anglican school that prioritised the Church’s ‘domestic’ function in education was compared with the collective worldview of 302 students attending an Anglican school that prioritised the Church’s ‘general’ function in education. The major difference occurs not between Christian ethos schools and schools without a religious character, but between Anglican schools that voice their interpretation of the Church’s mission in education differently

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Tolerance is arguably both morally ambiguous and politically essential. School leaders in England have an obligation and a legal requirement: to encourage acceptance of difference and diversity, declare in public terms, that which is unacceptable and that which, though disputable, objectionable, unpopular or disliked, is part of the permitted remit of democratic plural society. In this chapter, I shall draw mainly from Forst (2013) and Brown (2006) as leading examples of those who critically engage tolerance, and as writers who have debated with each other (Blasi and Holzhey, 2014). Brown (2006) argues that tolerance is shackled by contexts in which unbalanced power relations inevitably taint its exercise but Forst suggests it is vital to a liberal and democratic system that maximizes freedom and limits prohibition wherever possible (Forst, 2013). A critical approach to promoting values in schools in England requires a nuanced understanding of both.

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"An investigation into [perceptions of] the features of Christian foundation universities’ Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes that are particular to the university’s Christian foundation. We are grateful to the Cathedrals Group of Universities and Colleges, for funding the first stage of this project and the Church of England University and College Fund for funding the second stage, through grant funding. This report contains the outcomes of the research which took place between November 2016 and January 2018. A separate document, What really matters about teacher education at Cathedrals Group universities and college? Volume 2: The Case Studies, provides profiles of the findings from the five different institutions. This is the substantive report. The aims: 1. To investigate why ITE trainees choose Christian foundation university teacher training programmes 2. To investigate why schools choose Christian foundation universities as training programme partners 3. To investigate what Christian foundation universities claim is particular to their Christian foundation, what is particularly or deeply Christian about their ITE provision with a focus on: • the underpinning values • the content and methodology of ITE training • how trainees are supported and challenged in the partnership aspects 4. To investigate what Christian foundation universities, ITE trainees and partnership schools claim about ITE trainees at the point of qualification, that is particular to the institutions’ Christian foundation."

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"The case studies show insight into the extent that there is a shared understanding between schools, students and staff members in some of England’s oldest providers of teacher education in England. Is there something particular about that provision? Could it be described as distinctively, implicitly or explicitly Christian? Is there a sense of shared thinking about the answers to these questions in the provision of teacher education and the students, university tutors and school staff members who partner with these universities to educate the next generation of teachers? This document provides five answers to those questions. The answers are snapshots of the perception of teacher education at these universities, at a time when teacher education has become a major purpose of schools, and universities have found themselves being questioned and challenged about their role in the development of new teachers."

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"This article draws on three sources of evidence that together indicate hermeneutical weaknesses in exam courses on Christianity in English Religious Education (RE). It scrutinizes a single exam paper and an associated text book from a recent authorized course. It conceptually explores features of a new style of long Religious Studies (RS) exam question that is commonly set for the majority of students studying for a RS qualification at 15-16 years old. It combines these documentary sources with a focus group interview of teachers in the first year of teaching the new GCSE Religious Studies. The findings from the document analysis, conceptual analysis and focus group interview, together concur that there is a problem related to the use of fragmentary texts and the promotion of a particularly propositional conception of religion. These features are structured in by systemic elements. A small proportion of students follow text-based GCSE routes include a more detailed study of Biblical texts but the majority of 15-16-year-old students do not and so are exposed to this problem. These weaknesses could be ‘designed out’ of exams with smarter questions and mitigated against by curriculum content that specified the study of how texts are interpreted, as well as teacher expertise in the teaching and practice of hermeneutics"

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Since the London July bombings of 2005 there has been a proliferation of policy, web resources, guidelines and textbooks designed to support the way schools address extremism and radicalisation. This rapid growth in materials is prompted not just by the horror of the event but also by the realisation that the perpetrators were ‘home grown bombers’. That is the suicide bombers involved in the attack were the recipients of a conventional British education. This realisation was in part responsible for the turn towards education as an integral part of the government’s strategy to fight the spread of extremism reflected in, among other measures, the 2015 Anti-Terrorism Act, the Prevent duty and the 2012 Teachers’ Standards. The focus on schools is also a result of an awareness that ‘hard power’ approaches to fighting extremism: military intervention, incarceration and punitive action are not always effective (Aly et al, 2014; Ghosh et al, 2016). The use of ‘soft power’, initiatives: strategies designed to win hearts and minds, cultural incentives and education, and the turn toward resilience as a key strategy to prevent extremism are usually framed as pedagogies that may help teachers and pupils counter anti liberal narratives of intolerance, violence, hate and extremism. This chapter argues that the very strategies recommended by guidelines are often illiberal because they articulate an impoverished understanding of liberal practices and because of the ‘emptied out’ nature of many liberal traditions.

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In a quasi-experimental design (N = 80), this study examined the wellbeing impact of handling museum artefacts, by testing for differences across domain, time, gender and stages of dementia. Results indicated people with early and moderate impairment showed positive increases in wellbeing, regardless of the type of dementia but those with early-stage dementia showed larger positive increases in wellbeing. We can feel confident that for most people with early to middle stage dementia, handling museum objects in a supportive group environment, increases subjective wellbeing and should be considered part of a health promotion strategy in dementia care.

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This study aimed to create a measure of risk for gang affiliation, for use in the UK. A pilot stage invited gang affiliated and non-gang affiliated participants between the ages of 16–25 years to retrospectively self-report on 58 items of risk exposure at the age of 11 years. Based on performance of these items, a 26-item measure was developed and administered to a main study sample (n=185) of gang affiliated and non-gang affiliated participants. Categorical Principal Component Analysis was applied to data, yielding a single-factor solution (historic lack of safety and current perception of threat). A 15-item gang affiliation risk measure (GARM) was subsequently created. The GARM demonstrated good internal consistency, construct validity and discriminative ability. Items from the GARM were then transformed to read prospectively, resulting in a test measure for predictive purposes (T-GARM). The T-GARM requires further validation regarding its predictive utility and generalisability. However, this study has resulted in the first measure of gang affiliation, with promising results.

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This chapter reviews the suggestion in a recent influential report that there are three approaches to religion in education - instruction, formation and education - of which only the third is legitimate in publicly-funded educational institutions. The chapter challenges this suggestion, arguing that the the distinction between education and formation is invalid and the contrast is between formation that is based on instruction or formation that is educational in character.

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The report from the Ten Leading Schools research project run by the National Institute for Christian Education Research. This book documents the results of three weeks' ethnographic research in each of the ten schools featured.

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The article interprets changes in human rights education in English school policy on values which have increasingly been framed by PREVENT and a move from international to national expressions of values. It reveals the extent of the impact and nature of this change on human rights education in school policy for the first time. It reports changes from minimal to maximal expectations compounded by an increased focus of school performance. It broadly illustrates the extent to which values are politically framed and significantly how recently ‘sudden’ political changes in the United Kingdom can be seen as part of a change trend which is almost 10 years old. It draws on Schwartz’s theoretical structure of values, Baxi’s conceptualisation of rights and Lohrenscheit’s notion of learning about and learning for human rights as these, respectively, reveal conceptual clarity in values, human rights and pedagogy.

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Government policies for teachers and schools in England promote values including tolerance of faiths and beliefs alongside law keeping, democracy and respect. Tolerance of faiths has been highlighted as a key value but complexities around tolerance make interpretations and applications of the policy difficult. Policy documents in this area are inevitably interpreted through the context of events and concerns and with the education accountability culture as a driving motivation. In addition, insights from leading scholarly treatments of tolerance raise further difficulties of conceptual clarity and moral worth. One treatment critiques tolerance discourses as sustaining unequal power relationships. Another posits tolerance as reciprocal respect necessary in a democracy. A key claim in the article is that teachers and school leaders are left to resolve difficulties in translating tolerance policy into practice with the threat of sanction through inspection and associated processes. The article identifies for the first time an additional specific danger that the context of this policy simplifies complex factors by compressing concerns about a number of issues into single category of the value of tolerance of religion. While tolerance of religion is necessary in plural liberal democracies, emphasizing religion contributes to a reification that religion is the determining identity criteria of concern which may have the unintended consequence of polarising interests and communities.

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This chapter reviews research carried out since 2000 that identifies weaknesses in the teaching of the Bible in English schools. Religious Education (RE) lessons are not encouraging students to read the Bible wisely. This is important and significant because RE in England has changed to focus more sharply on the study of religion at examination level (DfE, 2015). That new policy could amplify existing weaknesses unless changes are made to address the issues identified. Hermeneutics, as exemplified by the Protestant scholars Thiselton, Wright and Ford, as well as official Catholic documents, offer insights into wiser explorations of the Bible. Educationalists offer similar insights around the place of interpretation in education. This chapter identifies, for the first time, the striking degree of consistency around hermeneutics and interpretation between important and influential theological and educational writers in faith and education contexts. It concludes by asking whether it is time for a more radical change to RE that moves away from studying religion and towards studying wisdom texts. It considers Understanding Christianity’s focus on ‘virtuous readers’ (Pett, 2016, pp.42-43) as an illustration of one response to the issues identified.

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In requiring that teachers should ‘not undermine fundamental British values (FBV)’, a phrase originally articulated in the Home Office counter-terrorism document, Prevent, the Teachers’ Standards has brought into focus the nature of teacher professionalism. Teachers in England are now required to promote FBV within and outside school, and, since the publication of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act of 2015 and the White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’, are required to prevent pupils from being drawn towards radicalisation. School practices in relation to the promotion of British values are now subject to OfSTED inspection under the Common Inspection Framework of 2015. The research presented here considers the policy and purpose of appraisal in such new times, and engages with 48 school leaders from across the education sector to reveal issues in emerging appraisal practices. Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of Liquid Modernity is used to fully understand the issues and dilemmas that are emerging in new times and argue that fear and ‘impermanence’ are key characteristics of the way school leaders engage with FBV

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In this article we seek to problematize the presence of the requirement within the teachers’ standards (DfE, 2012), that they ‘should not undermine fundamental British values’ in the context of initial teacher education in England. The inclusion of this statement within the teachers’ code of conduct has made its way from the counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent and raises questions about Britishness, values and the relationship between the state and the profession more generally. We argue that the inclusion of the phrase within a statutory document that regulates the profession is de facto a politicization of the profession by the state thereby instilling the expectation that teachers are state instruments of surveillance. The absence of any wider debate around the inclusion of the statement is also problematic as is the lack of training for pre-service and in-service teachers since it means this concept of fundamental British values is unchallenged and its insidious racialising implications are unrecognised by most teachers.

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In England Church schools seek to express Christian values. They are also obliged by UK government policy, the law, and inspection frameworks, to support fundamental British values. This project sought to find out more about how schools managed and related these two things — how school leaders in schools and academies with a Christian character, negotiate fundamental British values and Christian values in the life of their schools. How do they respond to the dual expectation of cultivating an educational philosophy and ethos that is reflective of or inspired by Christian values, and also supportive of fundamental British values? How do they make sense of these distinctive ideas? Are they viewed as complementary or are their tensions?

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Background: Several studies have supported the efficacy and predictive utility of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen 1991) in explaining a variety of behaviours including physical activity. However, the relative contribution of the theory’s components in describing intention and behaviour may differ depending on the context, time and population being studied. Such evidence is necessary to inform exercise advice and interventions aimed at pregnant women. Conclusion: The study supports the TPB as a relevant conceptual framework for the investigation of exercise intentions and behaviours during pregnancy. PBC carried slightly more weight in explaining behaviour than did intention thereby suggesting that exercise during pregnancy is not a behaviour that is under women’s complete volitional control. Intention to exercise was influenced primarily by expectant mothers’ beliefs about the positive and negative consequences of doing so. Contrary to previous meta-analytic reports in the exercise domain, this study supported the relevance of subjective norm as a construct to investigate exercise intentions and behaviour in a pregnant population. The perceived social pressure to conform to other people’s opinion about physical activity during pregnancy may well be an important consideration for pregnant women. These findings present both researchers and practitioners with an opportunity for intervention and further research.

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Neuropsychological evidence proposes that touch, a key sense that becomes more important as people age, may invoke a sense of wellbeing through being linked to emotional and motivational systems in the brain. The present study examined the impact of handling museum objects in small groups of participants with dementia (Alzheimer’s (n = 37), vascular (n = 24), frontotemporal (n = 4), mixed-types (n = 13) and HIV-related (n = 2)). The main research question enquired if handling museum objects could enhance wellness, happiness, interestedness, confidence and optimism. Sub-questions investigated the role of aesthetic experience on object handling and sought to understand the relationship between aesthetic experience and wellbeing at 2 different dementia stages. Eighty participants (53 males) (range 54 - 89 years, M = 74.81) took part. Measures: pre post administration of the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales and audio-recorded sessions, the latter subject to content analysis. Parametric tests showed significant improvement in overall wellbeing (t(76) = -9.79, p <.001 d = .77). Participants reported higher levels of wellbeing at Time2 (M = 405.68; S.D. = 76.25) than at Time1 (M = 347.86; S.D. = 74.62). Differences in wellbeing were also demonstrated by testing the effects of gender and dementia stage in a 2 x 2 x 2 mixed-design ANOVA. Content analysis revealed aesthetically ‘unpleasing’ objects produced as many verbally fluid responses as those considered ‘pleasing’. The results confirm that brief interactions with museum objects can impact wellbeing and challenges the common conception that reminiscence-focused activities, rather than those that consider aesthetic experience, should be the norm for art-based dementia activities.

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The research team spent a year working alongside fourteen teachers from Catholic and Church of England secondary school, introducing them to What If Learning, a pedagogical initiative designed by an international team of educationalists to support teachers in developing Christian approaches to teaching and learning. The highs and lows of the teachers' experience are documented in this book and the lessons that emerge are explored in detail

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The report of the DfE funded research project on character development in Church of England schools conducted by the National Institute for Christian Education Research.

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Case studies of four schools' contributions to the "What if Learning" Character Education Project run by the National Institute for Christian Education Research.

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Literature review focused on faith nurture of children in Christian families

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This chapter weaves together several elements around the question of how public education should teach students about sacred texts. The first element is education research since 2000, which raises critical questions about an undue emphasis on the use of proof texts in exams. This emphasis distorts the impression given of the role of sacred texts in religion. The second element which illustrates the degree of variance is a recounted experience of using Ignatian spiritual exercises with secondary age students. This involved deep learning and encounter with a sacred narrative, and contrasts radically with the utilisation of texts in external exams. Methods of experiential religious education (hereafter RE) which had come to focus in the 1990s had sought to respiritualise the study of sacred texts in British RE, and there were clearly attempts in the 1980s and 1990s to develop a different educative approach in schools. These observations about curriculum development in RE constitute a kind of classroom participatory turn similar to that observed in university studies of religion and spirituality. This turn challenges norms in academic learning and offers important insights into the developments in school studies. Questions to do with the nature of the study of religion and sacred texts and the kind of learning that is privileged seem pertinent across the university/school boundaries

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This book addresses the question of human rights education in a world that is witnessing a resurgence of religion in public life, and a continuation of religion across much of the globe, long after secularization theories predicted its decline. Promoting a universal vision of human rights while acknowledging religious diversity is a challenge for schools. This book starts with the basic premise that human rights are grounded in a belief in the dignity and ultimate worth of the human person. Drawing on key philosophical and theological sources for understanding dignity, it builds a vision of human rights and religious education that seeks to square the impossible circle of universal human rights education in a religiously diverse world.

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Oxford A Level Religious Studies for OCR is a brand new course developed by renowned authors Libby Ahluwalia and Robert Bowie for the 2016 OCR specification. This textbook supports a deep engagement with philosophy, ethics and the study of Christianity using language and an approach accessible to all students. Key terms are clearly defined, and case studies and scenarios are used to give students a practical understanding of key theories and how they might be applied to the big ethical and philosophical questions of the day. The book includes a section on 'Developments in Christian Thought' to support the new requirement for a systematic study of a religious tradition. There is also dedicated support for developing students' essay-writing skills, as well as revision summaries and practice questions to ensure students feel prepared for their exam.

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Several studies have supported the efficacy and predictive utility of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) in explaining a variety of behaviours including physical activity. However, the relative contribution of the theory’s components in describing intention and behaviour may differ depending on the context, time and population being studied. Such evidence is necessary to inform exercise advice and interventions aimed at pregnant women. The purpose of this study was therefore to review the existing literature surrounding the application of the TPB in explaining exercise intentions and behaviour during pregnancy and to evaluate the magnitude of relationships between TPB constructs within this context. Multiple search strategies yielded 99 potentially relevant studies of which 47 were assessed against the inclusion criteria. Finally, 7 studies, involving 777 pregnant women, were included in the analysis. Relationships identified among TPB constructs were subjected to a random-effects meta-analytic review using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (version 3.0) computer software package. Results confirmed the existence of a medium to strong relationship between intention and behaviour (r = .44, P < .05, R2 = 19.36) and also supported the existence of a direct relationship between behaviour and perceived behavioural control (PBC; r = .45, P < .05, R2 = 20.25). Pregnant women’s attitude (r = .48, P < .05, R2 = 23.04) had the strongest association with their intention to be physically active. However, both PBC (r = .47, P < .05, R2 = 22.09) and subjective norm (r = .42, P < .05, R2 = 17.64) revealed similar relationships with intention. The study supports the TPB as a relevant conceptual framework for the investigation of exercise intentions and behaviours during pregnancy. PBC carried slightly more weight in explaining behaviour than did intention thereby suggesting that exercise during pregnancy is not a behaviour that is under women’s complete volitional control. Intention to exercise was influenced primarily by expectant mothers’ beliefs about the positive and negative consequences of doing so. Contrary to previous meta-analytic reports in the exercise domain, this study supported the relevance of subjective norm as a construct to investigate exercise intentions and behaviour in a pregnant population. The perceived social pressure to conform to other people’s opinion about physical activity during pregnancy may well be an important consideration for pregnant women. These findings present both researchers and practitioners with an opportunity for intervention and further research.

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This mixed-method study investigated the impact of a community group singing project on the psychological well-being of school children in the London area. Self rated measures of psychological well-being and identity as a singer were administered to 60 children aged 7–11 at three time points. A teacher-rated measure of psychological difficulties was also administered. Finally, a sample of children sharing their experience of the project in focus groups and music teacher interviews were carried out. Quantitative data did not confirm the hypothesis that choir members’ psychological well-being would increase following participation in the singing project; however, qualitative data provided evidence for a range of beneficial outcomes for participating children. Although group singing appears to be a positive experience for children who participate, findings suggest that the impact may be subtle for children with high levels of psychological well-being.

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Lichtenberger and Kaufman (2009, p. 167) defined unitary ability as ‘an ability […] that is represented by a cohesive set of scaled scores, each reflecting slightly different or unique aspects of the ability’. Flanagan and Kaufman (2009) and Lichtenberger and Kaufman (2012) used a difference of 23 IQ points between the highest score (Max) and the lowest score (Min) obtained by a subject in the four Indexes of the WAIS-IV to define unitarity of the total IQ score. A similar method has been used to assess the unitary ability of the four Indexes, with a threshold of 5 points. Such difference scores (of 23 for IQ and 5 for Indexes) are considered high and infrequent and the authors therefore conclude that the corresponding Full-Scale IQ score or Index score is uninterpretable. In this paper we argue that these thresholds are inappropriate because they are based on the wrong standard deviation. The main aim of this study was to establish variability thresholds for IQ and the WAIS-IV Indexes for the American standardization sample and to compare these thresholds with those for the Italian standardization sample. We also consider an alternative approach to determining whether an IQ score represents a unitary ability, based on the maximum difference score for the 10 core subtests that contribute to Full-Scale IQ scores.

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Dementia is a progressive disease characterized by a widespread impairment of mental functioning including cognitive skills. Research has suggested that the arts can have positive effects in terms of physical and mental health for people with dementia. The present study sought to identify the impact of art-making and art-viewing activities, within the context of a publicly accessible art gallery, on verbal fluency and memory. Thirteen participants diagnosed with early to mid-stage dementia participated, along with their caregivers, in 8-week long art-viewing and art-making groups at an art gallery in the United Kingdom. Audio recordings of sessions were transcribed and analysed using quantitative content analysis. Findings suggested that the interventions described did not negatively affect cognitive ability in the dimensions measured and the data hints that improvements are possible. The results provide support for further controlled studies examining the impact of visual art, aesthetics, and art gallery-based programmes on cognition in people with dementia. Further research is required to address the methodological limitations presented in the current study.

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Introduction: Previous research has shown that people with dementia and caregivers derive wellbeing-related benefits from viewing art in a group, and that facilitated museum object handling is effective in increasing subjective wellbeing for people with a range of health conditions. The present study quantitatively compared the impact of two museum-based activities and a social activity on the subjective wellbeing of people with dementia and their caregivers. Methods: A quasi-experimental crossover design was used. People with early to middle stage dementia and caregivers (N = 66) participated in museum object handling, a refreshment break and art-viewing in small groups. Visual analogue scales were used to rate subjective wellbeing pre and post each activity. Results: Mixed-design ANOVAs indicated wellbeing significantly increased during the session, irrespective of the order in which the activities were presented. Wellbeing significantly increased from object-handling and art-viewing for those with dementia and caregivers across pooled orders, but did not in the social activity of a refreshment break. An end-of-intervention questionnaire indicated that experiences of the session were positive. Conclusion: Results provide a rationale for considering museum activities as part of a broader psychosocial, relational approach to dementia care and support the use of easy to administer visual analogue scales as a quantitative outcome measure. Further partnership working is also supported between museums and healthcare professionals in the development of non-clinical, community-based programmes for this population."

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"Background: Art-based interventions have been shown to be beneficial for the wellbeing of people with dementia and their caregivers. This paper explored whether such interventions can be delivered via a touchscreen tablet device displaying art images. Methods: Twelve pairs of volunteers with dementia and informal caregivers were recruited. A quasi-experimental mixed-methods within-subjects study evaluated the wellbeing impacts of art viewing using visual analogue scales and explored participant experiences with thematic analysis. Findings: Quantitative results showed a significant effect for change in composite wellbeing from session one to session five. Wellbeing subdomains showed impact on wellbeing, which generally increased with number of sessions. Qualitative findings included changes in cognition, behaviour, mood and relationships. These changes tended to be viewed positively. Conclusions: The results suggest touchscreen-based art interventions could yield wellbeing benefits for this population. A larger-scale controlled study would help to determine whether wider dementia care practice implications can be drawn."

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This retrospective mirror-image observational study aimed to establish the effects of the long-acting antipsychotic injection paliperidone palmitate (PP) on acute inpatient hospitalization rates. We utilized routinely collected clinical data to compare the number and length of acute patient admissions 1 year before and 1 year after initiation of PP. A single cohort of 66 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and who had received monthly injections of PP for at least 1 year were included in the analysis. The mean number of acute inpatient admissions fell from 0.86 in the year before PP initiation to 0.23 in the following year (P=0.001), and there was a numerical but nonsignificant decrease in the number of bed days from 32.48 to 31.22 over the study duration. The median number of bed days in the year before PP initiation was 20, and in the year after initiation it was 0. The median number of admissions also fell from 1 to 0 during the same period. The results of the study should be treated cautiously because of the limitations of the study design but suggest that patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who continue treatment with PP over 12 months experience a significant reduction in hospital admissions compared with the previous year.

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What If Learning is an approach to help teachers re-frame teaching and learning to support the Christian ethos of a school. This paper presents the findings of research carried out with 14 teachers, in three state funded church secondary schools in England. The findings provide an important insight into teachers’ pedagogic practice. The paper concludes that teachers’ assumptions about knowledge, pedagogy and theology are filtered through their prior assumptions about what it means to teach ‘Christianly’ and also by assumptions about pedagogy embedded within English education policy. What If Learning required them to re-frame their practice in the light of Christian worldview and even though they were teaching in church schools this was the first time some of the participants had experienced this

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"People with severe mental illness have significantly poorer physical health compared to the general population; previous health screening studies conducted outside Asian countries have demonstrated the potential in addressing this issue. This case series aimed to explore the effects and utility of integrating an enhanced physical health screening programme for community dwelling patients with severe mental illness into routine clinical practice in Hong Kong. This study utilises a consecutive prospective case series design. The serious mental illness Health Improvement Profile (HIP) was used as a screening tool at baseline and repeated at 12 months follow-up. A total of 148 community-based patients with severe mental illness completed the study. At one year follow-up analysis showed a significant improvement in self-reported levels of exercise and a reduction in the numbers of patients prescribed medications for diabetes However, mean waist circumference increased at follow-up. In addition to the statistically significant results some general trends were observed, including: a lack of deterioration in most areas of cardiovascular risk; a reduction in medicines prescribed for physical health problems; and general improvements in health behaviours over the 12 month period. The findings demonstrate that using the HIP is feasible and acceptable in Hong Kong. The results of the enhanced physical health-screening programme are promising, but require further testing using a randomised controlled trial design in order to more confidently attribute the improvements in well-being and health behaviours to the HIP. "

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Flanagan and Kaufman (2009) use a difference of 23 IQ points between the highest score (Max) and the lowest score (Min) reported by subjects in the 4 Indexes of Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed to define unitarity of IQ in the WISC-IV. Such a difference in scores is considered very rare and the authors, therefore, conclude that the total IQ scores in these cases cannot be interpreted. Hereby, we want to argue against the choice of this cut-off threshold value by showing that it was based on the wrong standard deviation value when first computed.

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Journal of Beliefs and Values. 35 (1), pp. 86-89

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A critical response to Sean Whittle's article in the same volume in which he is very critical of the approach to Christian pedagogy associated with Cooling and Smith.

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A study of the role of the Bible in Christian learning

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A discussion of approaches to religious diversity in Christian schools

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International UN declarations link dignity to equality as foundational ideas. They then connect dignity to education in the vision of education expressed those declarations and documents. Dignity is also a concept much debated in current literature in law, medicine, philosophy and theology. It is an idea rarely explored directly in educational literature. This paper explores an application of contextual conceptual analysis to the 'dignity discourses' that offer insights and clarify challenges in navigating the intersections between key groups that have baring on educational settings. The method of contextual concept analysis was developed in a doctoral thesis in human rights education (Bowie 2011), and in this paper this method is applied to current and recent dignity literature. The focus is the work of two scholars: First, George Katab (2011) and the idea dignity links status and stature of present human life, however unequally endowed with talent, with a view to future human beings through a serious engagement with those of the past; Second, Jeremy Waldron with his 2009 Tanner lectures that argued from a juridical perspective to retain a connection between dignity and rank. Education is an exercise in hope in the future, with an enquiring eye to the learning of the past. It is frequently predicated on a presumed equality of opportunity for all rather than rank or status, though educational structures may be permeated with inequality and status. How different groups perceive future flourishing differ and this difference requires negotiation in any common educational enterprise.

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The idea of a human rights Church school raises challenges from (at least) two opposing quarters. The ardent secularist will doubt a Church school can be a human rights school, as Church denotes a theological moral framework that does not accord with (secular) human rights. A Christian who opposes the language of human rights being drawn into the Christian ethos will oppose the human rights Church school as not being Christian enough. Ergo the human rights Church school cannot have a satisfactorily human rights ethos (for the secularist) or satisfactorily Church ethos (for the Christian). This paper challenges both of these arguments as failing to truly represent the interconnectedness of Christian and human rights thought and action, and further it suggests the human rights Church school is an example of a particular school for the common good, also disrupting some assumptions about common schooling and schools of a religious character.

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"The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III Edition is the most commonly used intelligence test for children in Italy. Differences in parents' educational levelswere analysed for the WISC-III Italian standardization sample of 2200 children ranging from six to sixteen years of age. Data analyses were carried out on scaled scores for the subtests, on IQ scores for the three IQs, on the Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, Freedom from Distractibility, Processing Speed Indexes, and on the General Ability Index. Results showed that, while parental influence on children's subtests, IQs, Indexes and GAI is independent of the parent's gender, it varies as a function of the parent's level of education with a higher level of education having the highest influence. These results may be in agreement with those researchers that consider parental education more important than the parents' gender as a source of influence on the cognitive performance of their children. We find statistically significant differences for each subtest, IQ, and Index in relation to parental education, with higher scores associated to a higher level of parental education. Performance IQ seems less sensible to parental education than Verbal IQ."

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A supportive, critical response to Thiessen's book on the ethics of evangelism.

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