RELG13001 - Contemporary Meanings and Religious Texts

General Information

Unit Synopsis

In this unit, pre-service teachers in the Catholic Education strand of the Bachelor of Education courses prepare for pedagogical roles in the teaching of Religion in Catholic schools. You will build professional knowledge of approaches to reading and interpreting religious texts that recognise the relationship between these texts and the cultural, historical and social contexts in which they were constructed. You will reflect on the guidance provided by official documents to explain how frameworks can be utilised to assist contemporary learners to construct meaning from Scripture. In addition, you will make connections between contemporary meanings of religious texts and the rationale, aims and content of curriculum learning areas that focus on personal and social development and wellbeing (HPE) and human expression of culture and spirituality (The Arts) for the purpose of implementing curriculum that is inclusive, engaging and purposeful for students from diverse social, cultural and religious backgrounds. You will apply your knowledge of reading and interpreting religious texts to select and justify resources and strategies for teaching a parable or miracle that model inclusive practices. A focus of this process will be to explore religious perspectives, values and beliefs with learners from diverse social and cultural backgrounds in a chosen level of primary schooling (early, middle or upper primary year levels).

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 1
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2024

Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 50%
2. Written Assessment 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 30.43% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student evaluations
Feedback
Clarify the links between the learning activities and assessment tasks
Recommendation
Explicitly identify how weekly content contributes to the knowledge, understanding and skills required to complete the assessment tasks.
Action Taken
Explicit links were made between the learning materials and unit assessment
Source: Student emails
Feedback
Excellent support from the lecturer
Recommendation
Maintain high levels of support and communication with students
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Interesting content and engaging, interactive tutorials
Recommendation
Maintain content and high quality teaching practices
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Explain ways in which interpretation methods for religious texts make their meaning accessible for contemporary audiences
  2. Identify relationships between contemporary meanings of Scripture and the rationale, aims and content of curriculum learning areas that focus on human expression, personal and social development and wellbeing
  3. Select and justify resources that actively engage learners in understanding the contexts, symbolism and messages of religious texts
  4. Select strategies for interpreting religious texts with contemporary learners from a diverse range of linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds
  5. Reflect on the support provided by official documents and sources of professional learning for teachers in Catholic schools.

Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:

1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students

1.2 Understand how students learn

1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds

1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities

2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

2.2 Content selection and organisation

2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies

3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

3.3 Use teaching strategies

3.4 Select and use resources

3.5 Use effective classroom communication

3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs

6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities

Outcomes combine these standards with the knowledge and understanding required to be eligible for accreditation to teach in a Catholic school.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Written Assessment • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Communication • • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10