Edre515 Paper - 2024 Words

EDRE515 – Assignment 1 The religious education system in Australian Catholic Schools has endured many significant changes since the Second Vatican Council. With reference to Peta Goldburg’s (2012) Transforming religious education: Implications from the Second Vatican Council, the following discussion will review and critique the important religious education approaches that has had an impact on the Catholic schooling system for the past fifty years, and also help shape the contemporary classroom we teach in today. The Catechism Post Vatican II During the first Vatican the catechism was used as a primary source of educating Catholics of Christian faith and doctrines of the church. The catechism consisted of teachings particularly of†¦show more content†¦Although the Kerygmatic approach breathed fresh air in to religious education in the 1960’s, it also had its limitations. Students were suddenly being taught in a new and foreign way to their siblings and parents and therefore assistance and monitoring from home was no longer valuable. â€Å"The salvation story was told in the same order at each year level, beginning with the Hebrew Patriarchs, the Kings and Prophets of Ancient Israel, Jesus Christ, the early Church and the story of the Church up to the present† (M. Ryan, 2012, p. 68). Many students became dis-interested with the same material being presented year after year, and teachers were not suitably prepared to teach scripture and church history. The changes and effects that came from Vatican II undermined the Kerygmatic approach. Theologians wanted to make the catechesis more meaningful, and therefore lessons conducted in a Catholic School would need to relate to the life experiences of its students. Life Experience Catechesis The life experience catechesis also known as anthropological approach was practised in Australian Catholic Schools in the 1970’s. According to M. Ryan (2013) â€Å"Australian Catholic School teachers would be encouraged to teach as Jesus did† (p.69). This approach focussed on a student’s own personal experiences and the collaboration of those experiences with the relation to the Christian way of life. Lessons were conducted in an environment of concern and care with some Catholic Schools