I found some great research papers on learning via Greg Whitby's blog.
There was one article on How People Learn which is really interesting. Everything I read keeps taking me back to Understand by Design principles or even Challenge based learning. This article focuses on the need for students to know the links between the content and its broader application. The main idea is that if students understand the context of the learning they will be more able to apply the learning - which is really what learning is about isnt it?
For example, when it comes to the SOR course it says that students need to be able to "show an appreciate of how society is enhanced by an understanding of religion, its influences on human behaviour and interaction within culture" . BOS SOR
My research is on different understanding of Christianity but the enduring understanding is applicable in all cases when students are learning about cultural/religious understanding. To know something about beliefs you need to engage and learn from people who practice/live these beliefs.
So the idea is that students gain an understanding of how a persons religious beliefs impact on their lived experience.
One key difference between Catholicism and Anglicanism is the notion of salvation and revelation. Catholics, simple put, tend to see salvation as a process of belief and good works. Anglicans believe in the notion of salvation by God's grace alone. These are very different interpretations of the one sacred text.
How then, other than just telling my students, do I support them in understanding this difference. I guess, for me, the bext way is to expose them to the lived experience via the students are NBCS and see what happens. This is where the virtual world comes in.
The challenge for my students is to see what they can learn from others whose life experience of the same faith is based upon different ideas of God.
More reading to do on learning. More enduring understandings to explore. Did I mention I managed to convince my uni lecturer in gifted ed to allow me to do some background research on gifted students use of the internet as my final assessment for the Certificate in Gifted Ed.
One of the things I am still to do is get onto the NBCS Second Life island. I know that this is somethign I will need to master before I set my students up... What did Freud say about doing things that feel good and avoiding things that feel bad. This is my next challenge.
