A Catholic View of Learning and Teaching
Four core themes are central to the School Religious Education Program: Anthropology, Epistemology, Cosmology and the Catholic Christian Tradition.
Catholic View of Christian Anthropology
A foundational question for curriculum relates to beliefs about the human person. Anthropology explores such questions as, ‘Who are we?’ ‘What is our destiny?’ Every facet of curriculum is a manifestation of certain assumptions about the human person (Queensland Catholic Education Commission, 2008). A Catholic view of Christian anthropology is centred on the person of Jesus.
It recognises each person is created in the image of God. It emphasises Jesus as teacher whose Spirit infuses the whole curriculum with a hope-filled vision of life. It is characterised by inclusion, holistic and relational learning, and action in community.
Catholic Perspective on Epistemology
Epistemology is concerned with the act and nature of knowing. Epistemology explores such questions as, ‘How do we know?’ ‘Is all knowledge relative?’ ‘Are there best ways of communicating knowledge?
Catholic Understanding of Cosmology
Cosmology relates to how we understand our place in the universe and the choices we make to live within the integrity of creation. Through the elements of stewardship and sacramentality, Catholic Christians are called to respond to questions like: ‘What is our place in the universe?’ ‘ How do we live within the integrity of creation?’
Catholic Christian Story and Tradition
Of the ninety times Jesus is addressed directly in the Gospels, sixty times he was called ‘Teacher’. This was how the disciples referred to him. Jesus himself used the term when he said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). From the very beginning of Christianity, the Christian community has been engaged in teaching. The person of the teacher is integral to the project of teaching, for as Paul VI reminds us:
Modern [people] listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if [they] do listen to teachers it is because they are witnesses (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975, n.41).
Catholic View of Christian Anthropology
A foundational question for curriculum relates to beliefs about the human person. Anthropology explores such questions as, ‘Who are we?’ ‘What is our destiny?’ Every facet of curriculum is a manifestation of certain assumptions about the human person (Queensland Catholic Education Commission, 2008). A Catholic view of Christian anthropology is centred on the person of Jesus.
It recognises each person is created in the image of God. It emphasises Jesus as teacher whose Spirit infuses the whole curriculum with a hope-filled vision of life. It is characterised by inclusion, holistic and relational learning, and action in community.
Catholic Perspective on Epistemology
Epistemology is concerned with the act and nature of knowing. Epistemology explores such questions as, ‘How do we know?’ ‘Is all knowledge relative?’ ‘Are there best ways of communicating knowledge?
Catholic Understanding of Cosmology
Cosmology relates to how we understand our place in the universe and the choices we make to live within the integrity of creation. Through the elements of stewardship and sacramentality, Catholic Christians are called to respond to questions like: ‘What is our place in the universe?’ ‘ How do we live within the integrity of creation?’
Catholic Christian Story and Tradition
Of the ninety times Jesus is addressed directly in the Gospels, sixty times he was called ‘Teacher’. This was how the disciples referred to him. Jesus himself used the term when he said, “You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am” (John 13:13). From the very beginning of Christianity, the Christian community has been engaged in teaching. The person of the teacher is integral to the project of teaching, for as Paul VI reminds us:
Modern [people] listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if [they] do listen to teachers it is because they are witnesses (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975, n.41).