Research insights: perceived differences about teaching and assessment practices in religious education

This paper discusses educational insights drawn from a mixed-methods study in Religious Education (RE). The study involved 238 teachers and school leaders, working in 65 Catholic schools in Western Australia (WA). The focus of the study was the educators’ perceptions of a large-scale, standardised assessment (LSA) called The Bishops’ Religious Literacy Assessment (BRLA). The assessment is developed by the Catholic Education Office in WA for the purpose of measuring student learning in RE. Students enrolled in Years Three, Five and Nine in Catholic schools across WA participate in the assessment each year in August. The study revealed six themes, two of which are specific to the educators’ perceptions of the administration of the BRLA. The other four themes relate to the perceived nature and role of RE and the use of LSAs in education. The themes signal complexity, based on diverse experiences about teaching and assessment practices in RE. These experiences provide empirical evidence specific to the context of RE as an academic learning area, reserved for the classroom. The evidence is new knowledge that builds on research in RE, identifying existing complexity and challenging, presuppositions and motivations that appear to cause misalignment between policy expectations and school-based practices. Given national interest in education about progressing student learning and the Catholic education agenda about addressing the quality of RE, the new knowledge acts as a springboard for classroom, school and system level dialogue about teaching and assessment practices in RE that can promote progress in student learning in Catholic schools.