Students reflect on RE at MDCCE
On Thursday 31st October 2019, fifty-seven students attended voluntarily an event at the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic education (MDCCE). Oisín McLaughlin, a teacher at St. Joseph of Cluny Secondary School in Killiney, Co Dublin, provided Bachelor of Religions Education students with an insight into teaching the new specification for Junior Cycle Religious Education.
The conversation led by Oisín was part of ‘Topical Thursdays’, an initiative of the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education in conjunction with a student committee, looking at the added value that MDCCE can bring to their studies.
This new approach to Religious Education was unrolled in September, at the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year with 1st Year students. Teachers themselves are only learning how best to employ this approach to RE, and to understand how it contributes to the holistic development of the young person envisaged by the Framework for Junior Cycle 2015.
Teaching in a Catholic school, Oisín, who graduated just two years ago with the same degree from DCU, explained his approach to and planning for the new way of understanding second-level Religious Education. He emphasised the mission of the Catholic school, its inclusive nature, and the community that it seeks to create. He encouraged the student teachers who were present to investigate fully the vision and mission of the schools they will be working in during the year, and to consider how best they can connect with the characteristic spirit of the school while they are on placement. He gave interesting examples of how he engages the students in his school with the material in the course, and how he keeps the inclusive and Catholic nature of his school alive in the conversation.
We wish Oisín and all teachers engaging with the new Junior Cycle Religious Education in schools all the very best in their endeavours to assist and encourage their young people in reflecting on this important part of their ongoing growth and development