ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on thinking skills in religious education (RE). In recent years, the topic of thinking skills in education in general (e.g. Higgins and Baumfield 1998; cf. Johnsson and Gardner 1999; see also McGregor 2007), and RE in particular (e.g. Kay 2007; Pike 2006, 2008), has been the subject of debate and controversy. We begin by providing an overview of current theory and practice, focusing in turn on the concept of thinking skills, the place of thinking skills in education in general and the place of thinking skills in RE in particular. We then go on to develop a critique of skills-centred approaches to teaching and learning in RE, focusing in turn on issues raised by philosophy, theology and pedagogy. Finally, we offer a modest proposal, namely that the cultivation of a set of pedagogic virtues – attentiveness, intelligence, reasonableness and responsibility – ought to take priority over the cultivation of specific thinking skills.
