ABSTRACT
Skills are a major component in educational discourse on the British scene. Skills are examined from a psychological perspective and criticized from both a philosophical and a psychological perspective. Skills discourse is often intellectually incoherent or inapplicable to religious education (RE). Although psychologists dealing with the workplace had explored skills, the real driving force behind the emergence of skills within the maintained sector of education in England and Wales appears to have been the confederation of British industry (CBI). Within RE, skills certainly surface in the major examination syllabuses. For example, the AQA GCSE religious studies syllabuses of 2005 all include reference to key skills and show how there are opportunities to develop these skills within religious studies. The original work done on skills in psychology tended to focus entirely upon physical action. Within the classroom and within RE the skill-rule-knowledge model is more promising than the model of skill as a simple repeated activity or an organised action sequence.
