Example of Good Practise in RE

Example of good practice in RE

Education in RE at primary school in Finland is based on the Bible stories. Recent years narrative approach has been very popular issue in pedagogies concerning the Bible. The major problem in this kind of methodology is teacher’s personal storyteller skills. Someone can do it and other not. Godly Play is giving clear and effective method to tell stories. Almost everyone could learn it. And the pedagogically wonderful part of that is creative reaction work after stories. Because Godly Play is rather open or safe in the meaning of teachers’ own opinions it is excluding the possibility of religious indoctrination.

What is Godly Play?

Godly Play is Bible story telling method. Dr. Jerome Berryman has developed it during 30 years. He studied Montessorian pedagogy at 1960´s and found Sofia Cavaletti’s method, which is based on story telling and different kind of wooden figures. Berryman’s idea was to develop Cavaletti’s method more for his own way. Process has been very much based on testing with children. It is easy to say that GP is really concentrating on children’s way of understanding.

Godly Play is using three-dimensional materials. Materials are simple and cheap but very effective with the story. In GP there are three kind of basic story categories, parables, sacred stories and liturgical stories. In these categories materials are different. At sacred stories sand is very important factor. Wooden figures could go over desert box and leave some footsteps on the sand. This is happening for example with Moses narratives. Ten commands could be stand on sand etc. Parables are based on fabrics and wooden figures. Liturgical story could include candles, dolls, church year clock and many other materials.

Godly Play is based on scripts. Berryman and other enthusiasts have written manuscripts for the presentation. Manuscript includes gestures, story line and very important part: I wonder questions. Typically story-telling person is asking I wonder questions from children and they are responding on that. Parable is hold in golden box. When storyteller is taking for example velvet from the box he or she could say: I wonder what this might be. After that children could answer if they want to. The most radical part is that there are no right answers. Playing with stories is also great fun because atmosphere is very much open fore the tasks arising from that very moment.

(Some materials from parable)

At classical GP session children could respond to the story by playing, drawing, making puzzles, re telling stories and so on. Teacher is not saying what to do. Equipment is available on GP classroom. After responding session is time fore party. Usually this means biscuit and milk or juice.

Some Godly Play sessions could include praying and worship elements especially at the church based situations.

Godly Play in the Finland

Godly Play was promoted in Finland 2002. Then Diocese of Helsinki, Institute for RE and some local parishes asked Rebecca Nye to give training in Finland at January 2003. During autumn 2002 Institute of RE published some articles in Christian newspapers and church related magazines. Articles raised public interest for the GP. At the first training 2003 there were some people from the Lutheran church and couple of local teachers from the school.

During spring 2003 Institute of RE published two academic articles in pedagogical publications. This was very important part of the GP promotion for the school. Then teacher trainers got widely basic information about GP.

From the 2002 students in the University of Helsinki RE teacher program have got brief lectures about GP. Everyone who is going to be subject teacher or RE specialised teacher at primary are informed about method.

GP and confession

Non-confessional basic is rather complicated issue with Godly Play method. It is the first problem that should be solved with the method. Because GP is coming from the Sunday school surroundings it is not directly possible to use in the Finnish school. Method could be adjusted for the primary as a pedagogical method.

Worshipping parts are taken out from classical GP session. In the Finnish context this means simplified model. Presentation with wondering questions is ok and also response with drawing and playing and etc. Praying, religious hymns ore other kind of religion practice are not involved in school version. Celebration with bisquits and drinks is also on the limit.

Religious education is not the practice of religion but forms a part of general education. Pupils should, however, be offered the opportunity to take part in traditional Christian festivals and in the passing on of Christian traditions within the framework of the school's general activities. This kind of activity is not included on RE lessons. It is much more like special situations for the whole school during Christmas or eastern. In that kind of situation GP could also be used in confessional way.

From the problems to good practice

After solving curricula for GP the problem was much more practical. Who is able it do presentations and lead teaching? Answer was found in the two different sources. Teachers could be trained for GP. This was started in Co-operation with University of Helsinki teacher training department and Institute for RE. At the University training students are getting brief introduction to GP. Teachers in profession could get GP training from institute. Other model is based on GP co-operation network.

GP co-operation network

Because teacher training operation is slow the Finnish GP enthusiasts developed model about parish and school co-operations. Basic idea is simple: GP trained pastors and youth workers are visiting schools. They are holding presentations there at classrooms. After that the teacher guides further process. This operation is made on every grade at school.

The Hakunila parish has developed sacred stories for the grade 7-9. Basic idea has been to take desert box to school and tell Moses stories there. Feedback from the teachers has been grateful and good. Old testament is complicated issue at the age of puberty. Especially it is difficult to concentrate to Bible story. GP has helped on this. After that it is easier for the teachers lead the curricula.

The Sipoo parish has used this model on pre-school. One person is going around pre-schools and making presentations. At this case development has been surprising. Rumours about exiting Bible stories have gained situation that all the teachers and kitchen staff are willing to see those with children. Also in this case teachers are doing the further process alone.

There are many examples about this kind of co-operations. In this model GP materials are easy to have and also storyteller is well trained. This success story has based on church style GP training, but it has adjusted for the school. This means that prayers and such kind of things are not made.

Experiment from primary

Senior Lecturer Sari Nevalainen from the Institute for RE has made some experiments in Meilahti primary at Helsinki area. Her major interests have been the introspection of teacher process and also make notifications what is happening at school when the presentations are made.

She made same presentation for every grade from 1-6. There were about 20 pupils at the classroom. She started lessons at the same way. First it was discussed about Christmas and waiting period of that. Then she told everyone that it was going to be adventure. After that she took the advent presentation from GP. After that it was always raising discussion and questions about details of Christmas and characters of the story.

Response or further process was made with own teacher. Pupils were very willing to draw story again and discuss about it. Teachers were very interested about materials but the most important finding was the silence during the story. Concentration was very highly valued thing from the teacher’s side. The problem about non-confessional RE was not acute in this situation.

The story was exactly same at every grade but the level of further process was different. Older children were very much interested to tell story themselves. Smaller ones were very fascinated about drawing and touching materials.

The main result in this research was that GP is fitting well in the Finnish primary. Then the method is understood as pedagogical tool for some RE-lessons. Basic method is always the same, but the result in response is based on the age and group context.

References

Jerome Berryman:

Godly Play : An imaginative approach to religious education / Jerome W. Berryman Minneapolis : Augsburg, 1995

Teaching godly play : the Sunday morning handbook / Jerome Berryman Nashville : Abingdon Press, 1995

The complete guide to godly play : an imaginative method for presenting scripture stories to children / Jerome W. Berryman volume 3 : 20 presentations for winter Denver : Living the good news,

The complete guide to godly play : an imaginative method for presenting scripture stories to children / Jerome W. Berryman volume 2 : 14 presentations for fall Denver : Living the good news, 2002

The complete guide to godly play : an imaginative method for presenting scripture stories to children / Jerome W. Berryman volume 1 : How to lead godly play lessons Denver : Living the good news, 2002

The complete guide to godly play : an imaginative method for presenting scripture stories to children / Jerome W. Berryman volume 4 : 20 presentations for spring

Finnish school

National board of education

Finnish RE teacher association

Godly Play experiments:

Juha Luodeslampi

Lapsityön käsikirja / toimittaneet Leena Heinonen, Juha Luodeslampi, Leena Salmensaari Helsinki : Kirjapaja, 2004

Article in Varhaiskasvatuksen uskontokasvatus 2002, Helsingin yliopisto Helsinki.

Archive of Finnish Institute for RE