Personal learning: how can religious/spiritual education in the primary school contribute?

Abstract

This thesis offers an account of 'personal learning' as learning that matters to the individual, where a person takes responsibility for his or her own learning and personal growth. It argues that religious and spiritual education can make a major contribution to such personal learning through focusing on meaning and cultivating attentiveness. Life is seen in narrative terms as something which must make sense as a whole; religious and spiritual education help develop that sense of wholeness. Goldman's developmental theory is reassessed in this context and its limitations discussed.