Religious Neutrality: Teaching in a Pluralistic Classroom
A classroom climate of religious neutrality is vital if public schools
are to provide a
just and equitable public education for all youngsters, irrespective of the many
worldview differences in our increasingly diverse nation.
This mini-course serves as self-instruction to help any
teacher create a more respectful and just classroom for student learning.
No matter what your subject matter domain or age level focus may be, if you are
a classroom teacher, we hope you will work through the material (outline is
below). And, if you know of a teacher or methods instructor or in-service
workshop instructor who might be interested in this
mini-course, then please let him/her know about it.
![](our_line.gif)
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Lesson 1, Gearing
up for Neutrality |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Lesson 2,
Your Way / Other Ways |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Lesson 3, Diversity
& Demographics (USA) |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Lesson 4, Grounding Yourself |
![](our_line.gif)
Note that this series of
lessons is designed to serve in-service and pre-service public
school teachers with online instruction. The goal is to enable them to develop
and maintain religiously neutral classrooms. The lessons can be of use to
any educator, and they will be of special interest to those who are teaching about
religion.
College and university methods instructors are encouraged to incorporate this
online mini-course as part of their Methods of Teaching History/Social
Science, or in other suitable Methods of Teaching classes for prospective classroom
teachers. Instructors of in-service teacher workshops related to such
topics as "religion and the schools," "teaching about
religion," and "religious liberty" (in civic education or
character education) may find the material applicable in their
instructional programs. Administrators and certain school staff too will
benefit from learning the principles and strategies presented in the
lessons.
Mini-Course
Prerequisites
Know how to
use your browser's BACK button (to return to the previous page) and
its PRINT button (to print the current page).
![](our_line.gif)
Lesson Structure
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Title |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Theme |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Knowledge Goals |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Attitude Goals |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Learning Strategies |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Testing Your Knowledge (lessons 1-3) |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Continuation Activities |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Putting Your Knowledge to Work in the Classroom |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Sharing Your Materials |
![bullet](_themes/aa-bold-stripes-new/abstrbu1.gif) |
Materials Bank |
![](our_line.gif)
We welcome you to use or review
these lessons.
We also invite you to let us know how we might improve these lessons
to better serve your needs.
Project
Director: Paul Geisert (Ph.D.,
Instructional Systems)
Lead
Instructional Developer: Mynga Futrell
(Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction). Note: Dr. Futrell also
served as sole or lead author for numerous segments. If there has
been alternate or co-authorship, this fact is noted within the specific
portion of the mini-course.
Religion
Consultant: Gerald A. Larue, Emeritus
Professor of Biblical History and Archaeology, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles
Religious
Neutrality: Teaching in a Pluralistic Classroom (a mini-course) is
copyrighted © 2002 by Instructional Systems. |