Power and Motivation in Religious Education †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Power and Motivation in Religious Education. Answer: Introduction Children and theology are correlated. Theology plays an integral role in a childs life and undoubtedly has a great impact on children in building their character (Conroy et al. 2013). Often children want explanations of religious incidents, which in turn encourage children to know more. To be very specific, as per Stern (2018), they develop a quest of knowledge within themselves. According to (Davis and Miroshnikova 2013), theology helps a child to understand what a child wants to know and according it helps in structuring the curriculum of learning so that he or she can get the answers regarding theology. However, it has been observed that mostly, children do not remember theological stories and tend to avoid reading them as they find it boring. Jerome W. Berryman in his essay (Berryman) discussed that children often ask for explanation of religious events or incidents, which means that children think deeply about theology more deeply than adults do. However, teachers as well their elders find difficult to answer these questions. The author points out that in order to address the issue, parents, or teachers can talk about theodicy in an appropriate manner. Therefore, a brief overview of theodicy is given in the essay. In addition to that, some tools were discussed in order to limit the cognitive development of children. While briefly discussing about theodicy and the mechanism to control the cognitive development, primary dangers were also discussed. The issues and dangers of early childhood, middle childhood and late childhood were identified and examined. The author says in the conclusion that answering and explanation of the existence of evil spirits do not only enable children to understand the concept of evil but it als o helps in the growth of cognitive thinking (Hull 2017). Rather theodicy, which is the explanation of why god has created evil, makes children able to think theologically. According to the author, children must be allowed to think independently and develop their understanding of theology accordingly. Parents or teachers therefore need to interact with children regarding presence of God and Evil so that child can be able to understand what is evil and deal with it while moving towards early adulthood. Berrymans next article discussed about the power of laughter in religious education (Berryman 1998). In this study, the author had analyzed the history regarding laughter and its connection with freedom. For further discussion onto the topic, four models of laughter have been defined and then examined. In the next part of the discussion, the author elaborated the feeling while emerging out of the chaos that exists in human being. In addition to that, it also describes the type of laughter that emerges out the experience. In the final part of the discussion, intrinsic motivation and its re-exploration have been described along with the implication that may help in teaching as well as learning religious education. The article mainly highlights the role of laughter in religious education for children and the author suggested that teachers of religious education must be aware of the role of laughter in order to make their teaching effective. In order to examine the connection between lau ghter and motivation for the purpose of religious education four models of laughter have been briefly described. The models that are discussed are the philosophical models of laughter: Superiority model, Incongruity model, Relief model and Pleasant Psychological Shift model. After analyzing the history of laughter and four models, the author makes two observations. The author sates that extrinsic behavior has both the positive as well as negative impact on the shaping of behavior of child. According to the authors observation, it is often noticed children being stubborn or with a behavioral issue as they seek to be free from the turmoil of life. In his second observation, the author says that intrinsic motivation helps children to understand about the paths through which they can realize the complexity of the relationship between them and God and the nature. The strategies of religious education must contain the tools like power along with serious laughter. The author concludes by s aying that the teaching religious education shows children the right path to reach to God. In his third research (Berryman, 1980); Berryman sheds light on Montessori and her contribution to religious education. Montessori believed in the purity of a child soul. She was of the opinion that the children have the ability to respect their life. According to her thought, religion cannot be taught to a child. The aim of religious education should be helping children to understand the bond between them and God. Therefore, children develop a moral within them. They become able distinguish between right and wrong. The religious education for children must start at a very early age as per Montessori (Rymarz 2013). She believed that moral training could be provided to children through the life experience or through the religious stories. The other way to teach them about religious education can be answering those questions that often arise in childrens mind. The author had discussed about the framework of religious education as suggested by Montessori. The Montessori method of teachi ng religious education reaps the seeds of urge to know about the religious truth instead of a method teach children religious education. Montessoris research revealed that children possess an elevated nature. Religious knowledge therefore have can have a great impact on them. Montessori practiced Catholic and her thought and beliefs are therefore can be seen in the approach of teaching religious education to children. Conclusion To conclude, it can be said the idea of child and its relation with theology is evident in the above discussed research papers of Jerome W. Berryman. While one of his article focused on the famous educator Maria Montessori in relation with religious education, other articles elaborates the idea theodicy and its role in the growth of cognitive development of children. The other article of Jerome W Berryman discussed on the role of laughter in religious education and the relationship between laughter and motivation as far as religious education is concerned. References Berryman, J., 1980. Montessori and religious education.Religious Education,75(3), pp.294-307. Berryman, J.W., 1998. Laughter, power, and motivation in religious education.Religious Education,93(3), pp.358-378. Berryman, J.W., Talking Theodicy with Children without Arresting their Theological Thinking. Conroy, J.C., Lundie, D., Davis, R.A., Baumfield, V., Barnes, L.P., Gallagher, T., Lowden, K., Bourque, N. and Wenell, K.J., 2013.Does religious education work?: A multi-dimensional investigation. AC Black. Davis, D. and Miroshnikova, E. eds., 2013.The Routledge international handbook of religious education. Routledge. Hull, J., 2017. God Talk with Young Children.The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood, p.117. Rymarz, R.M., 2013. Direct instruction as a pedagogical tool in religious education.British Journal of Religious Education,35(3), pp.326-341. Stern, J., 2018.Teaching religious education: Researchers in the classroom. Bloomsbury Publishing.