Kantian Ethics Keyword Revision Games

So it's been "a while" since I last posted! Here are some keyword games I've created for the Kantian Ethics topic for the OCR A level spec. I like to use these as quick starter activities to recap key vocabulary and clarify any misunderstandings.

You can download them from google docs here or TES here.

Secularisation / Fundamentalism Revision Games

Revision time for GCSEs and A Levels is upon us, and students up and down the land are no doubt spending every possible hour practicing past papers and creating technicolour mind maps. Or am I just being wildly optimistic?

Here are some revision activities on Secularisation and Fundamentalism, from the WJEC Religion and Community topic for AS. I find they work nicely as quick starters, helping students consolidate their knowledge of key terms, while giving me an overview of what areas might need extra clarification and revision. Included are keywords for an Articulate style game, keyword pairs, and some suggestions for different revision activities using the keywords. Plenty to keep your students busy!

Also of use might be these student revision self-assessment sheets for fundamentalism and secularisation.

Features of Jesus' Miracles Mnemonic

I like to create short mnemonics around the topics I'm teaching. I tend to find that they really help students retain information, and avoid missing out chunks of important material when writing essays. A quick test on a mnemonic is also a ready-made starter task! 

In our Year 12 class, we're currently studying miracles as part of our New Testament module, and this is a little mnemonic I've come up with to help remember seven key features of Jesus' miracles.

The features, and the explanations below, are adapted from Gwynn ap Gwilym's WJEC textbook:

Command - Jesus performs some miracles with only a verbal command. This is the case with nature miracles, but also elsewhere, e.g. the possessed man in Capernaum synagogue. 
Only where there is faith - Faith is a common feature of the miracle stories, while both Mark (6:5) and Matthew (13:58) tell us Jesus performed few miracles in his home town because people did not believe in him.
At a distance - Jesus does not need to be present to perform a miracle, for example, the healing of the centurion's servant.
Touch - Jesus is able to perform miracles by touch, such as healing the ear of the high priest's servant.
Pity for suffering - The miracles demonstrate Jesus' compassion for suffering humanity. Healing miracles are good examples of this, as is the feeding of the 4,000, where Jesus says he has compassion for the hungry crowd.
Evidence not always accepted - Those who did not believe in Jesus attribute the miracles to Satan, e.g. the teachers of the Law in Mark 3:20-30.
Glorify God - The purpose of Jesus' miracles is to bring glory not to Jesus, but to God. For example, when the widow of Nain's son is resurrected, the people glorify God.

I've also created a PowerPoint slide that can be dropped into revision lessons (if you're a teacher).

I'd say that if you could remember these seven features, and support each with examples, you would be well on your way to getting a good grade in 30 mark AS question. That said, I'd be interested to know whether you think the list is a good one, or whether any features should be added or removed?

The Complete Incomplete PowerPoint on Life, Death, and Beyond

I've been gradually putting together this PowerPoint for the AQA's synoptic unit on Life, Death and Beyond.

It's still not complete: One of the four topics is missing and I've not quite had chance to add in some extra notes I've got in other places, but students studying the unit might find it useful for revision ahead of their exam on Thursday.

Good luck!

Features of Fundamentalism Mnemonic

Mnemonics are ways of remembering complex chunks information by linking them to simpler or more memorable words, phrases or images. If, like me, you learned the points of the compass through the phrase "Never Eat Shredded Wheat", that's a good example of a simple mnemonic.
 
Below is an acrostic mnemonic I've come up with to help remember and revise some of the key features of religious fundamentalism:

If you've already studied fundamentalism, then most of these should be fairly familiar, but if you're not, then here's a brief explanation of each feature:

Science - Rejection of scientific views when they conflict with sacred texts. However, many fundamentalists have made effective use of modern technology to promote their message.
Elect - The view held by some fundamentalists that they are part of a spiritual elite, chosen by God for a particular mission. In some cases, this may justify violence.
Patriarchy - The view that men and women have different roles, with women subordinate to men. In fundamentalist groups this is seen as being ordered by God, not the product of culture or history.
Authoritarian - Blind obedience to authority, as opposed to individual freedom and conscience. This may involve obedience to the teachings of a religious text or a religious leader.
Reaction Against Modernity - Fundamentalism is seen as being a reaction against the modern world. Fundamentalists view themselves as being distinct from, and separate to, modern secular society.
Apocalyptic - The view that we are living in the last days, and that the world as we know it will shortly be brought to a sudden end.
Texts - Belief that a sacred text is inerrant (contains no errors). Fundamentalists hold that their sacred texts are literally true, and are hostile towards attempts at historical or literary criticism of them.
Ethically Conservative - The moral commandments of religious texts are seen as being binding for all time. In practice, this tends to lead to a conservative moral position, for example opposing homosexuality.
Dualism - Dividing the world into clear categories of good and evil, right and wrong, "with us" and "against us". There is little room for ambiguity or grey areas in fundamentalist thinking.

Some of the above might be open for debate, and some scholars might include other characteristics, but if you can use the SEPARATED mnemonic to remember these characteristics, and can explain and give an example of each, you should be well on your way to getting a decent grade in a Part A question on the features of fundamentalism.  
 
I've also put together a short PowerPoint that (if you're a teacher) you could incorporate into a revision lesson.

Christian Ethics: AQA "A" Spec Revision Workbook and Checklist

I've come across a workbook I put together for the AQA A Specification  GCSE unit on Christian Ethics. I no longer teach the A spec (and to be honest I completely forgot that I'd made the workbook), but somebody out there might it useful.

Looking through the workbook, it's mostly made up of candidate sample answers for peer assessment, plus some past paper questions and a set of key facts to learn.

There also a revision checklist for four of the six topics in the GCSE (I might have put it together for mocks rather than the final exams), which might also be of some use.

You can download the checklist here and the workbook here via google docs.

I am, of course, still hunting for the Year 12 revision booklet I was actually looking for when I found them...

Life After Death Revision Checklist

Photo credit sxc.hu/fanginhoon

I've put together a revision checklist/topic self assessment for the AQA unit on Body, Soul, and Personal Identity. You can download it from Google Docs here.

If you're revising for your GCSEs or A levels right now (and if you're following these tips on how to get an A, then you should be!), using checklists can help you identify the areas you need to target in your revision, and avoid the temptation to simply go over the parts of a topic you're already most comfortable with.

I've put together checklists for most of the AQA GCSE and A level syllabuses for RS. If you'd like any others for particular topics, then please post a comment below.

Body, Soul, and Personal Identity Revision Games

Photo credit sxc.hu / runrunrun

Owing to popular demand (i.e. one person), I've created some "Articulate" and Keyword Pairs revision games for the AQA A2 Body, Soul, and Personal Identity topic. The definitions are taken or adapted from the Jordan, Lockyer, and Tate official AQA textbook.

You can download the games from here if you have a TES account, or from here via Google Docs.

Buddhist Ethics: Five Precepts Revision Postcards

The Five Precepts: No. 3

A few weeks ago I uploaded a set of Christian ethics revision cards, to help students remember some of the key Bible verses that relate to the ethical issues we study at GCSE. I was pleased to see that quite a few students did actually put them up in their cubicles (I work in a boarding school), and rather natty they looked too.

In a similar line, I've created a small set of revision postcards illustrating the Five Precepts, the basic ethical code of Buddhism. As with the Christian ethics postcards I uploaded a few weeks back, the idea is to get the students revising them so they can easily incorporate them into their exam answers.

You can download them as a pdf here, or if you have a TES account, as a Word document here.

Ontological Argument Revision Games

I've been a bit busy with work and the nascent Duke of York's Triathlon Club recently, so I've not had a lot of time for blogging. Hopefully as school tails off for summer I'll get to post more regularly.

I've uploaded some key word revision games for the ontological argument, which also include some general vocabulary on philosophical reasoning (as these two are tied together in the AQA A2 course). As usual I've uploaded them as a pdf to Google or as Word document to the TES. You'll need a login for TES to download the Word file, but anyone should be able to access the pdf version.

Christian Ethics Quotations - Revision Postcards

Well the exam season is under way, and my Year 12 Religious Studies class have already taken their AS exam. They seemed pretty happy with the questions that came up, no evil AQA surprises as far as I could tell. Good luck to everybody out there, whether you're taking exams or sweating on your students' results!

I've put together a set of revision postcards illustrating some of the key Christian quotations that GCSE RS students should incorporate into their exams to support their views and access the higher grades.

You can download them on the TES here or via Google Docs here. You will need an account with the TES or Google to view them.

Hard Determinism Revision Fact Sheet

Photo credit: fodor

My last school liked to break topics down into key facts that students could use memory techniques to learn. This year, I've been trying out a memory journey or loci method to help my Year 12s learn key criticisms of the argument from religious experience. Hopefully I'll post a bit more on this in the next week or so, when I see how well it's worked.

In the meantime, below is a fact sheet on hard determinism that I used last year, broken down into 20 key facts that you could use the loci method or the peg system to help you remember. The facts are below, or posted to google docs here (you will need a google account to access them).

Update: I've realised that the original 20 bullet point fact sheet I've uploaded, was partly culled from a page on the Tutor2u website here. Not something I worried about when I was putting together a fact sheet for a dozen-or-so students in class last year, but I've contacted the website to check they're happy for this post to remain.

1.    Philosophical Determinism is the theory that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined by previously existing causes. Determinism is usually understood to exclude the possibility of free will because it entails that humans cannot act otherwise than they do.

2.   Universal Causation is the belief that everything in the universe including all human actions and choices has a cause. Thus all events are causally determined and theoretically predictable; you just need to know the effect of the causes. 

3.   The Illusion of Moral Choice is a result of our ignorance of what causes these choices, leading us to believe they have no cause. 

4.   John Locke used an analogy in which a sleeping man is locked in a darkened room. On awakening he decides he will remain in the room, unaware that the room is locked. In reality the man has no freedom to choose, he cannot get out of the room. However, his ignorance of his true condition has led him to believe that he does have the freedom to choose to remain in the room. 

5.   David Hume (actually a soft determinist) commented that we can observe patterns in the physical world that can also be found in the decisions we make. Our decisions thus, just like the physical world, are causally determined. Theoretically then, we could know the future if we were knowledgeable of all the causes in the universe and their effects. 

6.   Benedict Spinoza said “In the mind there is no absolute or free will; but the mind is determined to will this or that by a cause, which has been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on until infinity.” 

7.   Adolf Hitler is no more culpable for his actions than the good-doing Christian church-goer, according to hard determinism. We cannot be held morally responsible for our actions if they are causally determined and not a result of our own moral choice.  

8.   Psychological Determinism is the view human behaviour, thoughts and feelings are the inevitable outcome of complex psychological laws describing cause and effect relationships in human behaviour. Thus all decisions and actions can theoretically be predicted. There are many influencing factors on human behaviour: Hereditary, Environment, Society, Culture. 

9.   Clarence Darrow successfully defended two youths guilty of murder by focusing his argument on their lack of moral responsibility. Darrow argued that their actions were influenced by a combination of heredity and social conditioning. 

10. Ivan Pavlov found that dogs could be conditioned to respond in a particular way to an external stimulus. Pavlov believed that conditioned reflexes could explain the behaviour of psychotic people. For example those who withdrew from the world may associate all stimuli with possible injury or threat.  

11. Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning suggests that changes in behaviour are the result of an individual’s response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence, and when a particular stimulus-response pattern is reinforced (rewarded) the individual is conditioned to respond.  

12. Theological determinism is the belief that the causal chain can be traced back to an uncaused causer (Cosmological argument, Aquinas), and this is God. If God is omniscient and omnipotent, we cannot have free-will and our actions must be pre-determined by him.  

13. St. Paul believed that God chooses who will be saved. We shouldn’t question God’s right to choose since none of us deserve to be saved. Humans are free to choose how to live their lives but their final destination is determined by God alone. 

14. St. Augustine believed in pre-destination, the belief that only those elected by God can achieve salvation. God has foreknowledge of our choices and the decisions we will make. This does not mean man doesn’t make decisions freely; rather it emphasizes God’s omnipotence. 

15. Jean Calvin argued that that the destination of each human being is determined by God on the basis of his foreknowledge of everyone’s character and life. He said that there was nothing anybody could do to change their destiny. According to Calvin, there is no free will. Calvin therefore takes a hard determinist approach. 

16. Scientific determinism tells us that for every physical event there is a physical cause, and this causal chain can be traced back to the moment of the Big Bang. If we consider the mind to be material activity in the brain i.e. chemical impulses, then our thoughts and decisions are also pre-determined. We can explore the causes of human behaviour through the many different branches of science, for example Psychology, Sociology, Physiology and Anthropology. 

17. Isaac Newston revolutionised physics with his proposition that all bodies are governed by the three laws of motion. Newton’s universe was predictable, like an intricate clockwork toy. 

18. Laplace believed that if it were possible at any one time to know both the position and the speed of all the particles in the universe at any one time, it would be possible to know their position at any other time in the past, present or future. This implies we can, theoretically, predict the future even though it might not be possible in reality. 

19. Heisenburg Uncertainty Theory challenges scientific determinism. It says that it is not possible to measure both the position and speed of a particle at the same time due to the effect of photons which has a significant effect on a subatomic level. However just because we cannot measure both does not mean they cannot both be known.

20. Chaos Theory suggests that in the material world events occur randomly and by chance. This theory is also known as the “butterfly effect” as it suggests that the slightest movement of a butterfly’s wings in Beijing could cause a hurricane in New York some time later.

Student Revision Videos and Blog

So the revision season is upon us. The Easter holidays seem months ago already, and for A level students, the few weeks until exams start will go by in a dizzying whirl of revision cards, double bubble maps, and last minute crammer sessions.

I thought I'd share these useful revision videos made by student Komilla Chadha. From the topics cover, I think Komilla must have studied the OCR RS syllabus, but the videos are also useful for other exam boards too, and over a wide range of topics in Philosophy and Ethics. There are also videos relevant to Law and Economics, if you're taking these subjects. 

Komilla also has this blog. It hasn't been updated recently (by the dates, I'd guess she took her A levels a couple of years ago), but some of the materials are well worth a look.

Notes on Jung

Here are a couple of resources on Jung's views on religion, both courtesy of the Richmond Philosophy pages. The first is a Powerpoint introduction to Jung and his work, the second focuses on Jung's concept of individuation, and also some criticisms of Jung's work.

Also of interest, there's an In Our Time episode on Jung, available here. 

Virtue Ethics Key Word Games

Some more word games today, this time they are for the Virtue Ethics topic of the AQA A Level in Religious Studies.

You can download the games from here, or if you have a TES account, from here.

I've also previously uploaded vocab games for Religious Language and Psychology and Religion. 

Psychology and Religion Key Word Games

I've uploaded a couple of word games you can use to build and revise your vocabulary for the Psychology and Religion topic of the AQA A Level in Religious Studies.

You can download the games from here, or if you have a TES account, from here.

Religious Language Revision Games

I've uploaded a couple of word games you can use to revise your vocabulary for the Religious Language topic. If you find you have a few minutes in your busy half-term schedule of revising, writing essays, and in-depth background reading, why not give them a try?

The games are Key Word Pairs and Key Word Articulate. You can download them here, or if you have a TES account, from here.

You might also want to take a look at this post on the Via Negativa.

Enjoy your break!

Notes on Hume and Kant

For any AS Philosophers out there, here is a link to a useful PowerPoint file that recaps some key vocabulary for the AQA unit on Reason and Experience, plus the views of Hume and Kant. Remember that any of these keywords could come up in AS exam questions, so make sure you know them inside out.