Dialogic theological gatherings in primary education: Religious education in a dialogic space

Abstract

Religious Education in Spain is a subject of obligation offer for schools and free decision for students since 1979. Among the competencies that students must acquire in this matter is the reading comprehension of the Bible. Catholic schools have traditionally approached the teaching of this subject from traditional pedagogy. However, religious instruction has been studied less from a dialogic perspective. This research has focused on analyzing the implementation of a specific action called Dialogical Gatherings from reading and discussing the Bible with primary school students in the Basque Country. The objective of this article is to know the effects on higher-order cognitive processes of students. The methodology used analyzes the interactions and dialogues of 22 children in 7 sessions. The results obtained show that students participate through dialogic interactions that reflect higher order thinking processes. Specifically, in a total of 596 interventions most of the students make contributions, ask questions, show agreements and disagreements, and reasoning about the biblical text. With this, the Dialogic Theological Gatherings introduce a dialogic approach in religious teaching.