Religious-Thinking-Through Using Bibliodrama: An Empirical Study of Student Learning in Classroom Teaching

Searching for new methods to start a genuine dialogue in secondary school classrooms, bibliodrama as an active form of putting religious stories in action was used. The research focused on examining relationships between student learning activities and teacher behavior; six lessons were analyzed in a qualitative cross-case analysis. A dialogue in the classroom aims to evoke theologizing by the students, also to be called religious-thinking-through. The effectiveness of religious-thinking-through was operationalized into three learning activities (testing positions, producing criticism, and reflecting) and six teaching scaffolds, building stones used by teachers to gear active learning. A quantitative correspondence analysis yielded a scale that contrasts more from less effective lessons. The specific contribution of an effective religion teacher is to show understanding, give space and listen. When he asks meta-cognitive questions in a debating way of connective truth finding this leads to a higher level of religious-thinking-through by students.