A distinctive feature of contemporary professional, vocational and continuing education is the prevalence of the 'competency' approach. So-called competency-based education or training (CBE/T) can be adopted as a basis for programs of learning, frameworks for development within occupations, or for national systems of vocational education. Its…

A hermeneutic-communicative model of religious education is proposed which is grounded in a Christian anthropology. The human person is presented as a 'fragile hermeneutical space'--consisting of a radical openness to reality, an essential indeterminateness and an ability to transcend his or her own reality. This means that people have an inbuilt…

In response to a religiously diverse and culturally enriched Australia, this paper will discuss the instance of one Catholic primary school which has taken up the challenge of engaging in Religious Education through integrating the beliefs and practices underlying the KU Leuven's Hermeneutical Communicative Model to Religious Education. This…

The goal of this article is to present the coherence between the human social world and religious education in Poland. The motive for taking up this subject is the cultural context relating to the problem of attitudes towards refugees. Reconstruction of the worlds of life demands to be expanded to include the religious education context in order…

Iqbal views the schooling as well as the Madrassah systems devoid of developing a dynamic Muslim required for the renaissance of Ummah. With this realization, many Islamic educationists in Pakistan have established. Islamic schools in Pakistan. The question is whether their models are dynamic enough to create such Muslims? This research probes…

Agency is a particular concern for ministry with adolescent girls because they rarely see themselves as subjects of their own lives. Human agency is often emphasized in churches as a way to explain human sinful action. As a population treated as objects by society, it is important for young women to embrace and exercise their agency in order to be…

Numerous higher education researchers have studied the ways in which students' or academics' beliefs and conceptions affect their educational experiences and outcomes. However, studying the learning-teaching relationship has proved challenging, requiring researchers to simultaneously address both the invisible internal world(s) of the student and…

The notion of validity in the social sciences is evolving and is influenced by philosophy of science, critiques of objectivity, and epistemological debates. Methodology for validation of the knowledge claims is diverse across different philosophies of science. In other words, definition and the way to establish of validity have evolved as…

If story is central to human meaning why, in the research world, is there not more storytelling? Walter Benjamin (1973) noted that, "a story is different. It does not expend itself. It preserves and concentrates its strength and is capable of releasing it even after a long time" (p. 90). How might research not expend itself, but preserve and…

Situational Consultation (SC) is presented as a framework for flexible integration of several models and methodologies in consultation practice by choosing an approach adapted to the specific situation. In SC, models and their characteristic role positions are considered interchangeable tools with qualitative differences in strengths and…

In this article we rethink validation within the complex contexts of high-stakes assessment. We begin by considering the utility of existing models for validation and argue that these models tend to overlook some of the complexities inherent to assessment use, including the multiple interpretations of assessment purposes and the potential…

This paper presents a model of children's spirituality which provided a structure for conducting some recent research and for analysing the findings. The model consisted of four dimensions of spirituality derived from the literature, namely consciousness, relationality, roadmap and identity, with a central integrating concept of worldview. The…

In reading the last section of their primary text, "Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide" by Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner (2007) in his Adult Learning and Development class, the author continued to feel as though he was being self-assured of his previous learning experiences once again. The final section of the text focused on…

In a digital era in which technology plays a role in most aspects of a child's life, having the competence and confidence to use computers might be a necessary step, but not a goal in itself. Developing character traits that will serve children to use technology in a safe way to communicate and connect with others, and providing opportunities for…

The aim of this article is to propose a method for practical theology, the hermeneutical-praxis paradigm, based on discussions of three different methodological approaches to practical theology. This article suggests the hermeneutical-praxis paradigm, which bridges theory and practice, which connects church with society, which correlates theology…