Education According To Thomas Groome Essay

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The benefits of the Christian praxis approach are far-reaching. They include both the personal development of the individual student and also the collective development of the society. Students introduced to the Christian praxis approach learn how to address real life problems from a Christian lens -- but one that denounces dogma in favor of genuine critical thought. While the story of Christ and the Christian experience are central to the praxis approach, so too are the student's own story and experience with suffering or joy. A personal benefit of the Christian praxis approach is to encourage compassion and the "right relationships of justice, love, and peace," (O'Murchu n.d. p. 46). On the collective level, the Christian praxis approach helps to usher in what O'Murchu (n.d.) calls a new world order that is rooted not in the past patriarchal power imbalances the Church fomented but in the future of equality. Any educator who does not hold these visions of personal and collective progress dear as part of a teaching philosophy may be in the wrong profession indeed.

Therefore, the key to incorporating Christian praxis into religious education is to understand what the praxis approach entails. The praxis approach entails the promotion of social justice. As Ryan (2007)...

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To make the praxis approach more practical for the classroom, Ryan (2007) offers the five core movements that comprise the methodology of Christian praxis. Those five movements include personal reflection and expression; analysis; the Story and Vision of the faith community; applying that Story and Vision to personal experience; and finally, deciding on the best course(s) of action in the community.
When students can apply what they learn in any classroom to real world settings, they thrive. Experiential learning is valid not only in the realm of religious education but in all other areas of pedagogy. Therefore, the drawbacks of Christian praxis are relatively few in comparison with the benefits. To reframe Christian praxis as a universal method of social betterment would help dismiss biases that the method relies too heavily on Catholicism. Similarly, educators can illustrate the explicit psychosocial benefits of introducing students to the praxis approach. As Groome (n.d.) puts it, the praxis approach "informs" minds, "forms" values and "transforms" lives (p. 45).

Sources Used in Documents:

References

Groome, T.H. (n.d.). Catechesis and Religious Education"

O'Murchu, D. (n.d.). The kingdom of God: The contemporary challenge.

Ryan, M. (2007). The way of shared Christian praxis. In a common search: The history and forms of religious education in Catholic schools


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