Teachers as facilitators of exploration in lower secondary religious education: classroom perspectives from Norway

In August 2020, a new national curriculum for lower secondary religious education (RE) was implemented in Norway, and the curriculum highlights exploration. This empirical study investigated how RE teachers facilitated this exploratory approach when teaching 12–13-year-olds. Data collection occurred during the 2021/2022 school year and involved gathering 37 teacher logs and 22 video-recorded lessons from 4 schools and 9 classrooms, with 8 RE teachers. Teacher logs and quantitative analysis using an observation protocol were utilised to select lessons that emphasised exploration. The lessons were grouped thematically into three cases—2 representing regular RE themes (the Old Testament and Judaism) and 1 featuring an interdisciplinary topic (the history of Norway) – and then analysed qualitatively using thematic and hermeneutic approaches. The study elucidates how RE teachers integrated exploratory activities, direct instruction and scaffolding. The teachers extensively used planned support through direct instruction and demonstration to prepare students for exploration; specifically, the teachers introduced methods, models or templates and modelled how students could employ them. During exploratory activities, scaffolding was offered contingent on the students’ needs. In all three cases, teachers employed a variety of scaffolding functions. Case 3 illustrated how scaffolding was gradually faded and responsibility progressively transferred to the students.