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Ethics and world religions classroom activities

In a class on ethics and world religions there is no single right answer; what matters is listening to each other. What do you celebrate, what do you believe, what do you think is right or wrong? These structures give every student a turn, so the quiet voices are heard too.

The questions and statements are about holidays and traditions, right and wrong, meaning and respecting differences. They do not assume one religion: every student speaks from their own faith or beliefs, or from none, and passing is always allowed. They also work well in homeroom.

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6 ready-made structures

Classroom activities for ethics and world religions

Ethics and world religions deal with the big questions: what is good, what do you believe, what gives life meaning? There is no answer to those that a teacher can explain and a student can write down. The subject calls for a conversation in which students put their own beliefs into words and learn to understand the beliefs of others.

Active learning structures make that conversation possible in a class of thirty. Students talk first in pairs or small groups, where it feels safer to say something personal, and a fixed turn order makes sure the quiet student is heard too.

Which structure for which part of the lesson?

Taking Turns is an easy way in: everyone names a holiday, a custom or a tradition from their own world, and the variety in the room becomes visible right away. Stand Up & Sit Down and Four Corners show where students stand on statements about right and wrong, fairness or forgiveness.

For a more personal conversation, use Interview in Three Rounds and Inner & Outer Circle: in pairs, students talk about what matters to them. Written Thoughts lets students think on paper first about a question like: how do you talk with someone whose beliefs are very different from yours?

What to watch for

Word your questions so that everyone can answer, religious or not, and from any tradition. Ask about experience and opinion, never for a judgment on someone else's faith. And agree beforehand that passing is allowed: not everyone wants to share something personal in every lesson.

Learning to learn in this subject

Three ways of learning studied in this very subject, each with the structure that makes it happen in class. The board tells the class what it is training.

  • Activate prior knowledge

    Placemat

    «What is fair?» Everyone first alone in their corner, then the middle: what the four agree on.

  • Turn a text into questions

    Read and Ask

    Question a story or a source with the six words; «why?» is half the subject here.

  • Write down all you remember

    Written Thoughts

    After the lesson: write down everything you remember about today’s world religion, no book.

Summarising helps only when the class is taught it explicitly, and then as part of a scheme, not as the goal.

Sources: Wijze lessen (Surma et al., 2019), bouwsteen 1 · Rosenshine, Meister & Chapman (1996), question generation · Smith, Blunt, Whiffen & Karpicke (2016), free recall

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