Abstracts - Earli

Phenomenography and the variation theory of learning as pedagogical tools for religiouseducationElina Hella, University of Helsinki, FinlandThis paper introduces phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning (e.g. Marton et al.2004) as potentially effective pedagogical tools to help students to relate to and make sense of thevariety of worldviews and belief systems. It is argued, that phenomenography serves as a tool forresearchers and teachers of religious education to discern and relate together qualitatativedifferences in understanding a particular religious subject matter from different perspectives. TheVariation Theory of Learning, developed within phenomenographic research tradition, focuses onhow the qualitative differences between students’ ways of understanding a particular phenomenonare linked to their ability to discern the critical aspects of that phenomenon. From the frameworkof the Variation Theory of Learning, it is argued, that to understand the uniqueness of a particular‘religious’ worldview, variation must be experienced within religious worldviews as well asbetween religious and non-religious or secular worldviews. Religious education can help studentsto discern features of a particular religious tradition by exposing students to experience variation inthat tradition in contrast with alternative traditions. Hence, students can make sense of thediversity of worldviews by comparing similarities and differences between contrastingperspectives or features in order to discern one from the other. Illustrations of how religiousmeanings are discerned and constituted by the students and teachers of religious education inFinnish upper secondary schools are drawn from a phenomenographic study to support thearguments (Hella, forthcoming).Religiosity and personalityCarmine Maiello, University of Fribourg, SwitzerlandThis study examines the relationship between religiosity as measured by the Degrees of Belief inGod scale (Maiello, 2005, 2006) and several factors of personality including self-esteem, gender,extraversion, neuroticism, trait-anxiety and depression. Standardized questionnaires wereadministrated in all Swiss schools located in the counties of Berne, Basel and Zurich thus coveringmost of the German speaking part of Switzerland. Subsequently, a total sample of 2124 highschool students (1129 males, 985 females, 10 gender indications missing) aged between 15 and 23(Mean = 18, Mode = 18) was used to test a priori designed causal models of religiosity andpersonality. Results reveal that personality and religiosity are linked in various non linear andindirect ways. Particularly, there is evidence of a curvilinear relationship between depression andreligiosity. Furthermore, the data are consistent with a proposed model of personality andreligiosity that includes a feedback loop between neuroticism and religiosity as well as indirecteffects of extraversion and positive effects of self-esteem on religiosity. With reference to selfesteemno correlation with religiosity is observed at a zero-order level. But, controlling for anxietysurprisingly reveals a positive beta coefficient. Although it has been reported that womengenerally score higher on belief scales than men (Dieckmann & Maiello, 1998) no genderdifferences were found in this study using a sample of 18 year old students. The results of thisstudy have several theoretical implications and offer the potential for important clinicalapplications. With reference to theory and clinical treatment the outcome of a feedback-loopbetween neuroticism and religiosity is particularly relevant. It resolves issues of consistency foundin the literature in which neuroticism has been contradictorily reported to be correlated eitherpositively or negatively with religiosity.– 366 –