Megan Baines UWS ITE ePDP – Page 4 – Just another blogs.glowscotland.org.uk

Inclusion and Equality

I particularly enjoyed today’s class as I really like this type of topic and find it very interesting. Firstly, we learned about what incision and equality actually meant. I had a rough idea of this already as I previously done higher modern studies in school and topics like this one were commonly discussed. Something that I did find particularly informative was the five key dimensions of equality. I had never realised that there were dimensions to equality of condition before but I am keen to read more about it. We discussed the various aspects where everyone should be considered equal such as: opportunity, fairness, working and learning etc. Another aspect of today’s lecture that I learned a lot about was the PCS analysis. I had never heard of this before but I actually think it is very effective to understand what gives rise to inequality and diversion. Moreover, I found Allport’s scale of prejudice and discrimination very interesting, effective and factual.

I’m today’s workshop we worked together I’m groups of 4 to discuss a particular experience where we might have witnessed discrimination or inequality. We decided to display ours in a picture and written format. In ours we discussed how society has developed and had became more understanding in terms of anyone can be in love and should be able to show/display their love no matter their gender. We showed that years ago people, especially in schools, would fling the word ‘gay’ about without knowing its true meaning. People who were ‘gay’ used to get bullied because they weren’t like everyone else. However, nowadays society has changed and gay marriage has now been accepted and it is not seem as a big of an issue as it once was.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed today’s class and found it very interesting. I liked working in groups with my peers as we were able to initiate discussion and hear everyone’s point of view. I am really looking forward to next weeks lecture. Also, there was a quote in one of the slides that I found particularly eye-opening and inspiring. “Being different is not a problem, being treated differently is, stop discrimination”. inequality

Religion, Culture and ‘Unchurched’ Spirituality

Today’s lecture focused on how religion and social issues can be linked together in terms of claims of community, spiritual claims, impact on health etc. I found this very informative and interesting as I have never thought about how religion can impact on so many social issues such as health, it really opened my mind. Furthermore, we looked at a few more theorists that agree and disagree with religion as culture. I enjoyed researching more into scholars such as Max Weber and Karl Marx and reading their views and opinions. I was very engaged with looking into how their views differed from one another.

Part of the lecture today involved learning about ‘Unchurched’ spirituality which I found very useful and learnt a lot. I had never heard of this term before however after some explanation it all started to make sense pretty quickly. It was interesting to read about the different criticisms that people have with it, some of which I agree and disagree with. We also discussed how religion and spirituality are very similar and closely linked however, are slightly different in their definition.

I found the lecture and the information given to us really interesting and it was given in a way that was easy to understand. However, when it came to the workshop I was confused with some of the exam style questions and I am still quite unclear on where I am going wrong and what I need to fix. Although, in order to improve upon this I will look into more of those type of questions and ask for assistance if I need it.

Overall, I enjoyed the lesson today and will continue to do further research on religion to develop my knowledge in time for the exa#

Religion, Society and Diversity

Today was the first class in the Society and Lifestyles module and it was focused on Religion, Society and Lifestyles. I really enjoyed the lecture and workshops and found them both very interesting and informative. I had previously done RMPS in high school as a higher and so I did have some previous knowledge on the subject already. However, my knowledge was greatly expanded from today’s lesson as it was aspects of religion and society that I had never looked at before.

From the lecture, I was able to grasp an understanding of what religion actually is and how so many people in different professions would define it. I found this very intriguing as I was unaware to how many definitions there were regarding religion and I certainly want to look a lot more into how religion can and is defined. I feel like the definitions that I related to the most were the Sociologists and Anthropologists view.

From that, we also discussed how when we as students speak and learn about religion we are taking a scholarly approach opposed to a believers approach. This was something I had never really thought about before in detail but found very interesting when we were speaking and learning about it in the lecture. A part of the lecture that I feel that I will need to do a lot of further research into from religious studies or books is the theorists. We were able to learn about different thoerists and how some of their views and findings supported religion. We spoke about four of them in particular: Smart, Malinowski, Durkheim and Bourdillon. When it came to one of the workshops, we were to research one of the theorists in more detail which was very helpful as it allowed me to gain a deeper understanding. However, I do feel like I will need to research these theorists in a lot more detail so that I can gain a deeper understanding of their viewpoints.

I would also like to deeper my understanding on functionalism. I found that I got a bit confused at this section, however once I read over my notes I started to understanding it a bit better although I do think I will need to do further readings to fully understand this part.

I really enjoyed today’s lectures and workshops and felt like they were very engaging, interesting and eye-opening. I feel like this particular module will be very useful and helpful for my progress as a learner and a teacher.

Life at UWS

So far, my time at UWS as been very enjoyable. I remember being so nervous and anxious upon starting university as I did not know what to expect. I had so many thoughts going through my head such as: Will i make friends?, What if i cant find the lecture hall and have to walk in late?, Where are the toilets? etc. However, when i arrived there were guides around the university to help me around and make me feel at ease. I was thankful enough to have already known someone upon starting university, as we went to college together, so I didn’t have to worry so much about who to sit with when I walked into the extremely large lecture hall. I found my first day at university very overwhelming and it took me some time to get to grips with how different it was to college and school.

Although, now a few months into university I have never felt more comfortable in my decision to study at UWS. I have met so many lovely people who all share the same interest and passion of becoming a primary teacher, which makes university a little easier as we all want the same end goal and are here to help each other through the course. I quickly realised that I have to be keep on top of things throughout this year in order to ensure that i complete tasks/assessments on time but I know that I will be able to do this if I stay organised and be confident enough to ask for help if I am struggling.

I am over the moon that I am now finally starting my journey to becoming a primary teacher and I look forward to the next four years of completing this journey, well i say that now I might change my mind when all the assessments begin.