Cotswold_School_Logo_CMYK_100_72_0_0-01

Topic title: Good, bad, right or wrong – How do I decide?

Year group: 9

When taught: September- November

What are we learning?

  • In this module we will look at different ethical theories on how to act (such as utilitarianism). We will use key terms such as ethics, morality, absolute morality, relative morality.
  • We will consider where people get their moral values from e.g. society; family; conscience; religion.
  • We will look at different examples of how Christians decide what is right and wrong (for example Joseph Fletcher’s Situation Ethics and Aquinas’ Natural Law Theory).
  • We will also explore how Humanists decide what is right and wrong.
  • We will evaluate religious and humanist guides to morality and use these to inform our own opinions.

Why is this important to know? 

  • The exploration of the topics included enable students to connect prior learning to local, national and global issues facing the world today.

Where does this link into our past and future learning? 

  • Students will be able to use knowledge gained in all of their previous modules to think about how belief impacts on behaviour.
  • In the next module, students will explore different ethical issues such as abortion, the death penalty etc. They will use the ethical theories in this module to apply to the situations covered in the next module.

How will we be assessed on this topic?

  • Ongoing assessment of knowledge and understanding of key terms through Satchel: one quizzes/homework/retrieval tasks in lessons.
  • An assessment in the Autumn Term designed to test knowledge and understanding.

What makes a strong piece of work in this topic?  What are teachers hoping to see? 

In PBE longer answers we use codes to identify what makes a good answer. These include:

  • Use of key terms (KT)
  • Knowledge of key terms (K)
  • Use of sources of authority (SOA) to help explain different views. For example: quotes from the Bible, religious figures such as Aquinas, Fletcher.
  • Explanation of points in detail (EXPN)
  • Giving different views towards the topic studied (DV)
  • An understanding of how religious beliefs motivate people to act (I)
  • Evaluation of different views looked at (EV) using critical sentence starters e.g. ‘It could be argued….’, ‘on the other hand….’
  • Linking points back to the specific question asked (L)
  • In evaluation questions, concluding/reaching a judgement is important (RJ)

What key words are there in this topic?

Quizlet: Click here

What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?

  • Use key terms in your written work but also when you are contributing to class discussions.
  • Use the Quizlet cards to continually remind yourself of key terms. Create your own flashcards for these to use for revision. Create your own key quotes flash cards.
  • Do some further research on the different ethical theories we have looked at e.g. Utilitarianism/Situation Ethics.
  • Attend Philosophy Club to engage in further debate with students from a different year group.

What wider reading can be done on this topic?

BBC Radio 4 – A History of Ideas. (Look at the section titled: How Can I Know Wrong from Right?)

Click here: BBC Radio 4 – A History of Ideas – A History of Ideas

BBC KS4 webpages – Useful webpages aimed at GCSE students but accessible for KS3: Click here: Ethical decision making – Morality – GCSE Religious Studies Revision – WJEC – BBC Bitesize

Supporting document/links:

Knowledge organiser (see below)

Good, bad, right or wrong

 

Click here to return to the Curriculum page.