Personal Viewpoints Pedagogy and counterfactual thinking: Year 7 students’ development of agency, resilience, critical thinking and fourth-person perspective

Abstract

Agentic orientation, critical thinking (CrT) and taking the fourth-person perspective (4PP) are described as teachable attainments. A Personal Viewpoints (PVs) Biblical Studies curriculum challenged Year 7 students to resolve socially problematic situations through group discussion and perspective-taking. A life-issue scenario was used to pre- and post-test. Students’ PVs were coded. Responses were more personally agentic following the curriculum intervention, suggesting a strengthened resilience when faced with the threat of an oppressor. Increased perspective-taking and CrT, encouraged by counterfactual thinking, fostered students’ reliance on personal Bible-based judgements and led to greater other-focused, personally agentic resilience in socially problematic situations.