Worldviews vocabulary cards

Use twelve vocabulary cards and eight fictional statements to practise careful use of words. Pupils explain which terms fit, where meanings overlap and when a statement does not tell them enough.

Download the complete printable pack (PDF). It includes pupil materials and teacher guidance. The complete activity is also below, so the download is optional.

Prepare the vocabulary activity

Teacher notes.

Learning objective: explain key worldview and reasoning terms, use them in context, and recognise when a label would go beyond the available information.

Teacher introduction

Explain that these are working definitions for an activity. Some terms have several accepted uses. A good response identifies the wording it relies on and acknowledges ambiguity; it does not guess a person's identity from one sentence.

Read the humanism guide and atheism and agnosticism guide when preparing. Check the curriculum context alongside your own school's programme.

Run the activity

1. Introduce the question (5 minutes): What does a word help us understand, and what can it leave open? Read the worldview card together.
2. Explore the cards (10 minutes): pairs group terms they think are connected. Ask them to explain two connections, rather than finding one prescribed arrangement.
3. Sort the statements (10 minutes): choose terms for statements A-H. Allow more than one term and 'not enough information', with a reason.
4. Review (5 minutes): compare one straightforward case and one ambiguous case. Finish by revising an overconfident label.

What to assess

Look for accurate explanations, attention to wording and recognition of limits. Do not award marks for a pupil's religion, non-religion or agreement with any worldview.

Vocabulary cards: ideas and reasoning

Pupil copy.

Read each explanation with its example and caution. These cards can be cut apart or read as a sheet.

1. Worldview

A way of understanding life and the world, involving beliefs, values and ways of living.

Example: A person's ideas about meaning and responsibility can be part of a worldview.

Take care: People within one named tradition can have different worldviews.

2. Belief

Something a person accepts as true, or a conviction they hold.

Example: A fictional speaker believes that keeping promises matters.

Take care: A belief may be well supported or poorly supported; the word alone does not decide.

3. Knowledge

What someone knows, rather than merely guesses. What counts as knowing can itself be debated.

Example: A pupil knows the result written in a supplied fictional results table.

Take care: Feeling certain is not, by itself, a guarantee of knowledge.

4. Evidence

Information offered to help establish or assess a claim.

Example: Recorded bridge-test results can support a claim about those tests.

Take care: Ask whether the evidence is relevant, reliable and sufficient for this claim.

5. Reason

A consideration offered to support a conclusion or decision.

Example: A speaker supports turn-taking because everyone should have a chance.

Take care: Giving a reason does not automatically make the conclusion correct.

6. Assumption

Something an argument takes for granted rather than establishing within it.

Example: A proposal assumes that everyone can attend the chosen meeting time.

Take care: An assumption is not always false; identify it and ask whether it is justified.

Vocabulary cards: ethics and worldviews

Pupil copy.

The words below do different jobs. Some describe an ethical outlook; others concern belief, knowledge, identity or belonging.

7. Ethics

Thinking carefully about how people ought to act and what matters in a good life.

Example: Discussing whether a fair rule should allow an exception is ethical reasoning.

Take care: A popularity vote does not, on its own, establish that a decision is fair.

8. Humanism

A non-religious worldview concerned with human welfare, responsibility and reason, as described by Humanists International.

Example: A humanist may consider how a decision affects people's lives.

Take care: Not every non-religious person identifies as a humanist. These concerns are not exclusive to humanists.

9. Atheism

Often used for lack of belief in gods; also used for the view that no gods exist.

Example: 'I do not believe in any gods' fits the first usage.

Take care: Say which usage you mean. The label alone does not explain someone's ethics.

10. Agnosticism

Used for positions about not knowing whether gods exist, or suspending judgement on that question.

Example: 'I do not know whether any gods exist' expresses uncertainty about knowledge.

Take care: Some uses overlap with atheism; others treat the positions differently.

11. Religion

A varied category involving such things as traditions, beliefs, practices, communities and questions of meaning.

Example: A fictional speaker describes a festival as part of a religious tradition.

Take care: No single short checklist describes every religion or every member.

12. Non-religious

A broad description for people or perspectives that do not identify with, or are not based on, religion.

Example: A speaker describes their outlook as non-religious.

Take care: This does not tell us everything they believe, value or practise.

Sort and discuss the statements

Pupil copy.

All statements A-H are fictional teaching examples. For each, choose one or more useful vocabulary terms. Explain the exact wording you used. You may decide that there is not enough information for a particular label.

A response structure

'The term ___ fits because the statement says ___. It does not tell us ___.' For example: D concerns ethics because it proposes how a club should act. It does not tell us the speaker's religious or non-religious identity.

Questions for a partner

• Which statement could fit more than one label? Explain the definitions you are using.
• Where would a further question be more useful than a quick label?
• Which statement moves from a small observation to a much larger claim?

Use the response sheet for any three statements, or make the same table on paper. Do not classify members of your class.

Record and review your choices

Pupil response sheet.

Choose three statements. Write about the fictional wording, not your own or another pupil's beliefs.

Copy this table onto paper, or use the writing spaces in the printable PDF.

1. One label I would use more carefully now, and why:
2. A sentence I can revise to avoid overgeneralising about a group:

Write or discuss your responses to these prompts. The PDF includes blank writing space; no information is submitted to this website.

Success check: I have explained a term, supported a choice and identified at least one uncertainty. Recognising a limit is a thoughtful answer.

Compare vocabulary responses

Teacher response guide.

Accept alternative answers when a pupil states a defensible working definition and identifies the relevant wording. Ask a further question when a response goes beyond the information given. The aim is conceptual precision rather than a single label for each speaker.

Adapt the vocabulary activity

Teacher notes and use.

Address misconceptions; adjust the task

If pupils treat belief as a synonym for unsupported opinion, return to the evidence card. If they define agnosticism as not caring, ask what the statement actually says. If one label is treated as a full biography, ask what remains unknown.

For more support, use six terms first, read statements aloud and supply the response structure. For extension, ask pupils to write two fictional sentences using different senses of the same term, then explain the difference. Accept spoken or written responses and allow thinking time.

Source and use notes

Terminology was checked against the academic SEP discussion, Humanists International's own description and the RE Council's professional explanation of worldviews. These sources have different roles; none endorses this activity. The IPO source explains the limits of educational copyright exceptions.

All classroom examples and figures in this pack are original fiction, not findings from a study or accounts of real pupils. Timings are planning estimates. Teachers should adapt the material to their learners and curriculum.

You may print, copy and adapt original YAH for Schools material for teaching and personal study with attribution. Identify adaptations. This permission excludes third-party material.

Version 1.0. Prepared 3 November 2026. The complete text is also available as an HTML resource, which can be enlarged and read with assistive technology.