The Spiritual Curriculum Model in Social Studies Course for the Development of Spiritual Health of Learners

Spiritual health is related to mental and social health. Therefore, education should consider the development and evolution of spirituality in the social life of childhood. The purpose of this study was to provide a spiritual curriculum model in social studies course for the development of spiritual health of learners. It was an applied research. The research method was field study research. To this end, by referring and reviewing the theoretical foundations in this regard, the spiritual curriculum model was presented in social studies course for the development of spiritual health of learners based on four key elements of the curriculum (goal, content, implementation and evaluation). Then, using a researcher-made questionnaire, this model was surveyed by 45 curriculum specialists and 360 primary school teachers in Guilan province in the academic year of 2015-2016, who were selected using census and stratified random sampling method, respectively. Descriptive statistics (frequency table and percentage) were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that in the category of goal, emphasis is placed on recognizing God, self, others, and the world. The content of this program is based on the religious and value of the Islamic-Iranian culture and the strengthening of Islamic habits. The learning process is based on participatory methods, group discussion, demonstration and storytelling. The spiritual curriculum is based on self-evaluation and performance evaluation. Also, more than 75% of curriculum specialists and elementary school teachers have evaluated this model as desirable. It is necessary to develop the spiritual health of learners, provide appropriate goals, content, implementation and evaluation in the curriculum of social studies of primary school.