Elementary School Children's Understanding of the Concept of God thorough the Process of Education According to Piaget's Theory

The purpose of this study is to investigate the type and quality of understanding of God in elementary and preschool children. A review of the research background showed that so far little research has been done in this field in Iran. To achieve this goal, qualitative research with an integrated approach was used. The target population of this study was all primary and preschool male students in Chadegan city and the sample size was 42 people from this population who were selected by purposive sampling method. Qualitative data collection methods included interviewing the children, interviewing experienced teachers, and analyzing the children's drawings. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data. The results show that children have different knowledge of God according to the stages of Piaget's cognitive development and according to the characteristics of each stage. To have a comprehensive understanding of children's knowledge of God, topics such as the prophets, the Qur'an, prayers, and a large number of issues related to God have also been investigated. Findings indicate that children first get familiar with concepts that have objective and tangible examples. As their minds grow and become more powerful they know and understand more abstract concepts. Other religious concepts, such as the concepts of God, resurrection, prophet, prayer, Hajj, prayer, and miracle, like other concepts, follow the general rule of formation of concepts in the child's mind. Having this point in mind, we must adjust religious education, like other education, in accordance with their mental capacities.