Investigating the nature and characteristics of the elements of the comprehensive curriculum of Islamic education courses (Qualitative Study(

The purpose of the research is to examine the nature and characteristics of Islamic education curriculum elements.

The research approach is qualitative and it is applied from the point of view of the objective and the basic qualitative method.  The research community is all universities and government higher education centers of the country. The participants were 30 different experts, including the respected officials of the Supreme Leader in universities, the educational assistants of the Supreme Leader in universities, the respected managers of Islamic education departments, faculty members and invited professors of Islamic education courses as well as 10 researchers from two areas of curriculum and Islamic education courses. The sampling method was criteria-based (using theoretical knowledge and practical experience). The measurement tool was a semi-structured interview. The coding method (selective, organizing and open) is used to analyze the data. To determine the validity of qualitative data, the four indicators of Lincoln and Guba including (credibility, transferability, dependability and verifiability) were used.

Based on the results of the research, 10 following selected themes were identified and extracted:  logic, purpose, content, educational resources, Teaching-learning strategy, learning activity, grouping, space, time and evaluation.  24 organizing themes   were also identified as follow :  program reasons  , cognitive goals, affective goals, psychomotor goals, organized content, situational content, single-source educational materials, multiple resources, direct teaching - learning strategies, indirect teaching-learning strategies, individual activity, group activity, in-class activity, out-of-class activity, subject grouping, grouping based on ability level, physical space, psycho-social space, safe space, fixed schedule, flexible schedule , evaluation before training, evaluation during training and evaluation after training. On the other hand, 128 basic themes were identified and extracted for the nature and characteristics of desirable elements of Islamic education curriculum.

Based on the extracted characteristics, it is possible to provide the basis for the comprehensive development of the curriculum of Islamic education courses and to increase the level of attractiveness and efficiency of the curriculum and most importantly, the level of satisfaction of the students.