Analyzing the ontological content of Masnavi Stories based on the content approach of teaching thinking and its relevance to religious education at the primary level

The purpose of this study was to analyze the ontological content of Masnavi Stories based on the content approach of teaching thinking and its relevance to religious education in primary school. To this aim, the theoretical foundations of teaching thinking and religious education are presented via the method of qualitative content analysis. Then, given the criticisms of memory-based education, among the existing approaches, the content approach is explained and the ontological themes in this approach are introduced. Finally, the stories from Masnavi related to the philosophical ontological fields (theology, cosmology, and anthropology) are introduced and it is shown which of the philosophical fields is inside each story and whether they are suitable to be utilized in the religious education program of the elementary school. It is also stated that the anecdotes in Masnavi need to be rewritten based on a content approach so that these stories, which have a high literary richness, should be simplified to provide the ground for reflection and thinking in the class and meet the religious education objectives of the elementary school _ mainly familiarity with the topics of theology, cosmology and anthropology_ in more appropriate form.