نشریه تربیت اسلامی
پیاپی 29 (پاییز 1398)

The comparative educational method is among the most applied educational methods in the Holy Quran. In this method, the educator firstly states the contrast between two antithetic subjects and the related results; and in the next stage, he compares the two sides of the contrast and refers to other similar Quranic verses to precisely explain the two sides and prepare the ground for conscious assessment and free selection for the pupils. This study investigates the contrastive concepts in the verses of the Quran such as monotheism and polytheism, evildoing and piety, healthy heart and ill heart, God’s party and Satan’s party, and refers to reliable exegesis through a descriptive-analytical method aiming at explaining a mostly-used educational method in the Quran, extracting its foundations and functions. The findings of the study show that the comparative method has been much used in the Quran and its foundations are as follows: ‘existence of contrast in the universe’, ‘God as the only non-contrasted truth’, ‘contrast of intellect and ignorance in human being’, and ‘human’s choice among contrasting things’. This method has invaluable functions for educators such as creating a new way in teachings doctrines, answering some religious doubts and questions, explanation of consequences of behavior; and it has important results for pupils including nurturing and reinforcing one’s willpower, power of selection and choice, nurturing the power of thinking and reasoning, increasing one’s knowledge, creating interest in virtues and hatred for vices.

The important issue for the authors of this article is that the images in the children’s books are becoming more and more attractive as far as form, colors and characterizations are concerned. However, rarely do they use the unique capability of the Quranic designs and embellishments for activating the children’s creative imagination – which is considered the tool for reaching the world of imagery as the source of artistic illustrations in Islam.
Islamic aesthetics, which is observable in the designs of Quranic gildings especially in Teymurid and Safawid periods, includes geometrical designs, Khutaie, Eslimi, light, color, high-level techniques and themes of good composition such as equilibrium, harmony, continuous repetitions, and steady movement of designs and colors. The curious mind of a child is seeking the truth and loves discovery. The atmosphere of the Quranic gildings, due to proper changes and ingenious nature of gilding themes as well as their difference from the real world, increases the discovery power in the children and the juveniles and gives them opportunity to think. The present article is seeking to use a comparative-analytical method as well as library resources and questionnaires to prove that depictions in the Quran with attractive and incentive embellishments for children considering the preeminent models of embellishing the Quran, especially those belonging to the Safawid period, is possible, and the abstract nature of those designs as well as the symbolic nature of the colors give them the power to activate the imagination faculty.

The desirability and necessity of religious education cannot be denied according to the Islamic texts, whether in general or in the formal system of education. Nevertheless, there are doubts and oppositions regarding the necessity of religious education in the formal system of education by some western thinkers. This article aims at investigating and criticizing these reasons and proving the desirability and necessity of religious education in the formal system of education through a descriptive, analytical and critical method. Senselessness and irrationality of religious teachings as well as suggestive nature of religious education are among the most important general reasons for opposition to necessity of religious education, and the suggestive nature of the concept of Islamic education is the specific reason for opposition to necessity of religious-Islamic education. In this article, these reasons are reviewed and investigated. Finally, the desirability and necessity of religious education are proved using separate reasons.

The present study aims at investigating the students’ expectations of the desired characteristics for the teachers of “Religion and Life” course, and comparing it with the existing condition. As to the goal, this study is practical and as to the method, it is a survey study. The statistical population is composed of all male and female students in science and humanities disciplines in Sarakhs city. We used quota sampling to select a sample of 280 subjects and used a researcher-made questionnaire to gather data. To verify the reliability of the questionnaire, we used Cronbach’s alpha whose results were as follows: 0.79 for the category of individual morality, 0.89 for personal and mental category, 0.90 for interpersonal morality, 0.78 for outward characteristics, and 0.89 for individual qualifications.  To analyze the data, we used descriptive statistics method (median and standard deviation) as well as repeated measurement test and T-test.
The results of the repeated measurement test showed that in the students’ eyes, there is a quite meaningful difference between the desired and existing characteristics of the teachers of “Religion and Life” as far as the priority is concerned (p

The present article aims at investigating the following question: how much do the images in lessons related to books of Religious Teachings in grade four of primary school serve to state the concepts pertaining to theology expressed in the textbooks, and how much have they been changed in those two periods of time? The benefit of this research is identifying the weaknesses and deficiencies of the images as far as correspondence with the text is concerned, and preparing the background for modifying and improving those images. The main hypothesis is that illustrators have not paid deep and scrutinizing attention to the text, and they have done imaging mostly according to their personal taste. The research method is analytical-comparative. The sample studied consists of eight lessons related to the concept of theology from the two books of religious teachings in grade four of primary school in Iran in 1360 and 1394 SH. The statistical population was the experts in imaging available including 52 professors, graduates and MA students of visual arts in Tehran and Neyshabur. The process of research was as follows: a questionnaire was prepared according to the high-level documents of the Ministry of Education, containing a table of comparison for 11 indices common between the texts and the images, and the level of correspondence between the images and the related texts as well as the high-level documents were examined.
The findings showed that imaging of the lessons pertaining to theology in books of Religious Teachings in grade four of primary school, altogether, corresponded to the texts 46%. This was 49% for 1360 SH and 41% for 1394, showing that the illustrators’ attention to the text, especially its content themes, is not sufficient, and they have not well depicted the concept of theology hidden in the text as the main goal of the lesson.

In Kierkegaard’s thought, religious education is a process whose foundation is the internality of the faith and whose ultimate goal is presence before God, which is achieved through an extraordinary event called “leap of faith”. Besides, Kierkegaard emphasizes on the individual’s awareness along with his freedom in choosing his own beliefs away from any compulsion and imposition.
The findings of research show that although leap of faith and internality of faith (and its not being imposed from the outward) is agreed upon by both thinkers, and both stress that the faith is stable if it is achieved through the individual’s freedom in choosing his doctrinal teachings, Martyr Mutahhari maintains that leap of faith is not possible for everybody and is experienced by certain persons who have been favored by God, and that extending it to all human beings turns the ‘faith’ into a general, ambiguous and somewhat inaccessible concept.
In Kierkegaard’s thought, faith is more similar to emotional faith than intuitive faith, and this is while the position of doubt – temporary doubt, not the perpetual one – in Master Mutahhari’s thought is of special importance. Regarding the relationship with others and faith, Master Mutahhari is in opposite position to Kierkegaard, and does not regard others separate from faith, believing that feeling responsibility for the people is somehow the same as feeling responsibility for God, and going towards God is based on the relationship with other human beings.

The present study aims at exploring the reason for entering voluntarily into the teaching profession as well as representation of its nature in the context of life-world and from the viewpoint of student-teacher. To achieve this goal, we used the method of participatory autobiography, and the MAXQDA software for analysis of qualitative data to analyze the autobiographies. According to the results, we may classify the students’ motivation for entering the teaching profession in four types as follows:  “choosing a certain lifestyle”, “occupational privileges”, “encouraging one’s associates”, and “social function”. Similarly, the findings show that the nature of being a teacher is composed of four concepts of “love”, “teaching”, “educating”, and the “art of establishing relationship”. These findings show that recognizing the nature of being a teacher in the eyes of the volunteers and restudying the reasons and factors effective in entering the teaching profession must be considered and investigated by those responsible for education system.

This study, done with a descriptive-analytical method aiming at explaining the theoretical and practical rationality in rational orientations of the curriculum as well as investigating the relationship between them and the attitude towards theoretical and practical intellect in Islamic philosophy, is based on the hypothesis that rationality as one of the orientations of the curriculum is originated from the various foundations especially the philosophical foundations.
The findings of the study show that rational orientations of the curriculum are based on one of the two rationalities, i.e. theoretical rationality or practical rationality; this is while academic rationalism put forward by Eisner and Vallance, Schubert’s rational traditionalism, and Taylor’s instrumental rationality are mostly rooted in theoretical rationality; and Schwab’s deliberative action, by distancing from theoretical rationality, applies practical rationality in special situations. According to the views of many Islamic philosophers, despite the distinction between theoretical and practical reason, they are interrelated. Practical intellect, assisted and backed by theoretical intellect, deals with minor affairs and infers industries and actions from it. As a result, lesson planners are faced with predetermined rational beliefs, general opinions, decisions and goals. Besides, they choose, along with general beliefs, various methods and means in certain situations, and even make changes in intermediate and minor goals.