Erken Çocukluk Dönemi Din Eğitimi Yaklaşımları Üzerine Karşılaştırmalı Bir Analiz

Year 2019, Issue: 12, 121 - 151, 20.06.2019

Aybiçe Tosun , Kübra Yıldız

https://doi.org/10.18498/amailad.539556

Cited By: 3

Abstract

Erken
çocukluk döneminde din ve ahlak eğitimi ile ilgili uygulamalar ülkemizde ve
dünyada çeşitli açılardan tartışılmaktadır. Söz konusu tartışmaların odağında
hem bu tür bir eğitimin imkânı hem de içeriği yer almaktadır. Farklı ülkelerde
uzun yıllardır uygulanmakta olan erken çocukluk dönemi din eğitimi
yaklaşımlarının etki alanlarını ve uygulama sonuçlarını ortaya koymanın bu
tartışmalara farklı bir bakış açısı kazandırması kaçınılmazdır. Bu bağlamda
makalenin amacı dünyada uygulanmakta olan The Good Shepherd, The Godly Play,
The Gift to the Child ve Waldorf yaklaşımının ahlak eğitimi ile ilgili
boyutunu, gelişim özellikleri, din eğitimi yaklaşımları, öğrenme ortamları,
yöntem, materyal, yaş, içerik ve değerlendirme açılarından karşılaştırmaktır.
Erken çocuklukta din eğitimi teorilerini kıyaslamayı amaçlayan bu makale
doküman incelemesi yöntemiyle hazırlanmıştır. Yaklaşımlar incelendiğinde;
tamamının oyun ve eğitsel oyuncakları öğretimin merkezine alarak kişilerarası
iletişim, doğa ve toplum bilinci gibi konulara odaklandıkları görülmektedir.
Godly Play ve The Good Shepherd yöntemleri belli bir dine ait temel hikaye ve
özellikleri aktarmaları bakımından dini
öğrenme yaklaşımına uygunken; The Gift to the Child ve Waldorf yaklaşımları
ise herhangi bir dini öğretiyi benimsememeleri yönüyle dinden öğrenme yaklaşımına uygun gibi görünmektedir. Godly Play ve
The Good Shepherd yöntemlerinde materyal ve yöntemlerin Montessori yaklaşımına
uygun olarak belirlendiği görülürken, The Gift to the Child ve Waldorf herhangi
bir yaklaşıma bağlılık göstermez.  

Keywords

Din Eğitimi, Erken Çocukluk Eğitimi, Godly Play, Good Shephard, Gift to the Child

A Comparative Analysis on Early Childhood Religious Education Approaches

Abstract

Religious
education practices in early childhood is an ongoing debate in Turkey like
other countries. The level, method and content of religious, ethics and values
education are challenging topics in the field of the educational sciences,
particularly the religious education. In some
societies that have been conducting religious education studies in the early
childhood for many years, it is possible to come across a number of approaches
and practices which developed specifically for early childhood. Today, these
approaches continue to be practiced in various countries following the
long-term programmes as well as research and developments in the field. These
approaches have been shaped according to different needs that exist in
different societies and continue to change and evolve according to the current
needs of educational environments and communities.

The aim
of this study is to analyse and compare the approaches of early childhood
religious education in terms of method, material, content, developmental
period, evaluation stage and religious education approach and to discuss the
possibilities and limitations of religious education in early childhood. Unfortunately,
there are not sufficient studies regarding religious education practices in
early childhood in our Turkey, the quality of the educations of the
institutions providing religious education at the early childhood level is also
questionable.

Three
different early childhood religious education approaches and one separate early
childhood educational method are selected for this article to be examined. The
first one is called The Good Shepherd, the second one is called Godly Play and
the last one is called The Gift to the Child. In addition to The Good Shepherd
and Godly Play methods and The Gift to the Child approaches, the article also focuses
on the ethics and value education in the Waldorf approach. These are the most
popular approaches that have been used in different countries for a long time
and there are researches on details of educational practices, methods and
effects of them.

It is
possible to evaluate the approaches and methods comparatively in terms of
various aspects of the educational processes. It will be appropriate to perform
the relevant examination by considering the stages of planning, implementation
and evaluation of education and the sub-headings of these stages. The basic
characteristics and comparison criteria of the approaches and methods were
determined according to developmental features, age, religious education
approaches, learning environments, methods, materials, content and evaluation
areas. While developing a learning content that will support the religious,
spiritual and moral development in the early childhood, a delicate process
should be followed by considering many education-related factors such as the content,
educational level of the students, materials, learning environment, methods and
techniques, religious education approach.

As a result,
it can be said that all of the approaches created their lessons in a
student-centered educational environment and they all use different materials
during the educational process. The Good Shephard and The Godly Play are faith
and church oriented and can be used in lessons created around the religious education and they use sacred
texts, stories and rites during the education. Gift to the Child and Waldorf
can be use multicultural and interreligious education in the schools, Gift to
the Child brings examples from daily life for values and ethic education and
Waldorf includes ontological questions to the curriculum. The Good Shephard
created its content considering developmental stages of students, mental and
emotional developments are very important for Gift to the Child and Waldorf approaches,
but it seems like The Godly Play does not really focus on any of the developmental
features.

Children's
interactions with the nature, their perceptions of animals and plants, their
relations with each other and the rest of the society seem to be the basis of
their education in early childhood. From this point of view, while developing
religious education in the early childhood in our country, examining the
approaches that are being practiced in the world in terms of techniques and
materials can offer different perspectives.

Creating
curriculums and contents for early childhood religious, spiritual or ethics
education requires a deep and broad preliminary examination on all aspects. We
discuss that the developmental stage of child, content, material, educational
environment, methods, and religious educational approach should be examined
before the curriculum development. these criteria can be change with the
expectation of the society from education, contemporary trends, social
development etc. But it is a necessity to study all the aspects of early
childhood to develop a special and unique early childhood approach for our
society.

Keywords

Religious Education, Early Childhood Education, Godly Play, Good Shepherd, Gift to the Child

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