A study on the effect of 'philosophy for children (P4C)' education on the development of religious thinking

Today's society has evolved into a multicultural, multireligious structure. Inevitably, our age, which has to live together with many individuals in different culture and beliefs, has to deal with the values of both its own and other people from a dialogical perspective. On the other hand, the deepening and assimilation of the religion that is being experienced in the individual level with a questioning approach is important to educate autonomous individuals. It is assumed that the philosophy for children training program is an effective tool in providing these gains. For this reason, there is a need for researches on what may be philosophical gains in religious education with the philosophy for children education program. Despite the incentives for us to have a very rich philosophical literature and to encourage the Qur'an and Sunnah, the main sources of Islam to questioning and asking questions, the intellectual obstacles in this field have not yet been instilled. It is hoped that this research will contribute to religious education research and bring new horizons in shaping religious thought. The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of philosophy for children education in religious thinking development. Mixed method was used in the research. The pattern of the research is the convergent parallel pattern that is frequently used in mixed method research. Accordingly, the quantitative data of the research was obtained from an experiment and the 'Faith or Worldview Development Scale' applied to a control group. The qualitative data of the study were obtained from the analysis of the video recordings held during the student diaries, student interview forms and sessions. The findings from the qualitative and quantitative data of the study have shown that the philosophy for children education program did not destroy the religious commitment of students and on the contrary. In addition, students contributed to the development of comprehension, inquiry, awareness, associating, interpretation and thoughts with daily life. In this study, where the stories of the Prophet used as a stimulus, it was understood that the dialogue and inquiry environment created through religious texts attracted the attention of the students and made the lesson more fun. Key words: Religious education, Development of religious thinking, Philosophy for children.