High school students' perceptions of religion, value orientations and attitudes towards religious education: Sakarya example

The rapid changes and developments experienced today also affect young people's perspectives on religion, values and education. In order for young people, the adults of the future, to keep up with rapid changes and developments; It has become more important for countries to raise children without breaking away from their culture, beliefs and values. In order for countries to achieve this, the interests, perceptions, attitudes and needs of young people must first be revealed through scientific research. In order to help this goal, the study aims to determine high school students' religious perceptions, value orientations and attitudes towards religious education and to reveal the relationships between them. The research was conducted with a descriptive survey model, with the participation of a total of 489 students studying in different types of high schools in Sakarya in the 2022-2023 academic year. As a result of the research, it is seen that the students have a moderate level of perception of traditional and cultural religion and modern religion. Looking at the average scores, it can be said that students are more prone to traditional and cultural perception of religion. Cultural dimension in students' perception of traditional and cultural religion; In the perception of modern religion, it is seen that they have a high level of participation in the opposition to religious authority/autonomy dimension. It has been determined that the students' value orientations are at a high level and they attach most importance to the respect dimension. It is seen that students' attitudes towards religious education are also at a medium level. While it is seen that the students attach more importance to the attitude dimension towards religious education, they give the lowest score to the attitude dimension towards the RCEK lesson. While there is a moderate inverse relationship between the perception of traditional religion and the perception of modern religion, it has been determined that there is a strong relationship between the perception of traditional religion and attitudes towards religious education. It has been determined that there is a moderate inverse relationship between the perception of modern religion and attitudes towards religious education.