ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPTS THAT SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH IN THE RELIGIOUS CULTURE AND ETHICS COURSE

ORTAÖĞRETİM ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN DKAB DERSİNDE ZORLANDIKLARI KAVRAMLARIN ANALİZİ

Abstract

The Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge (RCMK) course in Turkish secondary schools is a compulsory subject covering the fundamental beliefs of Islam, worship practices, moral values and Islamic civilisation. The curriculum is heavily based on abstract concepts. Studies reveal that RCMK teachers face significant challenges in teaching concepts and that students find many concepts difficult to comprehend. Teachers highlight problems such as insufficient methodological knowledge, difficulty in teaching abstract concepts, inadequacies in students’ intellectual skills and persistent misconceptions. Similarly, abstract subjects such as belief in destiny or death are areas where students pose challenging questions and teachers struggle to offer pedagogically appropriate explanations. This article aims to identify the concepts that secondary school students struggle with in the RCMK course and to analyse the difficulties encountered in teaching these concepts. A literature review and qualitative analysis were conducted to examine statements from both teachers and students, and observations were made in selected schools. The findings are grouped under the themes of faith, worship, ethics, Islamic culture and “challenging topics”. For each theme, the concepts that students find difficult were identified and teaching-related issues were discussed. The study concludes that the combination of abstractness, conceptual misconceptions and methodological deficiencies impedes learning. It emphasises the importance of using concretisation strategies, cultural tools such as proverbs and idioms, and interactive learning techniques in concept teaching.