Universal Rational Education: Teaching Thinking Through Quranic Stories

The present study aims to reconsider the prevailing approaches to teaching thinking and propose an indigenous model for developing children’s cognitive skills by exploring the potentials of Quranic stories within the framework of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) program. First, by critiquing memory-based educational systems, the process-oriented approach to teaching thinking-based on Lipman’s ideas and the Socratic tradition-was examined. In this approach, the primary emphasis is placed on developing reasoning skills through participation in a “community of inquiry.” Subsequently, by shifting the focus from skills to subject matter, the content-oriented approach was investigated; an approach in which the quality and richness of reflective content are considered essential prerequisites for stimulating thinking. Accordingly, this study highlights the necessity of employing indigenous content by critically examining the cultural dependency of imported stories used in existing programs. The findings indicate that Quranic stories, due to their philosophical structure encompassing three domains of ontology, epistemology, and axiology, can serve as “reflective content” and replace non-indigenous examples. The research method employed in this study is analytical-comparative, through which the educational capacities of Quranic concepts were examined for their adaptation, rewriting, and simplification for presentation in philosophy classes for children. The results demonstrate that utilizing Quranic stories not only provides an appropriate context for practicing critical and creative thinking but also establishes a profound connection between children’s cognitive frameworks and authentic Iranian-Islamic culture. Moreover, it contributes to the realization of the goals of religious education in ethical and epistemological dimensions through an internalized and reflective process.