Investigating the effectiveness of teaching spiritual intelligence based on Islamic education teachings on the afterlife and religious orientation of students

This research aimed at investigating the effectiveness of teaching spiritual intelligence based on teachings of Islamic education on the afterlife belief and religious orientation of students in Farhangian University of Kerman.

The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test/post-test design of the control group. The research population included all students of Farhangian University of Kerman in the first semester of 2022 academic year, consisting of 1830 subjects. Fifty people were selected as a sample using available sampling method and were divided into two experimental (25 subjects) and control (25 subjects) groups. The experimental group was trained in spiritual intelligence based on the teachings of Islamic education in 8 sessions of 90 minutes, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The data collection tools were Ebrahimi and Bahrami eschatological questionnaire (2011) and Bahrami religious orientation (2008). Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, analysis of covariance, and SPSS-22 software.

The results showed that teaching spiritual intelligence based on Islamic education teachings significantly increased the afterlife belief and religious orientation of students (P<0.001). The amount of this effect based on the effect size was 0.58 on the afterlife belief and 0.46 on religious orientation.

Based on this study, we may suggest that a plan should be considered in universities to familiarize professors and students with the content of spiritual intelligence based on Islamic teachings, so that the Islamic education and training are internalized in them.