Developing and validation of religious education curriculum in preschool

The purpose of this research is to compile and validate the curriculum of religious education in the preschool period. The research method is applicable in terms of purpose, mixed (qualitative-quantitative) in terms of the type of data, and is a sequential exploratory combined approach. The statistical population in the qualitative section includes 16 curriculum studies experts, Islamic education experts, and instructors of this course; and in the quantitative section, it includes 200 preschool children. Sampling was done purposefully and according to the theoretical saturation of the data. The tools of data collection are semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Theme analysis was used to collect information in the qualitative stage, and structural equation modeling in the quantitative stage. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed using Nvivo version 8 software in the form of thematic analysis-based, inductively on the "theme network" technique, and during the stages of coding (open, central and selected), and the proposed model of religious education for preschool children was compiled and its assumptions were used to prepare a survey questionnaire in the quantitative stage and evaluate its validity. To ensure the validity of the instrument, expert consensus was used using Delphi method and Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine reliability (α = 0.83). The data were collected with convergent validity (AVE > 0.5) and composite reliability (CR > 0.7), and were analyzed by PLS software to validate the model from structural equation modeling using partial least squares. The results showed that the identified characteristics can predict religious education curriculum components in a favorable way (R2=0.552). Finally, the fit of the overall research model was confirmed (GOF=0.438).