Islamic Education Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Religion

Contents

Introduction.

Reflective practice in education.

Approach to Education defined in Quran.

Educational challenges in seminary education in Britain.

Educational challenges experienced by British Muslim communities.

Prophetic Educational practices in Islam..

Conclusion.

References.

Introduction to Islamic Education

This assignment aims to explore and understand the modern concept of ‘reflective practice in education’ and identify whether it is compatible with the principles and values of Islamic education. It further examines whether Qur'an contains any particular approach to education or there is no approach. It critically explores the key educational aspects of Islamic teachings and discusses their implications for a modern Islamic Educational curriculum. It highlights the educational challenges facing Islamic seminary education in Muslim minority context of Britain. It father explore educational challenges experienced by British Muslim communities. And at last it emphasis on Prophetic Educational Practices and Methods in Islam and their implications for modern Islamic education. Islamic education has encapsulated a lot of underpinnings which are emphasized here to understand the differences and challenges that are experienced by the people from the learning and teaching perspectives.

Reflective Practice in Education

Reflective practice is a process by which a person learns and adapt through one's experience. It emphasizes on gaining new insight into self and practice. It makes the person more aware of their professional knowledge and action. It is the most basic part of the teaching and learning process. It challenges the practitioners about their everyday practice and also critically evaluates the practitioner's response towards situations. This process encourages the person to work with other collaboratively by supporting one another. The best part of reflective learning is that it helps the teachers to understand how his or her students learn and which practices he or she should adopt to teach students effectively (Meierdirk 2016). The reflective process increases the confidence of the teachers. It helps them find out the barriers in the learning process which are being experienced by the student. After analyzing the barrier, teachers try to develop and recreate the lesson to teach in such a way that students can understand the concept easily.

It will help in overcoming all the obstacles that a student experience in the learning process. Teachers must adopt the reflective practice to solve the problems. This practice should also be encouraged to be adopted by the students as it encourages the students to take up new challenges in life and help them develop a secure and confident knowledge base. It makes sure that the teacher is responsible for himself or herself along with the students. It helps the person to analyze her or her strengths by asking relevant questions and finding out the areas where there is a need for development (Watanabe 2016). A teacher can play an active role by asking students their thoughts and feelings about the learning process. It gives them ownership of learning and makes them self-aware and responsible for themselves. Since the practice is solely based on the reflection thus it will improve the learning outcomes of all students as well as teachers.

Reflective practice is found to compatible with many of the religions, Islam is one of that religion. It is found rich in reflective practices that call for continuous self-examination so that the person remains faithful in religious observance (Hafidurrahman 2018). Islam offers a value-oriented education to its followers. Its moral education is about inner change which can be done by analyzing person spiritually. It comes through internalization of universal values of Islam. The basic principle of Islamic education states that it is a part of Islamic rububiyah. It is an open education always related to religious education and tries to transform a person to become complete. (Halstead 2019). The Islamic principles argued that Islamic education would be a creative process based on value orientation. It emphasizes self-reliance and gives the person the freedom to choose. It is from here it can be stated that reflective practice is even followed in Islam.

Approach to Education Defined in Quran

There is no particular approach is Quran but it lays emphasis on sharing of information so that every person on the Earth can have knowledge of science and technology. It was found that in the west, education was based on the interest of the learner. Teachers thus used to pay attention to those children who they found to be enthusiastic for studies that are teachers only used to act as a motivator and stimulator. They only used to motivate and stimulate the learners to learn they do not pay attention to the formation of the personality. But this was not the case from point of view of Islam. In Islam, Prophet Muhammad was an educator. He was not only a motivator, a simulator but is a complete example of the education process (Ta'a et al. 2017). According to Islamic education, the teacher must always focus on morals and formation of noble personality as found in the Quran and preachings of Prophet Muhammad. The teachers thus should always select an education method which focuses on educational goals which are to be achieved. In addition, the teachers must always select the methods which are in accordance with the basic sources of Islamic education that is Quran and Sunnah Rasullullah SAW.

Alquran put forward three principles of Islamic education method that includes Al-Hikmah, Al-Mau'izah Al-Hasanah, and Al-Mujadalah (Adeleke et al. 2018). These principles ask the teacher to not only teach science but also shape a student’s character by transforming in them values of goodness. The purpose of choosing a method for education is to choose the effectiveness of the method. Effectiveness can be understood from the educator's side or the learner's side. It gives the freedom to understand all the aspects of learning and development form both sides. The existence of the Quran in a person's life is very important. It was identified from the findings that the Quran is given by Allah to human beings so as to fulfil their human needs that is to achieve salvation and happiness. To achieve these things humans, need guidance to identify what is good and what is bad. The modern Islamic curriculum contains the basic principle of Islamic education. But there is little change in the education method. Earlier the education was based on practical experiences like the development of irrigation system and production of steel and iron products and so on.

But with the ages, it has changed known along with the basic education students are even taught about social advancement and material profit. According to the modern curriculum, students were able to learn about their occupation as clerics. They learned Latin and even about holy writ (Idris and Sulaiman 2018). The students were even taught about arts, arithmetic, geometry, logic, grammar, harmonics and astronomy. Earlier the philosophy was based on life but now students can learn theoretical. practical, logical and mechanical aspects. These were further divided into different sections like physics, mathematics and so on. In all the forms of education at an elementary level like Madarsa, it was critically identified that teachings in Madrasa portrayed a negative image in the society as students learning in them fostered narrow mindedness, Islamic radicalism and terrorism. This type of stereotype teaching was encouraging sympathy towards their sects and beliefs. There was a need to change the negative image of Islamic schooling to an image of schooling that cultivates tolerance, respect for others and modernization (Huda et al. 2020). They reviewed the curriculum thought in the elementary school, middle level like schools, higher-level like universities all helped in transforming the lives of the student to become a successful person with moral values and thorough knowledge.

Educational Challenges in Seminary Education in Britain

Education in Islam began in the Mosques where Prophets used to teach the children about Islamic values and how to become a successful person. It marked the beginning of seminary education. But it faced certain challenges in Britain as the religion was geographically and culturally shifted to a new place. Being a minority community at a new place, the Muslims needed some guidance of what they need to bring them to the new place and what all things they cannot take it to Britain. But People did not emphasize it and it is because of a lack of understanding of how to live in a culturally and geographically different place, the seminary education had to face challenges. The founders of the seminary education had to face the transmission loss. They had to let go of certain things but having ownership of Islamic values they were not ready to let go and accept the changes that were introduced in their lives. Another challenge was to integrate the Islamic curriculum, the one that was developed by east Asia for its students. The integration was the major issue because the community was now a minority one living at a secular place (Sahin, 2019).

The Islamic seminary education raised another question as well that is will the education provided to the children will help in getting a good career opportunity in Britain. The answer highlights that teachings at an early age have a deep impact on the person and getting acquired completely by the Islamic values would become a hindrance in Britain cause the person will not be able to understand the meaning of globalization and secularism. The faith that he has instilled in the mind would make it hard to get a job in Britain in future. It is due to this reason the intellectual formation of a person is totally based on the religious values and belief as it is not an accumulation of knowledge through academic study. The goal of the seminaries is to develop the intellect of the seminarians in such a way that it moves in the direction of the priesthood (Sahin, 2018). Besides, it is also found that many seminaries failed to provide theological education to the children as they are irrelevant to contemporary vocational ministry. It may be because the people who are heading seminaries had never actually led the mosque before being at an interim position. They are theoreticians and not practitioners.

Teachers of such kind failed to give the practical education required by the child to live life in the world environment where he will face people of a different religion. Muslim being a minority community had to face issues of secularism. Seminaries were teaching places where spiritual education was taught to the children but there was a need for the children to understand the concept of secularism. For any sort of the work having Islamic spiritual value would help the person to be honest but it would help the person in completing that activity efficiently. Religious education is necessary but along with academic education. There were times when initially when people in Britain opposed Islamic seminaries because it was found Islamic seminaries is a place of terrorism where children are taught to be violent, breach peace and involve in murders and bloodshed. The community person insisted again and again that Islam is a religion of peace. It is because of this Muslim minority got the permission of teaching religious values to the students in Britain

Educational Challenges Experienced by British Muslim Communities

Britain is a secular country although there is a national religion known as the church of England people are not forced to participate it. The country has driven on liberalization. It has provided the authority to the Muslim minority community to open their state school where the children of their community can gain Islamic education.

The biggest challenge for the minority community was the wide gap between faith school and secular context of the society. It was also examined that another major challenge experienced by the teachers of the faith school was diverse expectations of the Muslim community to provide the best education to their children. Some parents even have high expectations related to the infrastructure of the society but were not ready to pay for the service. They want everything free in the name of the lord. Another issue that was identified in the faith school was that some of the parents came up to complain about the teacher as the way he or she was teaching was not familiar to the tradition to which they belong. The issue was so serious that without any mistake of the teacher he or she was pulled out of the organization (Suwito et al. 2017). There was another issue that some of the community members were not satisfied with the teachings taught. Despite the same textbooks and the same curriculum, the thoughts of the different schools were creating the difference. It is because many of the Qur'anic commands and teachings are open to different interpretations to support their specific beliefs.

Besides Arabic is a very rich language and therefore it can be interpreted in a variety of ways. It was also found that despite Muslim schools were established for their community still the response from the community members were not favourable. It was also found that many of the community members do not come for cultural help until and unless there is some cultural cause. Another issue was that many of the Muslims came from different cultural background. In comparison to other faith schools, Muslim parents never come out to support schools in the projects. It was found that few of the project of the school was run by their community member. Another issue that was Muslims were accused of the being divisive that is when they understand the fact that the society in which they are living is plural and diverse. The people who do not accept diverseness are separated and segregated from the assimilation.

The lack of understanding was the root cause of the challenges that the teacher and school of faith experienced in Britain. Another issue faced by the school was a lack of qualified teachers (Kyriacou et al. 2017). There were very few qualified teachers and the majority of the people are non-qualified since they do not have people who could teach the student well therefore the school has to hire non-qualified people. The crises of the good quality teacher created a problem for Muslim schools. Since the school was not state-funded in the beginning this is why the school had to cut the pay of the teacher to survive but when it has become state-funded now there is no such issue.

Prophetic Educational Practices in Islam

Prophetic education emphasis more on religious study whereas the modern education system emphasis on academic studies rather than on theology. These teachers teach their students by setting an example, allow them to the children to ask questions, give speeches on sermons and talk with the children after prayers. If children find difficulty in understanding a concept they use storytelling method to convey the message to the children accurately. They teach children practical education which became the basis of modern Islamic education. Another method used by Prophets in teaching was they never used to embarrass a child even if he or she commits the mistake. The ways prophets educated the children in Muslim school because of the foundation of how children will be taught in the classroom in Modern Islamic education (Umam 2018). The curriculum decides by Prophets would be used along with some variations in the study rest everything would be the same as was taught by prophets. These techniques would help people to turn their children interest in spiritual learning. He or she will automatically adopt the values taught in the class and would ensure that they practice them in real life.

The prophet not only teach student but also shower blessings on them. They even help in drawing the abstract concept in the mind of the children to get them away from the darkness and help them enter into the light of faith and belief. They sometimes even teach the students based on the applied lessoning and at times they even use the concept of education that accompanies the educator for time. Many of the Prophetic practices are applied in modern Islamic education but some of them like accompanying the educator are not adopted (Noskova et al. 2016). The role of prophetic education is important as it helps in letting the chide learn and grow with the teachings and values of Islam. It is because of the teaching style of Prophets the children start believing in Allah and take the lessons taught to them seriously. They follow all the norms of a Muslim and abide by it. Prophets even can form the new world of view in the minds of the students (Rozi 2018). They can achieve this through learning and teaching methods. That is learning and teaching through observation, demonstration and comparison methods. These teaching methods force the students to learn by doing which is essential for brain development and growth of the person.

Conclusion on Islamic Education

It can be concluded from the above findings that reflective practice is a growing phenomenon which must be adopted by teachers to understand and evaluate their teaching methods and to also identify how children learn. It would help the teachers to find out barriers in teaching and would also increase their confidence. This form of teaching is present in Islamic principles. The teachings of the Quran are different from that of the western world as it pointed more on the philosophy of life and Islamic sciences rather than on other things. The seminaries in Britain faced a lot of challenges related to secularism and peace. The Islamic school also experienced challenges like Muslim teachers were seen as a negative element of the society by the wider society. They received no or less support from the community members. They even faced issues in developing Muslim identity among students as the entire society is based on secular belief. They experienced financial stress as the community being a minority were not able to afford the expense of the school and the teachers in the society. The condition of the Muslim teachers was worse despite teaching Islam to its community students. At last, the paper highlights the teaching practices of Prophets which forms the basis of education in modern education in Islam.

References for Islamic Education

Adeleke, A.O., Samsudin, N.A., Mustapha, A. and Nawi, N.M., 2018, February. A Group-Based Feature Selection Approach to Improve Classification of Holy Quran Verses. In International Conference on Soft Computing and Data Mining (pp. 282-297). Springer, Cham.

Hafidurrahman, M., 2018. The role of islamic higher education in keeping the values of islam. University-community enggagement October 8-10, 2018, 3(1), p.564. 

Halstead, M., 2019. New Directions in Islamic Education: Pedagogy and Identity Formation By Abdullah Sahin.

Huda, M., Khoirurrijal, K., Dacholfany, M.I., Susminingsih, S., Hashim, A., Marni, N., Mohamed, A.K., Puad, M.A.A., Rozali, M.H., Maseleno, A. and Muhamad, N.H.N., 2020. Empowering Learning Ethics Culture in Islamic Education. In Global Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Paths in Islamic Education (pp. 244-267). IGI Global.

Idris, S., ZA, T. and Sulaiman, F., 2018. Critical education paradigm in the perspective of Islamic education. Advanced Science Letters, 24(11), pp.8226-8230.

 Kyriacou, C., Szczepek Reed, B., Said, F. and Davies, I., 2017. British Muslim university students’ perceptions of Prevent and its impact on their sense of identity. Education, citizenship and social justice, 12(2), pp.97-110.

Meierdirk, C., 2016. Is reflective practice an essential component of becoming a professional teacher?. Reflective Practice, 17(3), pp.369-378. 

Noskova, T., Pavlova, T., Yakovleva, O., Smyrnova-Trybulska, E. and Morze, N., 2016. Modern education quality requirements and information technologies in academic teachers' activities. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life Long Learning, 26(4), pp.434-459.

 Rozi, M.A.F., 2018. Implementation of Prophetic Education in Islamic Boarding School (Pesantren). EDUKASI: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam, 6(1), pp.140-161.

 Sahin, A., 2018. Critical issues in Islamic education studies: Rethinking Islamic and Western liberal secular values of education. Religions, 9(11), p.335.

Sahin, A., 2019. Islamic and Western Liberal Secular Values of Higher Education: Convergence or Divergence?. In Values of the University in a Time of Uncertainty (pp. 199-216). Springer, Cham.

Suwito, S., Rahman, Y. and Rohman, I., 2017, October. Muslim Education and Interfaith Understanding: The Case of the Muslim College in the United Kingdom. In International Conference on Education in Muslim Society (ICEMS 2017). Atlantis Press.

Ta'a, A., Abed, Q.A. and Ahmad, M., 2017. Al-Quran ontology based on knowledge themes. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 9(5S), pp.800-817.

Umam, M.K., 2018, April. Reconstruction of Integrative Islamic Education in The Transformative Profetical Education Framework. In Proceedings of Annual Conference for Muslim Scholars (No. Series 1, pp. 511-520). 

Watanabe, A., 2016. Reflective practice as professional development: Experiences of teachers of English in Japan. Multilingual Matters.

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