Assessing Social Change Initiation among Students Through the Lens of Religious Judgment Theory: An Adaptation of Torrance's Creative Thinking Test

Abstract

Man is known as a social animal and his journey from uncivilized to civilized human is only due to education. The role of teacher in this journey of social change is unforgettable. Subject Islmiat in the education system of Pakistan have a unique place. The subject Islamiat has two major domains: ethics and virtues. The subject is treated as the compulsory subject as the subject consists of needed information based on both domains. Its great impact on society cannot be underestimated. Keeping in mind the same scenario, the lens of Religious Judgement Theory was considered as the main theme of social change initiation and verified it through Torrance’s Creative Thinking Test through the teaching of Islamiat by adopting Creative Thinking Skill at secondary school level. Teachers have the duty to fulfill the needs of the nation being a model or a subject of social change agent. Social change model based on the four basic elements i.e. values and believes; physical environment; Technology and diffusion. Students play their role as object of social change as they work as they guided by their teachers. For such reason, a qualitative research approach was applied to achieve the aim of the study. Firstly, an oral test was conducted of Religious Judgement Theory (RJT) which was patterned on Torrance Test of Creative Thinking and in the second stage, intermediate first year class was divided into control group and experimental group. The procedures of the experiment and semi-structure interviews from the same students was adopted. The collected data were analyzed thematically. The findings of the study show that creative thinking approach to teach the subject of Islamiat is most suitable and social change initiation can be started up by using the students of higher secondary school level.