Transforming Religious Character Values of Primary-school Pupils

Siti Dewi Maharani

1,2

, Zulela M. S

and Nadiroh

Department of Elementary Education, Universitas Negeri Jakarta., Jakarta, Indonesia

Department of Elementary Education, Universitas Sriwijaya., Indralaya, Ogan Ilir, Indonesia

Keywords: Transforming, Religious Character Values.

Abstract: This study discusses the transformation of religious character values of the pupils of an elementary school in

Palembang. The study focuses on (1) the process of transformation of religious character values of the pupils;

(2) what religious character values are transformed; (3) vertical relationship is transformed. The research

method was a qualitative approach with empirical inductive strategy. The data were collected from the

teachers and pupils based on real experience either in the form of speech or behaviours of the respondents and

existing field situations because this study intended to know the phenomena experienced by elementary school

pupils. The process of transforming the religious character values in learning at the school was through the

involvement of parents, experts, learning activities, memorization, and peer tutors. The result of the

transformation is the students’ greeting the teachers and other pupils when they meet. Furthermore, the pupils

give smiles, greetings, and show politeness. They pray every time they start and end their activities. Besides,

the pupils perform Dhuhr the noon prayer together.

1 INTRODUCTION

Indonesia has implemented character values in

everyday life for a long time. In the period leading to

the Indonesian independence, the country included

character values in the formulation of the

proclamation. The character values are democracy,

nationalism, love of homeland, and responsibility. In

line with this, during the formulation of Pancasila as

the basis of the state, character values were also

reflected. This can be seen from the character values

contained in the five principles of Pancasila. The

character values contained in Pancasila include

religious values, tolerance, peace, democracy,

nationalism, and social care.

Actualization of character education programs in

schools is needed to overcome the nation's character

crisis. Children's moral future must be developed

from the best wisdom (Gray, 2009). So, characters

cannot be created naturally, but derived from the

creation of environment.Character is formed from

outside influences, formed from assimilation and

socialization. Assimilation concerns human

relationship with the physical environment, while

socialization concerns the relationship between

humans. Both elements form the character and

character is the pattern of a person related to the

environment. The environment in question can be

formal, informal, or non-formal.

The character values in a formal environment are

manifested in national educational goals. Article 3 of

the Indonesian Law No. 20 of 2003 on the national

education system states that national education

functions to develop the abilities and form the

characters and civilization of dignified nation in order

to educate the life of the nation, and is aimed at

developing potential learners to become human

beings who believe in God the Almighty, are noble,

healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative,

independent, and become democratic and responsible

citizens.

Character value learning in the classroom can be

integrated in every subject. Character education can

be integrated in the learning of each subject. Learning

materials relating to norms or values on each subject

need to be developed, explored, linked to the context

of everyday life. Therefore, character value learning

should not only concern the cognitive domain, but it

also touches the internalization and real practice in

the daily life of the learnersat school and in the

community. Thus, the school can prepare graduates

who are academically ready and have good character

(Kamaruddin, 2012).

Dewi Maharani, S., M. S., Z. and Nadiroh, .

Transforming Religious Character Values of Primary-school Pupils.

DOI: 10.5220/0009995500002499

In Proceedings of the 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education (SULE-IC 2018), pages 149-154

ISBN: 978-989-758-575-3

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

149

However, some conditions should be met in order

to develop the characters of learners. There are still

some problems in the implementation of character

values in everyday life. This can be seen from the case

of elementary-school pupils smoking electronic

cigarettes in the District of Trenggalek, East Java

Province as reported on detiknews.com on Sunday,

October 22, 2017. Besides, there was the case of

elementary-school pupils who died of bullying.

Online News merdeka.com on Wednesday August 9,

2017 reported that a second-grade pupil in Sukabumi

District, West Java, died after fighting with his peers

at school. There was also an instance of elementary-

school pupils who almost had a brawl

Jawapos.comon Monday, May 08, 2017 reported that

the police foiled the brawl and dozens of pupils from

two elementary schools in Paoman, Indramayu were

secured in the police station.

The cases are closely related to character

education, and such violations should be prevented.

Character education should be able to reduce learners'

improper behaviours. Character education is an

attempt to improve learner attitudes. How to

improve? By teachers’ exemplary behaviours, such as

behaviours in speaking or behaviours toward

others.For character education, the most direct ways

can be listed as educators’ exemplary behaviours, the

words they choose while talking, their interaction

with their students, and their reactions towards their

students (Silay, 2013) .Such interaction exchanges

can occur during learning and also after learning, so

that the final product of learning is not only the

cognitive domain of the students but also the

characters formed by the students.

Character education in the national education

system is often neglected as shown by the emergence

of unethical learner behaviours. Therefore, character

education is necessary. Character education is a way

to help prevent the side-effects of unethical

behaviours (Gray, 2009). Similarly, character

education gives knowledge, cultural practice, and

oriented actions to the students (Abbas and Hassan,

2014). Therefore, character education is defined as

value education and moral education in order to form

excellence. Thus, unethical behaviours can be shaped

into good ones. It shows that there are social changes,

developing realistic measures are needed to enact

social changes (Byrd, 2012).

The Ministry of Education and Culture, formerly

the Ministry of National Education, specifies 18

character values of the students, including religious

values, honesty, tolerance, discipline, hard work,

creativity, independence, democracy, curiosity, spirit

of nationality, love of the homeland, appreciation of

achievement, friendliness/communication, love of

peace, love of reading, environmental care, and

responsibility. These values can be developed

through education at school. It is possible for schools

to create their own programs tailored to meet the

classroom management and school procedures.

Many schools create their own programs of character

education, relying on rather superficial expectations

tied to their classroom management/discipline

procedures. (Benninga, 2003)

The 2013 Curriculum firmly defines the character

values in the Core Competencies (CC). CC 1 specifies

the religious values and CC II specifies the character

values regarding attitudes. The 2013 curriculum also

requires the students to develop or improve their

cognitive, affective and psychomotor/skill domains.

Affective domain refers to character values. Çubukçu

(2012) states that curriculum needs to be structured to

have values in the context of character education. The

Regulation of the Ministry of Education and Culture

No. 65/ 2013 states that knowledge is obtained

through the activities to know, understand, apply,

analyze, evaluate, and create. All learning activities

are oriented towards the competence stages that

encourage students to do the activities. Religious

character can be cultivated whenits curriculum is

thoroughly infused with religious content

(MacMullen, 2018).

In simple terms, the transformation of religious

values into character education can be defined as any

effort that can be made to influence the moral

character and positive values of students (Volkov,

2018). The transformation of religious values into

character education helps a person so that he can

understand, pay attention to, and carry out core

ethical values (Wallis, 2018). Starting from the

definition, when we think about the types of

characters we want to build in students, it is clear that

when we want them to be able to understand these

values, pay more attention to the truth of those values,

and then do what he believes is, even though he must

face challenges and pressures both from outside and

inside him (Freathy, Doney, Freathy, Walshe, &

Teece, 2017).

Not all elementary schools in Palembang have

implemented the 2013Curriculum. Some schools still

use the 2006 Curriculum. Therefore, character values

have not become the focus in learning. However, in

learning the learners have actually applied the

character values, both individually and in groups. The

integration of moral values can be done in group work

activities through the exchange and transformation of

knowledge, so as to identify characteristics (Sze,

2014)

SULE-IC 2018 - 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education

150

Related to the cases of character problems above,

an elementary school in Palembang, the site of this

study, has not experienced the problems.From the

interview, the vice principal said that character values

(characterbuilding)became the main concern. The

school added some religious lessons to build religious

characters. The first-grade to third-grade pupils

should learn iqra 1 to iqra 6; they would get atahfiz

certificate. Furthermore, grade-4 to grade-6pupils

would be certified based on their quran murattal

recitations. In addition, the reportcards for the first

grade to third grade pupils include dhuhr prayer

practice, and for the fourth grade to sixth grade pupils

dhuhr prayer practice plus short surah recitations.

To obtain more effective research results related

to the transformation of religious character values of

the pupils at the school, this study limitedthe scope

and focused on the following: (1) the transformation

process of religious character values of the pupils in

learning at the school; (2) the religious character

values transformed in learning at the school; (3) the

vertical relationship transformed by the pupilsat the

school.

2 METHOD

This study used a qualitative approach with empirical

inductive strategy (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault,

2016). The data were collected from the teachers and

pupils based on real experience in the form of either

the speech or behaviours of the respondents and

existing field situations because this study intended to

find out the phenomena experienced by the

elementary school pupils.

The participants in this study werenine teachers

and 19 pupils. The nine teachers consisted of one

principal, 2 vice principals, 2 religious teachers, 3

subject teachers and one classroom teacher. Nineteen

pupils were from one class of fifth grader. They were

chosen because they were considered to be more

religious pupils than others. They got special

treatment which they had to memorizePart30 of al

Quran,

Data were collectedthrough observation and

interview. Observation were intent to obtain pupils

activity data. Interviews were conducted to gather

information from the teachers regarding religious

values that had been developed in the school

environment.

The value of religious characters has several

indicators, namely giving a smile, greetings, courtesy,

praying whenthey start and end activities or carry out

tasks, and thank to God for blessings and gifts.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Results

3.1.1 Process of Transforming Religious

Character Values in Learning

The process of transforming the religious character

values in learning at school was through the

involvement of parents, experts, learning activities,

singing, rote, and peer tutors. Each component is

described as follows.

(1) Involvement of Parents

The school required the involvement of parents or

guardians in developing the characters and creativity

of pupils. The religious character values become one

of school's focus, so parents or guardians were

expected to contribute to the development of religious

characters because parents or guardians spend more

time with their children than teachers at school do. In

gathering this information, the information were

analyzed from Linking Book.

Practice of compulsory praying (fardhu) is one

indicator of religious character values. Fardhu

prayers consist of fajr, dhuhr, asr, maghrib, and isha’

prayers. Based on the amount of time the pupils spend

at home and at school, it is clear that the family at

home has a more dominant role in the implementation

of fardhu prayers for the pupils. Considering the time

at school from 07:10 to 13:40, the pupils can have

only dhuhr prayer at school.

The school implements dhuhr prayer programs in

3 sessions due to the limited area for praying

compared to the number of pupils at the school. The

congregational prayers performed in sessions also

give the pupils the opportunity to choose between the

prayer and lunch. The pupils are free to choose their

own desired things; besides, there is no compulsion

for the pupils to perform congregational prayers at the

same time.

Other fardhu prayers, namely fajr, asr, maghrib,

and isha’ prayers, can be performed by the pupils

with their family at home. Of course, the involvement

of parents or guardians is expected in this respect. If

parents or guardians are busy at work, then fajr, asr,

maghrib, and isha’prayers can be done alone by the

pupils themselves. Parental or guardian involvement

can be in the form of monitoring. To this end, the

school has provided a liaison book between

parent/guardian and principal/teacher. The book also

includes a table of fardhu prayers initiated by parents

or guardians.

(2) Experts

Transforming Religious Character Values of Primary-school Pupils

151

The school teachers has an important role in the

process of transforming the religious characters of the

pupils. A teacher becomes imam in the

congregational dhuhr prayer performed every school

day. A schedule of dhuhr prayer imams from Monday

to Thursday has been determined by the school. There

are 3 imams every day because there are 3 sessions of

congregational prayers.

In addition, the teachers gave tausiyah (advice) in

some religious activities on certain days. The

activities may include a joint zikr with parents or

guardians on Saturday. Therefore, the teachers

become the experts in the process of transforming the

religious characters of the pupils.

The school also invites two dominies alternately

within one week. Both dominies providedthe teachers

with briefing sessions before the teachers transform

to the pupils. In addition, dominiesmay directly

transform the pupils through tausiyah and learning in

takhassus (special treatment) classes regularly every

Friday.

(3) Learning Activities

The school had implemented the 2013

Curriculum, so the school should develop the four

core competencies of the pupils. The first core

competence is of the spiritual aspect, that is, the

religious character values that should be developed in

the learning process.

Through the Islamic Religious Education subject,

the school transforms religious characters of the

pupils. The Islamic Religious Education classes were

on Monday from 08:45 to10:05 (2 learning hours) and

on Thursday from 13:00 to 13.40 (1 learning

hour).Besides Islamic Religious Education, there

isanother subject that could transform religious

values of the pupils. It is Quran Reading and Writing.

The class is on Friday from 07:25 to08:45 (2 learning

hours).

(4) Memorization

The school hasthe recitation programs of short

surahs, hadith and prayers. The recitationsare

monitored by using a Recitation Performance card.

The card includesthe scale of smooth, less smooth,

and not smooth. Furthermore, the cards are rated by

parents.

Short surahs, hadith, and prayers that the pupils

must memorize and recite were also found in the

performance cards. Prayers memorized by the pupils

on the cards include prayer for parents, rhyming

reading, i'tidal reading, pre-meal prayer, prayer after

eating, prayer before going to bed, prayer after wake-

up, prostration reading, reading session between two

prostrations. There are also toiletentering prayer,

home prayer, mosque prayer, tahiyat reading, and

reflection prayer. The cards that the pupils should

memorizecontained some surahand hadith.

The pupils were categorized into seven groups

according to their competence to read iqra and Quran.

There are four grades of student assessment in

reading iqra and Quran: very good (A), good (B),

enough (C), and poor (D). Students are rated A when

they were fluent and memorizedsurahs. Students

were rated B when they are fluent in makhraj and

have not memorized surahs. Students are given C

when they memorized surahs, but less fluent in

pronunciation. Students were rated D if they have not

memorized surahs.

Furthermore, there was one more group called

Takhassus class, where all the students memorize all

the

surahs in 30 parts of Quran. The pupils from

grade-1 to grade-6 can attend this class with certain

requirements.Takhassus class begins with a prayer,

reading al-fatihah, and studying prayers. Then, the

pupils recite previous targeted recitations of the

hadith, prayers, and short surahs. The core activity of

takhassus class is to study and write or copy what you

read. Takhassus class ends with a prayer to go home

and reading al-Quran prayer.

(5) Peer Tutors

Peer tutoring was one of the methods used by the

school where the pupils could learn with their peers.

When the pupils recite a prayer and two short surahs

before starting an activity, the pupils are led by one

pupil through a speaker located in the front office. At

first, murattal recitation is heard when the pupils are

about to enter the classroom at 6:45. Then, the pupils

read short surahsat 07.10, leading by one pupil

through a speaker located in the front office and

mentored by a religious education teacher. The pupils

who lead the tadarus through a speaker should fulfil

3 criteria: the pupils of grade-2 to grade-6, the pupils

who have passed Al-Quran reading assessed by the

religious education teachers, and the pupils who are

good at memorizing. The school lists the surahs

recited through a speaker.

In the first week, Monday to Friday, the recited

surahs are Al-Fatihah and An-Nas, Al-Fatihah and

Al-Falaq, Al-Fatihah and Al-Ikhlas, Al-Fatihah and

Al-Lahab, Al -Fatihah and An-Nasr. In the second

week, Monday to Friday, the surahs are Al-Fatihah

and Al-Kautsar, Al-Fatihah and Al-Quraish, Al-

Fatihah and Al-Fiil, Al-Fatihah and Al-Kafirun, Al-

Fatihah and At-Takatsur. Next, every following week

continues with the same pattern.

SULE-IC 2018 - 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education

152

3.1.2 Religious Character Values

Transformed in Learning

The first core competence in the 2013 curriculum is

concerned with religious competence. The

competence includes receiving, implementing, and

appreciating religious teachings. The results of the

transformation of religious character values of the

pupils are reflected by the students’ greeting to the

teachers and other pupils when they meet.

Furthermore, the pupils give a smile and show

politeness. They also pray every time they start and

end their activities or carry out their duties. They

thank God for His blessings. They also thank God for

their success. In addition, the pupils respect the

persons performing the worship; they will not bother

those who are praying. The pupils reject any attitudes,

actions, and policies that violate the religious

teachings. When a pupil is littering, they will

reprimand him/her by mentioning the hadith about

keeping clean. The pupils maintain the harmony of

life among the followers of religion in order to create

a peaceful atmosphere.

3.1.3 Vertical Relationship Transformed by

the Pupils

Vertical relationship refers to human relationship

with the Creator. In terms of vertical relationship, the

result of the transformation of religious values of the

pupils is that the pupils perform dhuhr prayer in

congregation and teachers act as imams. The pupils

pray before and after learning. They practise reading

hadith and Quran individually and in groups. They

recite Islamic yells inside and outside the classroom

during the learning process. They always make

istighfar when making mistakes. The pupils study,

write, or copy all the surahs they read.

3.2 Discussion

3.2.1 Process of Transforming Religious

Character Values in Learning

Religious character values are those of adherence and

obedience attached to a person in understanding and

implementing religious teachings. The school seeks

to attach obedience and compliance of the pupils

through learning. Sayektiningsih in her research

states that religious (Islamic) character building

should be integrated in every school subject.

Teaching materials should be developed in such a

way as to be able to simultaneously build the

emotional, spiritual and intellectual intelligences of

learners as their basic needs (Sayektiningsih, 2017).

The school involves the parents in transforming

religious character values. Rahim states that the

relationship between parent and child is a relationship

that is naturally intertwined, implemented in the form

of pure affection, a sense of affection between parent

and child. The love affection reflects the fulfilment of

children's education needs (Rahim, 2013). Parents

should be able to provide directions for their children

to act positively and stay away from any activities that

are not useful.

The school also transforms religious values

through Quran Reading and Writing, the Quran

recitation, and takhassus classes. Dawn argues that in

the view of Islam, character education has been

instilled since the level of children when they can read

Al-Quran. This is because Al-Quran has set such a

complete theory and/or concept related to human

relationship with God and human relationship with

other humans. Furthermore, a value is something to

learn (Yufiarti et al, 2018). Children learned to share

each other with everyone. So, that human relationship

with God has an important role in realizing human

relationship with other humans.

3.2.2 Religious Character Values

Transformed in Learning at the School

Good character components include moral knowing

and moral feeling. Moral knowledge consists of

moral awareness, moral value knowledge,

perspectives of perspectives, moral thinking, decision

making, and personal knowledge. Then, moral feeling

consists of conscience, self-esteem, empathy, loving

good things, self-control, and humility

. The school

has built these two components as shown by the

research findings described previously.Lickona

(2013)

The school provides the pupils with the

knowledge of religious characters through quran

reading and writing, surah recitation, and takhassus

class. The teachers also develop the knowledge of

pupils who have previously had initial knowledge.

Once moral knowledge of religious characters has

been established, the pupils begin to have moral

feeling. Thus, the pupils have developed the religious

character values in the form of giving smiles,

greetings,politeness. They also pray every time they

start and end their activities or carry out their duties.

Based on the description, the school emphasizes

on not only academic competence, but also religious

character values. The results of Kamaruddin (2012)

showed that what is important for an educational

Transforming Religious Character Values of Primary-school Pupils

153

institution is not only attention to the students'

academic competence needs, but also character

development so that graduates become academically

ready and well-qualified.

3.2.3 Vertical Relationship Transformed by

the Pupils

The vertical relationship transformed by the pupils is

a tangible form of moral knowledge and moral feeling

that have been possessed in order to bring up the other

good character component, namely moralacting

(moral action). Moral action consists of competence,

desire, and habits. The pupils practise the religious

character values, among other things, through

congregational prayers (Lickona, 2013)

4 CONCLUSIONS

The process of transforming religious character

values of the pupils in learning is through the

involvement of parents, experts, learning activities,

memorization, and peer tutors. The result of the

transformation is the students’ greeting the teachers

and other pupils when they meet. Furthermore, the

pupils give smiles, greetings, and show politeness.

Theys also pray every time they start and end their

activities or carry out their duties. Vertical

relationship is reflected by the pupils performing

dhuhr prayer. In addition, they perform dhuhr prayer

in congregation and teachers act as imams. The pupils

practise reading hadith and Quran individually and in

groups. The school also provides religious values

through Quran Reading and Writing, Quran

recitation, and takhassus class. The teachers develop

the knowledge of pupils who have previously had

initial knowledge. Once moral knowledge of religious

character values has been established, the pupils

begin to have moral feeling. Thus, the pupils have

developed the religious character values in the form

of giving smiles, greetings, and politeness. They also

pray every time they start and end their activities or

carry out their duties.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researchers thank the Dean of Faculty of Teacher

Training and Education, Sriwijaya University, and

the Principal of Elementary School Plus IGM

Palembang who has allowed the teachers and pupils

to be the research respondents.

REFERENCES

Abbas, K., Hassan, Z., 2014. Integrated learning model

cultural-art and character education. International

Journal for Innovation Education and Research, .2(8),

pp. 14-20.

Benninga, J.S. et al., 2003. The relationship of character

education implementation and academic achievement

in elementary schools. Journal of Research in

Character Education, 1(1), ,pp. 19–32.

Byrd, D., 2012. Social studies education as a moral activity:

Teaching towards a just society. Educational

Philosophy and Theory, 44(10).

Çubukçu, Z., 2012. The effect of hidden curriculum on

character education process of primary school students.

Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice – Spring

Educational Consultancy and Research Center.

Freathy, R., Doney, J., Freathy, G., Walshe, K., &Teece,

G., 2017. Pedagogical bricoleurs and bricolage

researchers: The case of Religious Education. British

Journal of Educational Studies, 65(4), pp. 425-443.

Gray, T., 2009. Character education in schools. ESSAI, 7,

Article 21.

Kamaruddin, S.A., 2012. Character education and students

social behavior. Journal of Education and Learning.

Vol4 (4), pp. 223-230

Lickona, T., 2013. Educating for character, Mendidik untuk

membentuk karakter. Jakarta: BumiAksara.

MacMullen, I., 2018. Religious schools, civiceducation,

and public policy:A framework for evaluationand

decision. Theory and Research Education,

https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878518769397

Rachman, M., Padepokan karakter: Model of character

development. International Journal of Indonesian

Society and Culture, 7 (2), pp. 176-190.

Rahim, A., 2013. Peranan orang tua terhadap pendidikan

karakter remaja putri menurut Islam. Al-Ulum. 13 (1),

pp. 87-102

Sayektiningsih, 2017. Penanaman nilai-nilai karakter dalam

pembelajaran pendidikan Pancasila dan

Kewarganegaraan di Madrasah Aliyah Muhammadiyah

Klaten. Managemen Pendidikan, 12 (2), pp. 228-238.

Silay, N., 2013. “Character education for university

students”. European Journal of Educational Studies

5(1), pp. 111-121.

Sze, W., 2014. Evaluation of a moral and character

education group for primary school students. Discovery

– SS Student E-journal, 3, pp. 142-164.

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., DeVault, M. L., 2016.

Introduction to qualitative research methods: A

gudiebook and resource. Wiley. Hoboken, 4

edition.

Volkov, S. N., 2018. Neo-mystic consciousness as a ground

for modern organization forms of development of

religious and esoteric practices. Liberal Arts in

Russia, 7(2), pp.110-118.

Wallis, R. 2018. Three types of new religious movements.

In Cults In Context (pp. 39-71). Routledge.

Yufiarti., Rihatno, P., Nuraini, S., Solikah, M. ,2018.

Character building methods elementary school teacher

in Jakarta region, Jakarta: Atlantis Press.

SULE-IC 2018 - 3rd Sriwijaya University International Conference on Learning and Education

154