THE EXPERIENCES AND PERSONAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS (PRB) OF UIN WALISONGO SCIENCE TEACHERS AS A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE RESHAPING OF THEIR BELIEFS AND IMPLEMENTATION IN BASIC BIOLOGY LEARNING

Abstract

This research investigates the role of experience in relation to personal religion beliefs teachers and implementation in basic biology learning. The study adopted a social-cultural constructivist perspective using an interpretive approach. The research was guided by teachers’ interpretations of their experiences related to basic biology learning. These interpretations are re-interpreted to find meaningful conceptual categories (grounded in the data) from which to build a model to understand the influence of experiences within socio-Islamic culture on teachers’ beliefs and implementation in basic biology learning. Data was collected from five teachers using interviews and observations. The findings of this study suggest that it was mainly teachers’ personal religious beliefs and experiences that shaped their beliefs and implementation in basic biology learning. The research also led to a model, constructed on the basis of the data analysis, which suggests an explanation of how teachers’ personal religious beliefs and experiences influence their beliefs and implementation in basic biology learning.