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Abstract

This study assessed the impact of an experimental cognitive conflict religious education curriculum on fifth and sixth grade children in Sunday School classes of four Oregon United Methodist Churches. Following deductions from the neo-Piagetian model, the research question became one of determining whether or not the systematic inducement of cognitive conflict into an educational program could accelerate concreteto-abstract movement in childrens' religious thinking. Criterion measures were provided by scores on the two summed scales (Religious Thinking Total Concrete and Religious Thinking Total Abstract) on Peatling's Thinking About the Bible instrument. Analysis of covariance, applied separately to the two scales, revealed a significant interaction effect of program by grade for both scales. Further analysis with t-tests was undertaken to assess the degree of significance between experimental and control group fifth and sixth graders. For fifth graders, no significant differences were revealed on either scale; for sixth graders, significant differences were revealed on both scales. These findings suggest that the use of cognitive conflict in religious education instructional materials may effectively stimulate decreased concrete and increased abstract religious thinking at the sixth grade level.

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The Influence of Cognitive Conflict on Religious Thinking in Fifth and Sixth Grade Children

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