Adolescents in the Religious Development Landscape: Ramifications for Religious Education Pedagogy

ABSTRACT: The paper reassesses the theories of Goldman’s religious development and Piaget’s cognitive development that provides a conceptual framework from which Goldman’s theory is entrenched. Through a qualitative research approach, the paper examines the influence of religious development in adolescents’ comprehension of religious concepts. The anticipation is to make educators more focused on their interaction with learners and re-orients them to think about learners’ stages of religious concepts development in their teaching. The paper recommends that religious educators should be creative to keep learners’ motivation, interest and morale high in the subject.
KEYWORDS: Cognitive development, Learner-centred methods, Religious constructs and Religious development