Investigating the specialists’ points of view on death awareness in high school curriculum

Death is one of human s concerns. The way human face death and its impact on his behavior and life depend on his knowledge of it. Education system in general, and religious training in specific, can be the source of the impact. The examination of primary and high school books shows that curriculum developers didn’t pay attention to death and death awareness. The present study is to answer four questions based on specialists points of view: What are the specialists views about the content of death awareness in curriculum What are the specialists views about the teaching methods of death awareness in curriculum What are the specialists views about the level of teachers’ skills in teaching death awareness What are the specialists overall views about mentioning death awareness in curriculum Some interview containing standardized questions is used to collect the specialists points of view. The method of this qualitative study is descriptive-analytical, and its aim is view polls. The population of the study contains the university professors in the education, psychology and theology departments, religion specialists, counselors and ethic teachers in Education ministry. Among the abovepopulation, thirty specialists are selected according to certain criteria and are interviewed. The content of interviews are written down and analyzed. Key concepts are determined systematically and are organized. Theresults of the study show that most of the specialists advocate reliable content, presenting centrally in students’ ethic books or decentrally in other books. Most of them believe that the content can be presented directly in the high school level. Some teaching methods are suggested, for example learning indirectly by participating in burial ceremonies, using narratives and stories, asking help from all teachers teaching different subjects. Most of the specialists believe that the current level of teachers and counselors skills is not appropriate for teaching death awareness.

Investigating the specialists’ points of view on death awareness in high school curriculum Keywords:

Death awareness , religious training , curriculum