tslarnization of the Curriculum Rosnani Hashim This paper makes two important arguments. It demonstrates how the curriculum design is important for the mod and social well-being of individuals as well as societies. Having asserted that, the paper argues that curriculum design depends fundamentally on a well-defined phi- losophy of education. Without a philosophy of education that can give moral purpose to both individuals as well as societies, it will be diffi- cult to identify a core element that can anchor the curriculum design. The paper then proceeds to identify the fundamental elements of an Islamic education philosophy and from it elicits the core concerns of an Islamic education curriculum. The paper also discusses several strate- gies to integrate revealed knowledge and acquired sciences for Muslim universities and schools. It has been acknowledged by educators throughout the world that educa- tion serves a dual purpose, one for the individuals and one for society. Through proper education, an individual's potentials - physical, intellec- tual, moral, spiritual, and emotional - are drawn out, cultivated, and devel- oped. In this sense, Socrates refemd to a teacher as a midwife because his or her role is to draw out something already innate in a child. Of course, what is drawn out and how soon depends very much on the skills and abil- ity of the teacher. Education also serves another important role, which is to transmit and transform the cultural values, and legacy of a particular soci- ety. Education is said to be playing a conservative role when it merely transmits the prevailing cultural values and beliefs from one generation to the next. It is also capable of playing a more radical role when it attempts to reform society. In general, education plays both a conservative and a rad- ical role in the progress of civilization. R O S n i d &Shim is Associate Professor in the Department of Education at the Iniernaiional Islamic University, Malaysia. 28 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 16:2 Education is a lifelong process. A famous tradition of the Prophet Muhammad exhorts believers to “seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.” Just recently, modem medicine has shown that a child can also receive external stimuli even when he/she is still an embryo. Thus, the potential of learning begins as early as a few months after conception. Education is of three types: informal, formal, and nonformal. The home is the most important institution of informal education. In it, learning takes place in an unstructured and indinxt manner. It is the first “school,” and the mother is the first “teacher.” School is the most important institution of learning for formal education. In it, learning experiences are structured and organized systematically to achieve specific learning outcomes. In formal education, the school curriculum and the school teachers are very important facilitators of learning. In addition, learning occurs nonformally, which means that education is provided through institutions or organizations other than the formal school, for example, adult literacy classes. Education covers a broad spectrum of issues. Therefore, it is not surpris- ing that the Muslim Ummah have been consistently reminded and cau- tioned by its scholars that the state of its education seems to be the root of its problems. Some scholars have reasoned that as a discipline, education consists of five subdisciplines, namely, curriculum, counseling, manage- ment, instruction, and evaluation. * This article is an attempt to examine cur- riculum, which is one of these subdisciplines. Curriculum is so important that it has been named the queen of educational sciences. Curriculum is a reflection of the educational philosophy of the institution concerned, in fact, the mechanism by which its goals are attained. Curriculum There are several definitions for the term “curriculum.” Its contested nature reflects the continuous debate that is taking place over the purposes of education and the means and process through which these purposes can be achieved. Traditionally, educators held the view that curriculum refers to a body of subjects or subject matters set out by teachers for students to learn. Tyler views curriculum broadly as “all of the learning of students which is planned by and directed by the school to attain its educational goals.’“ He argues that the following four fundamental questions should be answered in developing a curriculum: 1. What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? Hashim: Islamization of the Cuniculum 29 2. What educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? 3. How can these educational experiences be effectively organized? 4. How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?3 Smith, Stanley, and Shores define curriculum conservatively as the set of potential experiences which are set up in a school for the purpose of disci- plining children and youth in a group's ways of thinking and acting." Stark, by contrast, offers a comprehensive working definition for curriculum that includes: 1. The specification of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be learned; 2. The selection of subject matter or content within which the leam- ing experiences are to be embedded; 3. A design or structure intended to lead to specific outcomes for learners of various types; 4. The processes by which learning may be achieved 5. The materials to be used in the learning process; 6. Evaluation strategies to determine if skills, behavior, attitudes, and knowledge c h i g e as a result of the process; and 7. A feedback loop that facilitates and fosters adjustments in the plan to increase learning: Therefore, curriculum covers the whole process of instruction - educa- tional objectives, contents, methods, and evaluation. A curriculum seldom stays the same; it changes with time. Usually, changes occur whenever there are changes in any of the four major com- ponents of the curriculum. More frequently changes occur in the contents or methods. According to Halliburton, a curriculum becomes obsolete because (a) the role of education changes with respect to broad historical and social needs, (b) new trends occur within the higher education system itself, and (c) the discipline undergoes paradigmatic shifts in accepted assumptions.6 As a result, a major shift in the educational philosophy has major implications for the curriculum. 30 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 16:2 Determining and Selecting Educational Objectives To determine the objectives of education, I analyze the learners them- selves. What is the nature of the learner, and what are his or her goals and needs in life? These goals can also be deduced from life itself. Obviously, it is futile to dwell on things that were important twenty years ago but no longer have significance today, and at the same time neglect areas which are important today. This approach, however, can be criticized from the point of view that (a) not all contemporary activities are desirable; (b) life is always changing and contemporary activities will also become obsolete; and (c) some contemporary activities are not interesting and relevant to children. Thus, contemporary life cannot be used as the sole basis for decid- ing educational objectives. Another source of educational objectives is the subject specialists themselves. Educational objectives derived from these three sources are more than adequate to provide objectives for an educational program. What is most desirable is that there be a small but consistent number of objectives because it requires time to achieve an educational objective; it requires time to achieve change in human behavioral patterns that include values, ideals, habits, and practices. In some cases, objectives may be inconsistent with each other, if derived from different sources. Hence, to select a small group of important and consistent objectives, a screening process is necessary, and herein lies the importance of an educational and social philosophy. According to Tyler, an educational and social philosophy can actually operate as a screen for selecting and eliminating educational objectives. ... In essence the statement of philosophy attempts to define the nature of a good life and a good society? Thus, if a society holds moral values highly, then it is important to emphasize objectives that aim at the development of moral values. Similarly, if a society cherishes democratic ideals, it would naturally high- light these ideals in its educational aim. Another screening mechanism is obtained by applying the psychology of learning! For example, the psychology of learning will inform educators of objectives that are more appropriate for a particular age level. It will also enable curriculum planners to distinguish between behavioral changes that can be achieved through the learning process from those that cannot. Hashim: Islamization of the Cuniculum 31 The Islamic Philosophy of Education As mentioned earlier, the educational philosophy is an important screen for selecting and e l i t i n g educational objectives. In this section, three important elements that are necessary ingredients in the formulation of a philosophy of Islamic education - namely, learner, knowledge, and means of instruction - will be discussed briefly. The learner, being human, is made up of a dual nature of spirit and body. The spiritual faculty is known as the ruh (soul), ‘aql (mind or intellect), qulb (emotion), or nafs (self) according to the function that is ascribed to it. ‘Aql (the faculty of reason), unique to human beings, elevates them above the rest of creation? The soul could be elevated to the noblest of positions but it could also be debased to the lowest of the 10w.l~ The body consists of sev- eral faculties corresponding to the physical senses. The nature of the learn- er with regards to learning has been the subject of study in psychology. It is common knowledge that the learner is inquisitive and flexible and can be molded especially at a tender age. The learner has physical needs for food, activity, and sex; social needs for affection, belonging, and status within a social group; and spiritual needs relating to something larger and beyond one’s self, that is, the need to reach for God. Islam believes in the possibility of obtaining knowledge of Truth and Reality. In Islam there has not been much debate on this matter, unlike in the Western philosophical tradition where there has been constant debate since Greek philosophy, as demonstrated by Plato’s Theatetus. We know that man is equipped with a soul and physical senses and prepared by Allah to acquire knowledge. According to Al-Attas, ‘ilm (knowledge) is the arrival of the m‘na (meaning) of an object in the soul or the arrival of the soul at the meaning of an object of knowledge.” Thus the soul is not mere- ly passive but active too. Wuhy (revelation) and intuition are received by the soul. The five physical senses are the windows of the mind, particular- ly for obtaining empirical and the rational knowledge. In the Islamic worldview, there exists a hiemhical structure to knowl- edge, and, just as there exists a dual nature in mankind, there exists two cat- egories of knowledge, the ‘ilm al-naqliyah or far4 ‘ayn (revealed) and the ‘ilm al-aqliyah or far4 kifayuh (acquired). These correspond to the different degrees of certainty of knowledge and the means of procuring it. Fard ‘ayn knowledge is finite, certain, and obligatory for every individual Muslim to acquire. It includes the knowledge about the pillars of the religion, the arti- ’ 32 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 162 cles of faith, and the Shari‘ah. On the other hand,furd kzyuyuh knowledge is obligatory upon the community. Each community should ensure that there are some people who are knowledgeable in the acquired or intellec- tual knowledges essential for the survival of the society, such as medicine, mathematics, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences. In this man- ner, Islam ensures that every individual is anchored to his faith while exploring new horizons. The analogy of flying a kite can be used to describe the relationship between faith and reason, where faith is the string and reason is the kite itself. There is always tension between faith and rea- son just as there is between the kite and the string; if for some reason the string is broken, the kite will fly off in any direction. Similarly, if reason is not grounded in faith, then it will wander in all directions without knowing its limit.’* Knowledge is integral or holistic as suggested by the tuwhidic world- view. There is no compartmentalization of knowledge into religious and secular spheres. Both fur4 ‘uyn and fur4 kzyuyuh knowledge have the pur- pose of strengthening faith, the former through careful study of the words of Allah in the Holy Qur’an and the latter through a meticulous, systemat- ic study of the world of man and nature. Knowledge is integral to action, spirituality, and ethics.13 The nature of the knowledge that provides the content of education is the major concern of the curriculum, and these views of man and knowledge have a great bearing upon Islamic education. Education (tu’dib; some still prefer turbiyuh) is adab, progressively instilled in man.14 Adab refers to the discipline of body, mind, and spirit. It endows the possessor with the knowledge of the proper places of things or objects (hikmah) in the scheme of Creation and subsequently to act in a just manner (‘do. Al-Attas defines “education” as the progressive instilling of “the recognition and acknowledgment of the proper place of things in the order of creation, such that it leads to the recognition and acknowledgment of the proper place of God in the order of being and existence” of mankind.15 Therefore the primary goal of education is to lead man to rec- ognize and acknowledge his Creator. This acknowledgment is manifested in obedience and adherence to His commandments. In other words, the primary goal of Islamic education is to produce the good being, who, by developing all hislher potentials accordingly, ensures him or her to be the servant (‘ubd) and the vicegerent (khalifah) of Allah who has undertaken the umunuh (trust) of maintaining prosperity on earth. To this effect educa- tion is designed to produce the God-fearing (taqwa) servant of Allah who Hashim: Islamization of the Curriculum 33 is aware of his individual vertical relations with Allah (hablun min Allah) and his social horizontal relations with his fellow man (hablun min al-nas). Thus, in effect the primary goals of education include spiritual, moral, social, intellectual, and physical development with specific goals. There is no conflict between societal and individual aims because there is unity of pwpose. Just as knowledge is a reflection of man, ideally the curricular framework of an Islamic educational institution, particularly at the tertiary level, should reflect knowledge. The figure below illustrates the relationship between man, knowledge, and curriculum. Just as man is of a dual nature - having A. Man His various facul- ties and senses, physical and spiri- tual His soul and inner being Rational or intel- lectual knowledge (fad kifayah) for service to society 9. Knowledge Revealed knowledge (fad ‘ah) required for every individual C. Curriculum Intellectual sciences Revealed sciences corresponding to man’s form the core cur- various physical facul- riculum ties and senses Specialization requires both kinds of sciences 34 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 162 a body and a spirit - so also the curriculum should possess a center or a core consisting of revealed knowledge (‘ilm ul-nuqliyuh), which fulfills the spiritual needs of the individual, and acquired knowledge (‘ilm ul-uqliyuh), which fulfills the physical and intellectual needs necessary for societal development radiating from it. Both knowledges, furd ‘uyn and furd kifuyuh, are essential for happiness in this world and the next. The balance between them must be preserved. Being the core of the curriculum, furd ‘uyn (revealed knowledge) will be required of all students. To fulfill the requirement of furd kiyuyuh (acquired knowledge), however, students will choose to specialize in at least one field of study. Problems with Existing Curriculum in Muslim Educational Institutions Educational objectives As a consequence of the Western influence, the university curriculums in Muslim countries are still compartmentalized into the various divisions of natural sciences, social sciences, applied sciences, humanities, and reli- gious sciences, without having any core fundamental knowledge to bind them together and give them unity. Each division maintains a watertight separation from the other divisions, thereby depriving all sciences of the foundational basis in faith. Without the guided intellect, there is every opportunity for man to become arrogant and ungrateful to his Creator, lead- ing to transgression of natural laws and finally to environmental and per- sonal destruction. This contradicts man’s mandate as khalifah on earth. Similarly, because of compartmentalization, the faculty of religious stud- ies is deprived of knowledge in the humanities and in the natural and social sciences, which are necessary for it to be a meaningful guide in contempo- rary life. Man’s activities in this life determine his station in the Hereafter. There is every danger of man becoming narrow in thought and the door of ijtihad closing, resulting in thefiqh becoming restricted in scope and mean- ing.16 Concentration on religious studies alone will not ensure man of other knowledges and skills necessary to confront the challenges of living, even the challenge of preserving faith, life, and property. This situation is not only true for the universities but also for the school system. Religious stud- ies alone lead to an imbalance and an unintegrated educational system. In reality, the curricular framework proposed above is not reflected in most Muslim educational institutions. Institutions in Muslim countries tend Hashim: Islamization of the Curriculum 35 to subscribe to a curricular framework borrowed wholesale or partially from the West. In most cases such models are secular, do not possess a core or a center, and do not reflect the true nature of man or knowledge. Ironically, even American universities that subscribe to the general educa- tion curriculum, which has the purpose of producing the good man (that is, the man who makes right choices) have a core ~urriculum.'~ This core cur- riculum requks courses from each discipline: (1) literature and the arts, (2) history, (3) social and philosophical analysis, (4) science and mathematics, and (5) foreign languages and cultures. The curriculum has the goal of pro- ducing an educated man who is able to think and write effectively; to have a critical appreciation of the ways in which one gains knowledge and understands the universe, society and himself; to be informed of other cul- tures and other times; to have some understanding and experience con- cerning moral and ethical problems; and to have attained some depth in a field of knowledge.18 Thus, in a sense, Western curricula are more well-rounded than Islamic curricula. Even if there is a core, as in the case with most universities in Malaysia, it is based on pragmatic rather than intellectual or religious considerations. Probably the only exception is the International Islamic University, Malaysia, which designates some courses on Islamic Revealed Knowledge to be core courses and therefore, required of all students, whether they specialize in economics, law, engineering, education, architecture, or medicine. Today, the selection of 'subject matter for the curriculum, especially in higher education, is obviously driven by utilitarian and pragmatic aims rather than by Islamic educational goals. The goal of fostering national development and of producing a good citizen has overridden that of human development and producing a good man. That the Malaysian Ministry of Education has overemphasized the applied sciences over the social sciences and humanities, as evident in the call for the 60:40 ratio for natural and applied sciences to social science and humanities in Malaysian universities, is a manifestation of national emphasis over individual development. Similarly, the establishment of specialized universities such as the University of Petroleum, the University of Telecommunications, the University of Energy, and (recently) the University of Industry in Malaysia is a reflection of the confusion and misunderstanding over the concept of a university, which, as the name implies, is concerned with the universals, the whole (j,mi'uh), and less with the particulars (kulliyy). Again, national eco- nomic development overrides holistic human development. The notion of 36 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 16:2 the university as merely a factory producing products for national develop- ment was acutely felt when a directive was issued by the Malaysian higher educational authority to shorten the length of study from four to three years as a step to accelerate the production of manpower for national develop- ment. Content It is common knowledge that the content of the curriculum, that is, cours- es or subjects offered in Muslim educational institutions - from the ele- mentary to the tertiary levels, particularly in the acquired sciences - is bor- rowed from the Western, secular worldview. Thus the knowledge taught is devoid of religious values; even if it is not, it is filled instead with values that are frequently incompatible with the beliefs and values of the Islamic faith. Thus, in the long term, Muslim children are indoctrinated with alien values, primarily the idea of dualism of body and spirit, of truth, humanism, secularism, and tragedy.19 The curriculum has also not provided accurate and adequate learning experiences for the children in order to attain the educational objectives, aside from intellectual and physical development. The curriculum tends toward intellectual development at all levels of education, although studies on psychology and moral development have shown that good moral habits and character are inculcated at an early age. Piaget concluded from his stud- ies that the stage of formal operation in which the cognitive ability is more mature only begins to form at the age of about eleven or close to the age of biological puberty. The book All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten illustrates the fact that for most of us, good moral habits and good charac- ter were developed in the first five years of life. Unfortunately, our cur- riculum designers have not been able to integrate the findings of these stud- ies and philosophical reasoning into their plans. Fortunately, most Muslim educational institutions provide Islamic reli- gious instruction. Sometimes, however, the approach is rather theoretical and neglects the practical. For example, although a school might teach its students the importance of the five daily prayers, the procedures of per- forming them, their appropriate times, and so on, the school's formal and hidden curricula do not encourage their performance; no specific schedule or arrangement is specified in the school timetable, nor, in some cases, are the facilities provided. Performing the prayer is left to the student's initia- tive. This could be good in an effort to teach responsibility and independ- ence, but in most cases it discourages a student from praying, because he Hashim: Islamization of the Cumculum 37 has to ask for permission from his teacher to leave the class for prayer. This is very crucial for those attending the afternoon sessions since they have to account for sulut ul-zuhr and ‘usur in school. The hidden curriculum seems to teach that moral virtues are only preached, not practiced. The fact that our curriculum is gender blind is another manifestation of Western liberal influence. The curriculum shows no appreciation of the dif- ferent needs of the learners by gender and roles. Both sexes have been treat- ed “equally.” Had the Qur’an and Sunnah been our reference point, female modesty and roles would have been emphasized in the curriculum, as would have been the male roles as the family breadwinners and protectors of women. The impending rise in social illnesses, one of the major con- tributors of which is the disintegrating family, has still not alarmed our pol- icy makers. Therefore it would not be surprising if Toffler’s prophecy on the new nonnuclear or nonextended family of the Third Wave (the Information Technology Age) will also hold true for that of Muslim nationsm Education a I eva I u a tion Muslim scholars have often questioned the disparity in the level of cre- ativity and thinking between Muslim children educated in the Muslim sys- tem of education and those of the West, in particular Americans. Despite their moral and religious crises, our observation shows that the latter seem to be more creative, critical, &d free to express their ideas. When Muslim children are given their elementary and secondary education in the West, they too tend to be creative and critical, and they find freedom of expres- sion. Their religious values and their m o d characters depend very much upon the religious and moral strength of their family and their peer groups. By reflecting upon these and several other factors, the writer concludes that the root of this disparity lies in the educational system, in particular, the way we teach and the way we evaluatate educational objectives. This cursory examination reveals, among others, that the curriculum of most Muslim nations has been secularized. Clearly, the educational objec- tives are not screened by our own educational philosophy but rather by the Western, secular, and liberal philosophy of education. The hierarchy of knowledge, in particular, thefur4 ‘uyn over the fur4 kfuyuh, has been lost. This is a fundamental error in our educational setup. The learning experi- ences are not consistent with our educational objectives, especially with respect to spiritual and moral development. Consequently, instead of hav- ing the younger generation’s faith and Islamic practices strengthened 38 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 16:2 through education, the converse is true. Therefore, there is a great need to Islamize the curriculum and the acquired sciences. Islamization of the Curriculum Educational objectives The first major step toward the Islamization of the curriculum is ensuring that the sowces of educational purposes are drawn from the Islamic world- view, whether they be about the nature of the learner, the nature of the knowledge or the subject specialization, or contemporary life itself. The Holy Qur‘an and the Sunnah of the Prophet should be the primary refer- ences in understanding the nature of the learner and knowledge, and results of empirical research - especially on the psychology of learning and the learner, which have been published and documented - should act as a complement. The next step is the formulation of a clear philosophy of education based on the Islamic worldview. It is crucial to act as the educational guide for the state, school leaders, teachers, parents, and students. Clear goals and objec- tives of education must be spelled out. They act as the “true North” of an educational compass and are vital in ensuring that the whole educational enterprise progresses toward achieving its intended goal and not wander about in search of direction. The concepts of ‘abd and khalifah have to be translated into operational terms. Those involved in drawing out policy and drafting the curriculum must be made aware of these important concepts. This does not mean that the curriculum of Islamic education is meant exclu- sively for Muslims, but due to the universality of Islam, Islamic education is applicable to and can accommodate all of mankind. In this respect, the First World Muslim Conference on Muslim Education should be commended for coming up with a clear statement of an Islamic educational philosophy which aims: at the balanced growth of the total personality of Man through the training of Man’s spirit, intellect, rational self, feelings and bodily senses. The training imparted to a Muslim must be such that faith is infused into the whole of his personality and creates in him an em& tional attachment to Islam and enables him to follow the Qur’an and the Sunnah and be governed by the Islamic system of values willing- ly and joyfully so that he may proceed to the realization of his status as khalifat Allah to whom Allah has promised the authority of the mi- verse?l Hashim: Islamization of the Curriculum 39 The third step is that the university or school curriculum should reflect the educational philosophy and, in fact, be the mechanism for achieving its goal. In particular, the hierarchy of knowledge (between fard ‘uyn and far4 kifayah) should be preserved in the curriculum. The revealed knowledge as core should permeate all subject matters or all faculties in the Muslim uni- versity. Therefore, a few courses from the revealed sciences have to be made into graduation requirements for all students, regardless of their spe- cialization. The approach to teaching these sciences in the university defi- nitely ought to be different from that of the schools, especially since uni- versity students are now more mature and capable of thinking and reflect- ing. Similarly, a few courses from the acquired sciences such as the natural sciences, the social sciences, and humanities must be required of our stu- dents, especially those specializing in the revealed sciences. A more inte- grated curriculum, but still possessing a core, should be adopted by schools and universities so that the problem of educational dualism is gradually eliminated. An integrated curriculum enables students to specialize in any of the revealed or acquired sciences from within the same school system. An effort ought to be made to intmduce the Arabic language much earlier in the formal curriculum, especially since this is the universal language of Muslims and the language in which their knowledge is embedded. Content and method Knowledge, subject matters, or courses offered in the curriculum must be free from secular and Westernized elements that are alien to Islam. These elements - dualism, humanism, secularism, and tragedy - which are peculiarly Western and anti-Islamic, must be isolated from our curriculum, then replaced with the Islamic worldview of tawhid. The curriculum should reinforce the following Islamic concepts: 1. The Islamic view of the Creator (tawhid, i m n , and God‘s attrib- utes); 2. The creation of man and his purpose, namely, to worship Allah, to be His khulifah, to promote good and forbid evil, and to spread the message of Islam; 3. Man’s relationship with the Creator, that is, his consciousness of Allah, accountability to Allah, to do good deeds, to worship and supplicate; 40 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 16:2 Man’s relationship with others, which is to establish justice, to have respect for life, property, and dignity, to develop sound akhlaq (character), and to show religious tolerance; Man’s relationship with the environment which emphasizes his role as God‘s vicegerent, to work with harmony with all of Allah’s creations, and to recognize or discover Allah through his creation; Self-development, which provides room for self-refonnation and learning from past mistakes; Man’s destination, that is, to promote accountability by evaluating our role, understanding the Last Day and the Hereafter and their implications; and Development of an Islamic ethos so as to create an environment conducive to Islamic practice.” Therefore, it is obligatory for Muslim teachers to instill the Islamic con- cepts mentioned earlier in Muslim students, regardless of the subject mat- ter they are teaching. Inculcating these concepts and values indirectly through the subject mat- ter, especially for the exact sciences such as mathematics or accounting, is not easy.23 Therefore, teachers should inculcate them directly and through wisdom, especially when warranted by the classroom situation. This task should not be left to the teachers of Islamic revealed sciences alone. Educational administrators and teachers should provide appropriate learning experiences, especially for moral and spiritual development. New methods of instruction must be explored, and teachers or lecturers should be creative and innovative. The teaching of religious sciences must not be too dependent on traditional methods, such as memorization of classical texts, although certain fundamental knowledge needs to be memorized. Students must be exposed to the process of learning, including the scientif- ic method and problem solving, and not just the product. Therefore, they need to be led to critical and sound thinking as called upon by Allah in the Qur’an. A balance must be struck between student-centered and subject-centered approaches. In this regard, an approach to teacher educa- tion that is consistent with the educational philosophy should be devel- oped.M The teacher education program - preservice and inservice - should also emphasize teacher personality development, in particular, the moral and spiritual, which have been nearly neglected. Teachers are the most crucial element in bringing changes in education, and they ought to Hashim: Islamization of the Curriculum 41 know and be able to see the new direction Preservice teacher education programs seem to emphasize thinking skills and information technology but downplay the importance of foundations of education and personality development, especially moral and s~iritual.2~ Educa tia nal evaluation a Evaluation is a powerful device for clarifying educational objectives. It is process for finding out how far the learning experiences as developed and organized are actually producing the desired results and the process of evaluation will involve identifying the strengths and weak- nesses of the plan.% “Evaluation is the process for determining the degree to which changes in behavior are actually taking place.’a7 Therefore it is important to dispel the notion that evaluation is synonymous with giving the “paper and pen- cil” test. Evaluation is also a powerful motivating force for learning. Students are influenced in their learning, and teachers are influenced in their teaching by the kind of evaluation expected. Consequently, unless the evaluation procedure closely parallels the educational objectives of the curriculum, the evaluation procedure may become the focus of the students’ attention and even of the teachers’ attention rather than the curriculum objectives set upF8 This is true, especially with respect to moral and spiritual objectives. We should expect some changes in students’ behavior since these are the objec- tives but, unfomte ly , students will often score highly on paper and pen- cil tests but not exhibit the expected moral behavior. Thus the curriculum ought to be revised with respect to the learning experiences offered to them, the instructional method, and the kind of evaluation administered. Conclusion In this article, I have attempted to highlight the problems within the exist- ing curricula in our educational system. Our educational planners ought to be sensitive to these issues and have the vision and courage to suggest cur- ricular changes. This is crucial for the strengthening of the Ummah. I have also proposed some ways to Islambe these curricula beginning with the educational philosophy, the learning experiences, and the procedure of evaluation. But these are still not sufficient. If our educational planners and 42 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 162 educators are entrusted with this task, our scholars have an equally impor- tant task to ensure the success of our efforts in the Islamization of educa- tion. This task, which should be shouldered by our scholars of all disci- plines, especially in the acquired sciences, is the Islamization of contempo- rary knowledge. Our hopes lie in the Islamization of contemporary knowl- edge, the curriculum, and ultimately education, which will eventually lead to the rise of the Islamic personality (the good man) who will continue the cycle of Islamization. Notes 1. See Hasan Langgulung, “Islamisasai Pendidikan dari Perspektif Metodologi” (Islamization of Education from the Methodological Perspective), paper presented at the National Seminar on Islamization of Education, Department of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, July 14-16, 1998. 2. Ralph W. Tyler, “The Curriculum - Then and Now,” in Proceedings of the 1956 Invitational Cot$erence on Testing Problems (Princeton, N.J.: Educational Testing Service, 1957), 79, quoted in Daniel Tanner and L. N. Tanner, Curriculum Development: Theory into Practice (New Yo& Macmillan Publishing Co, 1980), 16. 3. Ralph W. Tyler, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975), 1. 4. Othanel B. Smith, W. 0. Stanley and J. H. Shores, Fundamentals of Curriculum Development, rev. ed. (New York Harcourt, 1957). 5. Ibid., 5-6. 6. D. Halliburton, “Perspectives on the Curriculum.” In A. W. Chickering, D. Halliburton. W. H. Bergquist, and J. Lindquist (eds), Developing the College Curriculum (Washington, D.C.: Council for the Advancement of Small Colleges, 1977). 37-50. 7. Tyler, Basic Principles of Cum‘culum and Instruction, 34. 8. ibid., 37. 9. The Qur’an (95:4). 10. The Qur’an (89:25; 955). 11. See S. M. Naquib Al-Attas, The Concept of Education in Islam (Kuala Lumpur: 12. I am indebted to Dr. Yedullah Kazmi, Department of Education, for this beautiful 13. For a further discussion on the integral nature of knowledge, see Wan M. Nor Wan 14. Al-Attas, The Concept of Education in Islam. 15. Ibid., 22. 16. Al-Ghazzali has discussed the issue of the changing meaning of the termfiqh during his time. See The Book of Knowledge, trans. Nabih Amin Faris (Lahore: Ashraf, 1974), 80-83, and al-Faruqi in his work Islamization of Knowledge (Washington D.C,: IIIT, 1982), 17. Robert E. Mason, Contemporary Educational Theory (New York David McKay. 18. Tanner and Tanner, Curriculum Development, 510. 19. S . M. Naquib al-Atlas. Islam and Secularism (Kuala Lumpur: Muslim Youth 20. Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New Yo& Bantam Book, 1980), 211. 21. S. M. Naquib al-Attas (ed), Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education (Jeddalx King ISTAC, 1990), which explains lucidly the concepts of man, knowledge, and education. analogy. Dad, The Concept ofKnowledge in l s h (London: Mansell, 1991), chapter 4. 17-18. 1972). 26. Movement of Malaysia, 1978). Abdulaziz University, 1979), 158-9. Italics added. Hashim: Islamization of the Curriculum 43 22. I am indebted to the person who prepared and distributed this list during the. Sixth World Conference on Islamic Education in Capetown, South Africa, 19-25 September 1996. 23. See Rosnani Hashim, “Penyerapan Nilai-nilai Mumi dalam K B S M (The Inculcation of Moral Values in the Integrated Curriculum for secondary Schools [KBSM]), paper pre- sented at the National Seminar on Evaluation of the KBSM, Aminuddin Baki Institute, Layang-Layang, Malaysia, 1997. 24. See Rosnani Hashim, ‘The Construction of an Islamic-based Teacher Education Program,” Muslim Education Quarterly, 2 (Winter 1997): 57-68. 25. The IIUM teacher education program does pay particular attention to these two domains of teachers’ personality through formal haluquh and ibadah camp programs. In a halaqah, students are arranged in groups of 10 and each group meets weekly for at least an hour as scheduled in their class timetable to discuss selected topics of the ‘ilm ul-Shari’ah and group counseling. In the ibadah camp, which normally lasts for three days, students lis- ten to talks, participate in workshops, perform congregational pmyers. recite wird mu’rhurat and the Qur’an and perform qiyam al-lay1 together. See Rosnani Hashim. The Relevance and Effectiveness of the HUM Diploma in Education Programme as Perceived by Student Teachers in the 1994195 Session, unpublished research report. See also M. Sahari Nordin and Rosnani Hashim, “Non-formal Curriculum Programme in IIUM Diploma in Education Programme,” paper presented at National Seminar on Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, University htra Malaysia, 1997. 26. Tyler, 103. 27. Ibid., 106. 28. Ibid., 124.