URGENSI PEMILIHAN METODE PEMBELAJARAN PENDIDIKAN AGAMA ISLAM DALAM PENGUATAN KARAKTER ISLAMI PESERTA DIDIK

Abstract

Islamic Religious Education (IRE) should not be limited to the transmission of religious knowledge; it must also facilitate the internalization of values reflected in students’ choices, habits, and behavior. This article aims to examine the importance of selecting appropriate IRE teaching methods for strengthening students’ Islamic character, formulate the principles underlying such selection, and identify relevant combinations of instructional methods. This study employed a qualitative approach using library research. Data were collected from relevant educational books, scholarly journal articles, and regulatory documents and subsequently analyzed through data reduction, thematic categorization, conceptual comparison, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicate that teaching methods serve as a bridge connecting learning objectives, instructional content, learning experiences, and behavioral change. Inappropriate methods tend to make IRE instruction overly verbalistic, reliant on memorization, and ineffective in transferring values into students’ everyday lives. Strengthening Islamic character requires a combination of role modeling, habituation, reflective dialogue, storytelling, advice, contextual learning, problem-solving, collaborative learning, social projects, and authentic assessment. The selection of teaching methods should consider the intended values, students’ characteristics, instructional content, social context, teacher competence, learning resources, and continuity between school and family cultures. The study concludes that no single method is effective for achieving every character-development objective. The effectiveness of IRE instruction depends on the alignment between the selected methods and the values to be internalized, as well as consistency among moral knowledge, moral awareness, moral action, and the broader educational ecosystem.