Employing Natural and Human Sciences to Develop the Didactic Model of Islamic Education in Moroccan Secondary Schooling

A Functional Integration Model

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a didactic model regulating the use of natural and human sciences in teaching Islamic Education at the lower- and upper-secondary levels in Morocco, while preserving the subject’s Islamic and maqasid-based reference framework and strengthening understanding, reasoning, attitude formation, and learning transfer. It employed a conceptual and integrative analysis of a purposive corpus of twenty-eight sources, including Moroccan curriculum documents, didactic and maqasid-oriented literature, and studies on Islamic Education, interdisciplinarity, and values assessment. The unit of analysis was a passage identifying a knowledge-related or didactic function, a condition for using knowledge, or a limitation on its use. The material was coded through a hybrid approach combining deductive categories with categories emerging from the corpus. The analysis produced a model comprising three levels, four dimensions, and a six-step procedural sequence. The model rests on Islamic and maqasid-based foundations, the functional selection of natural and human knowledge, didactic mediation, and the assessment of understanding, reasoning, attitudes, and learning transfer. The study concluded that the model offers a promising framework for lesson planning and analysis, although its classroom effectiveness requires empirical testing. Its success depends on teacher competence, verification of information, lesson time, learners’ developmental characteristics, and educational context.