Mobile Technology and Islamic Education for Non-Native Arabic Children

Abstract

Most religions practised at present are grounded in deep history and tradition. Sculptures and writings have been passed on from generations and are integral to the sanctity of the religion. In addition, the use of digital technology can provide us with a mechanism to not only maintain the consistency of the teaching but also establish a real-time learning and understanding process for a variety of users. Islam is one of the largest religions in the world with almost 1/5th of the world’s population being of the Muslim faith. The Qur’an is the holy book for millions of Muslims around the world and is read and learnt in the Arabic language. This thesis aims to provide a strong technology base to improve the teaching experience for school teachers and religious scholars in regard to educating non-native Arabic children about the holy book, the Qur’an, as well as improving the progress curve for those children by proving a strong technology base which addresses their circumstances. It should be noted that there was no prior knowledge about those children and their difficulties caused by language, background, and cultural barriers in relation to their learning abilities. In this thesis, we build a web simulator based on a reinforcement learning mechanism and use a Speech recognition system to achieve our intended goal. Unlike other studies, this research is build based on a User Centre Design where data was collected from both types of instructors, being school teachers and religious scholars, to help build the system. After the system was built, we used the same type of instructors to examine the system before they actually implemented it on children. Thus, this research has been completed through the use of three studies: a qualitative study with school teachers and religious scholars to collect data about what the design should address, a qualitative study on both types of teachers to examine the system, and finally, a quantitative study completed by teachers on the use of the system by children. The results found were extremely positive in terms of providing teachers with a system which is cable to support and improve their teaching experience as well as ensuring an incredible improvement of children’s’ performance in their Islamic education.