The Child's Spontaneous and Non-­Spontaneous Concepts of God and Their Implications for Religious Education

Piaget has distinguished between two types of children's tendency of concept formation: Spontaneous and non­ spontaneous. Spontaneous concepts formation represents a child's original reflections, which are decisively not influenced by adults. Non-spontaneous concepts are internalized from family, school, and conversation, which a child attends to. Piaget has discussed a child's spontaneous concepts of animism and artificialism, which may lead him to believe that everything has been created for a purpose and is governed by moral laws. The writer suggests that such notions represent a child's spontaneous concepts of God. At another point, Piaget mentions that a child considers God to be a man who lives in clouds or sky, and is not different from other men. The writer proposes that a child learns this non-spontaneous concept through verbal and non-verbal communication with the adults. Both of these concepts are important for designing curriculum and developing instructional strategies for religious education in schools. At the end, the author has also discussed some recommendations for future research work.