Presenting 'occult' to form 4 students through religious education

Abstract

The main purpose of this dissertation is to see how absorbed and serious the problem of ?occult? is among adolescents in Secondary schools so as to be able to address this issue through Religious Education. In chapter 2, the literature review, I presented a résumé of the phenomenon of the occult from the biblical perspective and the basic teachings of the Catholic Church. This research was carried out using a quantitative method, which means that the data necessary was collected by means of questionnaires. For this research, 350 students in Form 4 were selected from 6 gender differentiated State schools located in the four main districts of the Maltese islands. In the following chapter the results obtained from the questionnaires along with the discussion were presented giving also a clear picture of how the situation in Malta actually is. Finally a set of 4 lesson plans were presented. They were directed to Form 4 students as a continuation to the lessons and material done in Form 3 where I tried to deepen more their knowledge of occult so as to try and remove the idea of occult as a taboo. This material was introduced through some student friendly resources, discussions and exercises.