Effects of Christian Beliefs on Education

Abstract
This literature review examines several scholarly articles that focus on the role of religion in the formation of student character. Some of the articles study the effect of religion and/or Christian beliefs on academic achievement, while some study the role the Christianity can play in people’s lives as the struggle to overcome obstacles or cope with issues that are adversely affecting them. Since education is an issue that is important to all societies, it stands to reason that if religion and Christianity in particular can have a beneficial impact on a student’s life, some research should be available to support this conclusion. The research that has been done so far does indicate that Christianity can have a positive influence on the lives of people and in particularly on the academic performance of students. However, with Christianity being a religion that has lost ground in the modern era, especially in once Catholic countries like Brazil, there is some concern among modern educators about the extent to which Christianity should be used as a conduit to quality academic performance. In an era where the concept of character formation is receiving renewed attention, the question of what goes into making a good character is one that researchers and educators disagree about. So while Christian beliefs may be associated with better performance in studies, those same beliefs are not embraced by all researchers and educators because of ideological opposition to the roots of the religion. Nonetheless, this literature review shows that by taking a classical approach to character education, the achievement gap may be closed, as Christian beliefs and the classical philosophy that supports them help to provide students with the kind of self-discipline and motivation they need to perform well in school.
Introduction: Importance of the Topic
The link between character education and academic success has not been lost on researchers in recent years as theories of education approaches continue to be revised, revisited or developed anew. Lickona (1993) broached the topic of character education to show how it is instrumental in the achievement of academic success, while Smith (2013) and Kristjansson (2014) offered their own secular takes on the concept of forming a student’s character through the development of philosophical foundations in the student’s consciousness. By delving into this issue of character formation, the concept of religion and particularly Christianity emerges as a variable that may also impact a student’s academic success. Because Christianity is oriented towards reforming one’s character, it presents itself as a factor worth understanding to better know its effect on education outcomes. This topic is important because researchers like Regnerus (2000) have indicated that religion in a student’s life can actually help to improve grades and academic performance. Understanding why this is so can have an impact on how teachers and parents and all other stakeholders approach the subject of education.
Attitudes toward Christianity have changed over the centuries. In the Middle Ages in the West, Christianity was the guiding religion and its theological and philosophical foundations were used to form character. There was no disconnect between religion and academic achievement as the two were correlated at the highest levels. Secular education did not begin to appear until the Reformation and Scientific Revolution brought about the so-called Age of Enlightenment, which introduced naturalistic principles into society and pushed religion to the margins of culture. Materialism and the ideas of liberty, fraternity and equality took hold by the end of the 18th century and new philosophies (modern philosophy which promoted a more subjectivist approach to truth, learning, experience, reality, history, and so on) became entrenched in the worldview of societies around the globe.
Today, education is an important part of every society—but there is a considerable achievement gap that exists that has alarmed many stakeholders in education. This achievement gap can be defined in a variety of forms—for example, among students of varying socio-economic backgrounds as well as among students of varying ethnic or national backgrounds. What causes this gap? As Ratcliff, Carroll, Jones et al. (2017) show in their year-long observational study of classrooms in America, students’ self-control is just as important as teaching approaches in predicting achievement gaps. Self-control is a critical aspect of character formation as Lickona (1993), Smith (2013) and Kristjansson (2014) illustrate and is also a variable that has been shown to be moderated by religiosity (McCullough, Willoughby, 2009; Laird, Marks, Marrero, 2011; Sasaki, Mojaverian, Kim, 2015). This indicates that Christianity could very well have a positive effect on education in at least some regard. This literature review will assess the effect of Christianity on education and the extent to which it can be gauged as a positive or formative factor in academic success.
Literature Review
Jeynes (2015) conducted a meta-analysis to identify the variables that are most significant in closing the achievement gap. The meta-analysis included 30 scholarly articles that focused on closing the achievement gap between students of various ethnic backgrounds. The factors that were found to be most significant were ones that went “beyond the bounds of the school” and reached into the realm of the sociological as well as the psychological. Jeynes (2015) showed the cultural factors are very important to how well a student achieves in school.
As religion plays a major part in developing a culture in most societies, the relationship between religion and academic success is one that has been examined among a variety of populations. The diversity of the findings indicates that the issue is complex and that while religion can be a variable in the strengthening of culture, not all religions or religious influences have the same effect. The study on the impact of religion on education in Rio de Janeiro showed that “different religious belongings of families of elementary school students in the Rio de Janeiro municipal network, among other family, school and social factors, are positively associated with the school trajectory” of the student (Carvalho, Ramos, 2017, p. 25). Carvalho and Ramos (2017) used a logistic regression model measure more than 500,000 student performances with respect to the religious inputs of those students’ family backgrounds. The researchers found that religion (Catholic vs. Evangelical vs. other Protestant denominations vs. non-religious) played a role in widening or lessening the achievement gap. Students who identified as Catholic demonstrated the greatest likelihood of the faiths sampled of outpacing the others in terms of achievement.
The study by Klanjšek, Vazsonyi and Trejos-Castillo (2012) showed that among Muslims, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and “Bible Belt” Christians, the different impact that religion has on a young person depends upon the extent to which the religion is external vs. intrinsic to the individual’s life. In other words, the more immersed in the religious experience the person is, the more likely that person is to show success in the various aspects of his or her life. The researchers focused specifically on the role that the various religions played in mediating behavior. They measured the correlation between religiosity and deviance in Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia and the U.S. and found that when religion was an intrinsic part of one’s life, self-control was more likely to be found in that person’s life. As self-control correlates with academic achievement, this study suggests that religion does have a mediating effect so long as it is internalized and not viewed as a means of oppression or external control.
However, not all researchers have arrived at the same conclusion. Henning, Krageloh, Thompson et al. (2015) examined whether religious affiliation had an impact on academic performance among New Zealand medical students. The researchers sampled 275 participants from the School of Medicine at a New Zealand university. They were grouped into three categories: Christian (104), Eastern religion (34) and non-religious (117). The participants responded to a World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire as well as the World Health Organization Spiritual, Religiousness, and Personal Beliefs questionnaire. What the researchers found was that spiritual perceptions varied among the three different groups, and that these expressions of spirituality did not necessarily translate into more or less academic achievement. However, the study did show that students who had spiritual beliefs also affirmed that “having a belief system assisted them when coping with the academic learning environment”—and it also showed that spirituality was a predictor of hours devoted to academic studies by the students (Henning et al., 2015, p. 3). What the survey of the medical students in New Zealand failed to reveal was any correlation between Christian, Eastern or non-religious beliefs and academic success. However, the study also differed in that the sample consisted of grown adults and not young children, which could indicate that for adults the role of religion is less impactful in terms of how committed an individual will be towards education. Additionally, the sample consisted of students in medical school, which requires a great deal of commitment already, and so the impact of religion on the sample would likely not be as noticeable as it would be in a study where the sample consists wholly of younger students whose propensities have not yet become fully developed or oriented towards a unique objective.
Developmental theories of education are helpful in understanding the role that religion might play in the academic life of students. Hearron and Hildebrand (2010) describe the constructivist theories of Piaget and Vigotsky regarding how children acquire knowledge. The constructivist developmental approach holds that sensory data is critical to children and that information is acquired through the senses but also through the cognitive use of the mind. Piaget held that students acquire learning by a process of assimilation and accommodation, striving for a state of equilibrium as the hold the various bits of data that they encounter in their minds. For Piaget, the learning theory that best described knowledge acquisition was cognitive constructivism. Vygotsky preferred a social constructivism theoretical approach, as he asserted that language and communication were essential elements of development, neither of which could be acquired without social interaction. Both Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s constructivist theories help to explain how children develop, with both cognition and social interaction serving as explanatory models for that development.
These developmental theories can be used to explain how religion facilitates coping as well. The study by Harris, Erbes, Winskowski et al. (2014) shows how religion acts as a factor in helping individuals who have experienced trauma to cope with their feelings and situation. Their study focused on church members with a history of trauma in order to distinguish social support from religious comfort in order to clearly differentiate the two. The study showed that religious comfort is a distinct variable separate from other supports when it comes to dealing with trauma. This study supports the findings of other researchers who show that religion plays a crucial role in the development, both cognitively and socially, of a child’s life. From a neurobiological perspective, the study is supported by Gilbert (2014) who showed in his study that prayer can neurologically impact a person’s brain. Gilbert’s (2014) study on prayer as an intervention for individuals suffering from sexual addiction in Central Mexico showed that spirituality and religion can positively affect the neurobiology. Prayer can be seen as a way to develop the mind both cognitively so as to reinforce behavioral patterns that support the overall goal being worked towards and developmentally so that the negative habit being overcome will be reduced in power over time. The spiritual component is also discussed by Gilbert (2014) and recognized as a real variable in how humans process, cope, develop, overcome and confront obstacles to a better life. Gilbert’s (2014) findings are supported by the findings of Francis, Yablon and Robbins (2014) who conducted a survey among 248 undergraduate students in Israel using the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism, the Oxford Happiness Inventory, and the short-form Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised to test whether there is a statistically significant association between religiosity and happiness. Their findings were positive and showed statistical significance, indicating that religion does play a role in helping an individual to have a happier, more meaningful life.
Likewise, the study by Drumm, Popescu, Cooper et al. (2014) found that the spirituality of Christian survivors of intimate partner violence showed significant resilience strategies for coping with the trauma they had experienced. Drumm et al. (2014) analyzed more than 40 interview transcripts with Christian women to identify a patterned strategy based on religious belief for overcoming trauma. Their study supports the finding of Harris et al. (2014) and indicates that Christian belief is useful in helping victims to cope with trauma. With respect to education, these strategies can be similarly helpful as they enable the individual to focus on character formation in a difficult time and develop the mind through cognitive and social methods, which align with the developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky (Hearron, Hildebrand, 2010). Drumm et al. (2014) show that Christianity is a positive factor is supporting resiliency in individuals and this same factor can be used to facilitate resiliency among individuals who are attempting to cope with obstacles.
That education and growth are obstacles that young students must approach and address is no surprise. Growth and development is not easy but requires attention, focus, discipline of the self, mastery of the emotions and intellect, and continual application and engagement. Christian belief can help a young student to focus the mind and direct the will and energy to achieving the academic goals, as Regnerus (2000) shows. Marques, Lopez and Mitchell (2013) also support this finding in their study on the role of hope, spirituality and religious practices in adolescents’ life satisfaction. Marques et al. (2013) conducted a longitudinal study to examine the relationship between hope, spirituality and religious practice with regard to life satisfaction among 227 adolescent students in Portugal, ages 15-19. The participants completed the Children Hope Scale, Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale and an item for spirituality and religious practice variables. The cross-sectional, longitudinal analysis revealed that hope and spirituality were directly linked to teenagers’ life satisfaction and were predictors of satisfaction within a year’s time. Religious practice moreover was found to be a variable that supported stability in the lives of the teenage students.
The idea that religion acts as a stabilizing force in a student’s life is consistent with the findings of Gilbert (2014) and Harris et al. (2014) as well as Francis et al. (2014) among other researchers who show that religion can be a beneficial input in helping individuals to moderate their lives, their experiences and act as a stabilizing factor. Walker (2013) showed that integrating Christian faith and values with work life has a positive impact by developing and testing hypotheses “concerning the relationship between the faith at work scale and seven important life and work outcomes (satisfaction with life, intent to leave one’s job, self-rated job performance, job satisfaction, and three forms of organizational commitment)” (p. 453). Walker (2013) found that the majority of his hypotheses were confirmed, indicating a positive correlation between the Christian faith and work life. The same attributes that go to helping students and trauma victims cope with their environments also may be seen as supporting workers in the professional life.
The study by Aijan (2017) focuses on how ancient Christian wisdom can be used to address issues of boredom, distraction and over-commitment among undergraduates. Aijan (2017) defines acedia as spiritual sloth and finds that the remedy for it is the application of Christian teachings as applied in the early days of the Church. Aijan’s (2017) study is in line with the study by Kristjansson (2014) in that both turn to the teachings of the classical world for solutions to today’s problem. The two studies both focus on how classical approaches to education, truth, the self, and the transcendental help individuals of all ages and eras to cope with their environments, overcome their personal faults, and apply themselves to living a virtuous life that contributes to the attainment of goals. Kristjansson (2014) shows that teaching about virtue and how virtue helps individuals focus on the higher things in life can direct a student’s energy to achieving academic success. The problem that both Aijan (2017) and Kristjansson (2014) identify is that modern philosophies and modern attitudes about the self actually take away from the student’s ability to focus on the goals that are important to overcoming personal bad habits, laziness, spiritual sloth, and self-obsession. The solution that both studies describe is one that appealed to the classical world because it was rooted in an objective assessment of an ideal that was true. For the classical Greeks, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, the truth was the Transcendental Ideal attained through a lifetime of virtuous behavior, which allowed one to be happy and successful in life because one was working objectively towards the One, the True, and the Good instead of against it. For Christians throughout the centuries, the ideal has been Christ, who objectively lived, died and rose from the dead to save souls and to give His grace to sinners that they might reform their lives and live the kind of virtuous existence befitting a person working towards the Good. In both cases, Aijan (2017) and Kristjansson (2014) share the same concept of the Good and see it as a way of helping the student to embrace a character that is in tune with academic success.
Lickona’s (1993) study is also applicable to this study in a major way as it sheds light on how the modern era has dissociated itself from the Old World logic and beliefs that guided people for centuries. His study examines the problems that educators face today in just trying to define what makes a good character. Without the classical approach to education recommended by Kristjansson (2014) and Aijan (2017) there can be no real or solid definition of character education, according to Lickona’s (1993) assessment. In the light of his and the other studies described in this review, it is evident that while Christian beliefs may help provide stability, encouragement, focus, and trust in the process, the modern era remains opposed to this Christian values in many ways, which could be one reason the achievement gap has yet to be closed in any significant manner. Still, religion may not be the only factor that impacts academic success. What is interesting about the study by Lee (2014) is that the most similar predictor of reading success across 13 different countries sampled around the world was simple enjoyment: the more a student enjoyed reading, the more likely that student was to show excellence in reading comprehension—no matter which country or culture the student lived in.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Christianity has a positive impact on an individual’s life—no matter whether the individual is a working professional, a person suffering from trauma, a person suffering from an addiction, or a person in school (in grade school, middle school, high school or college). The effect of Christian belief on a person’s mind, development, learning and engagement has been identified in numerous studies. The implication of this belief on academic achievement is that students who have a Christian belief system in place are likely to embrace an ethic that enables them to overcome obstacles, focus on developing themselves so as to reach the ideal that their faith teaches them to reach. As Christianity focuses on shaping the individual character of a person, the impact of Christian beliefs on a student can help form the character of the student in an ethical way that is in line with the classical concept of growth and development.


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