Exploring religious concepts of students

Which conceptions do adolescents use to approach subject-specific topics? Do these conceptions change? How can they change? And how can conceptions and changes in conceptions in various age groups and milieus be surveyed at all? With regard to students, these questions are of crucial interest to all didactic disciplines and therefore they are systematically researched. Especially in the field of science didactics, particularly in biology and physics didactics, conceptualization research is clearly outlined and established. In this field, it is clearly located in teaching and learning research. On the one hand, students` conceptions are important to be able to consider starting points and possible difficulties in the planning and initiation of learning processes. On the other hand, they are relevant for evaluating and assessing the learning steps taken by adolescents. In the field of religion, conceptualization research is less clearly located theoretically; it is diverse and disparate. This volume is therefore dedicated to a fundamental and comprehensive assessment of research on students` conceptions in the domain of religion. Various theoretical approaches to researching students` religious conceptions are revealed, terminology is clarified and differentiations are introduced, and content-related and methodological focuses in the field of research are identified and reflected upon. The overall aim is to highlight the fundamental opportunities and problems of researching students` religious conceptions and to develop new perspectives. This purpose is pursued in three specifically accentuated parts. In the first part (1), basic orientations in the field of religious conceptualization research among students are provided and differentiating perspectives are introduced (Sabine Hermisson, Vienna; Renate Wieser, Graz). The second part (2) offers specific deepened studies on key aspects of religious conceptualization research, which are elaborated with particular reference to specific research projects: overview of concrete studies on religious conceptions of young people, especially on the question of God; methodological access possibilities; particularity of researching religious conceptions of children; special challenges of a longitudinal study (Karin Peter, Innsbruck; Ulrich Riegel, Siegen; Georg Ritzer, Salzburg; Susanne Schwarz, Landau & Helena Stockinger, Linz; Christian Höger, Lucerne). The third part (3) is focused on religious didactic integration and the possibilities and limits of religious didactic consequences resulting from religious conceptualization research (Agnes Gmoser, Vienna & Wolfgang Weirer, Graz; Oliver Reis, Paderborn).