Balancing Technology and Faith: The Effectiveness of Theocentric Instructional Design in Plural Education

Abstract

The globalization of education accelerates student interaction across religious backgrounds, but the discipline of instructional design has historically evolved from a secular tradition that has not systematically accommodated religious ethical dimensions. This study aims to examine the effect of theocentric instructional design the integration of interfaith ethical values ​​as a primary consideration in instructional design on student learning outcomes in a pluralistic educational context in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group with a pretest-posttest, involving 55 one of the higher education institutions in Sulawesi into an experimental group (n=28) and a control group (n=27). Data were analyzed using an independent t-test after the prerequisite tests for normality and homogeneity were met. The results showed that the experimental group experienced an increase in learning outcomes (N-Gain) in the moderate category, significantly higher than the control group in the low category, with a relatively large effect size. These findings suggest that interfaith integration in the instructional design process contributes significantly to learning effectiveness, while also opening up directions for the development of more religiously inclusive instructional design models in pluralistic societies.